Sergey Kuryokhin
Sergey Anatolyevich Kuryokhin (16 June 1954 – 9 July 1996, nicknamed The Captain) was a Russian composer, pianist, music director, experimental artist, film actor and writer, based in St. He was an influential figure in the Saint Petersburg music scene of the 1980s and early 1990s. He was the former keyboardist for the rock band Aquarium.
Also recorded as Sergey Kuriokhin · Sergey Anatolyevich Kuryokhin · Sergey Kurehin · Sergey Kureohin
Sergey Kuryokhin

Const740 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1954. · Murmansk.
- Nationality
- Soviet Union and Russia.
- Occupation
- actor, bandleader, composer, pianist, manufacturer, singer, record producer and songwriter.
- Fields
- acting and music composing.
- Languages
- Russian.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Sergey Anatolyevich Kuryokhin (16 June 1954 – 9 July 1996, nicknamed The Captain) was a Russian composer, pianist, music director, experimental artist, film actor and writer, based in St. He was an influential figure in the Saint Petersburg music scene of the 1980s and early 1990s. He was the former keyboardist for the rock band Aquarium.
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Note VALÉORINE
Sergey Kuryokhin (1954–1996) was a Russian and Soviet actor, bandleader and composer, among other activities. Born in Murmansk, the actor died in Saint Petersburg. Sergey Kuryokhin was also known as Капитан.
Sergey Kuryokhin was a member of Pop Mekhanika. The actor was active in acting and music composing.
Genres include avant-garde, experimental rock and free jazz, among others. Languages used include Russian.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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Authority files
museum · 2f0b962f-b9cf-409c-a011-d0cc8e4443a1 · wikidata · Q118233 · wikipedia · Sergey Kuryokhin
In this article
Early life
Early life
Sergey Kuryokhin was born in Murmansk into a military family. He began piano lessons at the age of 4. His school years were spent in Evpatoria, Crimea. His family moved to Leningrad in 1971 following his high-school graduation. He was admitted to the Mussorgsky Music School at the Leningrad Conservatory, but was expelled soon after for chronic absenteeism.
Career
Career
Kuryokhin began his performing career as a piano and keyboard player with a school band in Leningrad. After playing with professional jazz bands, as well as popular rock musicians, Kuryokhin went through several stages in his career and eventually became one of the most recognisable names and faces in Russia during the 1980s and 1990s. By the end of his life, he had emerged as an avant-garde film composer, performance artist, and film actor. Outside Russia, he is primarily known as a jazz and experimental musician, through his works released since 1981 on UK's Leo Records, as well as his concert tours with Pop-Mechanics. He also contributed to several Aquarium albums, including Triangle, Taboo, and Radio Africa, and was also a frequent collaborator to the band Strannye Igry. In 1986, Kuryokhin and others from the St. Petersburg musical scene were featured in the PBS documentary "Comrades III: All That Jazz". Scenes featuring Kuryokhin from this documentary were featured in Adam Curtis' 2022 documentary "TraumaZone". His work in film includes starring in and composing music for Two Captains 2, a comedic pseudo-documentary about World War I, composing the soundtrack to the neo-noir Russian horror film Mister Designer, and playing the lead role in Dude - Water Winner. Kuryokhin shot to fame after creating one of the first popular media viruses in the Russian media. As a guest on the popular talk show Fifth Wheel, Kuryokhin provided "proof" that Lenin was a mushroom. This semi-improvised satirical act of performance art was broadcast live on Russian television in May 1991. During the 1990s, Kuryokhin was a board member of the St. Petersburg City Council for Culture and Tourism. In 1995 Kuryokhin joined the National Bolshevik Party. In 1996, Kuryokhin founded the record label Long Arms Records (Длинные Руки Рекордс) alongside Nick Dmitriev (1955–2004). Following Kuryokhin's death, a commemorative live album Without Kuryokhin by Kenny Millions and Otomo Yoshihide was released on this label.
Death
Death
He died of a rare heart condition, cardiac sarcoma, aged 42 in 1996.
Personal life
Personal life
Kuryokhin was married twice. His first marriage in 1972, which bore him a daughter, lasted only a few years. In 1982, he met Anastasia ("Nastia"), a student at the Faculty of Geography of Leningrad State University. In 1984 they had a daughter, Elizaveta, and in 1994, their son Fyodor. Elizaveta Kuryokhina died in 1998, at the age of 14 after an overdose of sleeping pills. She is laid to rest near her father in Komarovo Cemetery, St. Petersburg.
Other works
Other works
Music for the stage production of the Chekhov's The Seagull (1994) Music for the Russian TV series Anna Karenina (2007) Also wrote Title Music for entire BBC TV series Comrades 1985 one episode of which featured him and other Leningrad Musicians and his Orchestra Popular mechanics Mister Designer (1988) Buster's Bedroom (1990) Leading role as Pavel Gorelikov in Dude — Water Winner (1991) Kuryokhin is also featured in the music video for Joanna Stingray's "Feeling", as well as in the music video for "Metamorphoses" by Russian band Strannye Igry.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1996
Sergey Kuryokhin died at Saint Petersburg.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Murmansk.
Birth place
Saint Petersburg.
Death place
Legacy
The Saint Petersburg Annual International Music Festival SKIF (Sergey Kuriokhin International Festival) is named after him. Kuryokhin festivals annually take place in Berlin, Amsterdam, and New York. In 2004, the Sergey Kuryokhin Foundation and the Kuryokhin Center were founded. The foundation collects information about Kuryokhin and the Center organises events in the spirit of the artist. Both are located in the same building, an old cinema in Saint Petersburg. In 2009, the Sergey Kuryokhin Foundation and the Kuryokhin Center established the Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award.
Discography
The Ways of Freedom (Leo Records, 1981) Tragedy in Rock (1988) Mr. Designer (1989) Popular Science (1989) with Henry Kaiser Album for Children (1991) Opera for the Rich (1991) Some combinations of fingers and passion (1991) Sparrow Oratorium/Four Seasons (1994) Friends Afar (Sound Wave Records, 1996) with Kenny Millions Dear John Cage (Long Arm Records, 1996) with Kenny Millions 2 For Tea (Long Arms Records, 1998) with David Moss
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q118233: Sergey Kuryokhin
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Sergey Kuryokhin”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Institutional database
- MusicBrainz artist record for The Sergey Kuryokhin Creative Ensemble
Scholarly · MetaBrainz Foundation
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Ojakäär, Valter. Kuryokhin, Sergey.
- 2.radiopanik.org. Sergey Kuryokhin – passed 20 years ago away – podcast online. 2 August 2016.
- 3.Сергей Анатольевич Курёхин (1954–1996). funeral-spb.narod.ru.
- 4.Rough Guides. The Rough Guide to Jazz. 456. 2004. 978-1-843-53256-9.
- 5.Comrades III: All that Jazz. FRONTLINE.
- 6.Irina Prokhorova, Anders Roslund. 1990: Russians Remember a Turning Point. Hachette UK. 2013. 978-0-857-05202-5.
- 7.Orens, Geoff. Sergey Kuryokhin. Biography. AllMusic. All Media Network.
- 8.Franz Nicolay. The Humorless Ladies of Border Control: Touring the Punk Underground from Belgrade to Ulaanbaatar. The New Press. 2016. 978-1-620-97180-2.
- 9.Жвания, Дмитрий. Сергей Курёхин: "Национал-большевизм — это свежий ветер и подвижничество". Sensus Novus. 2012-07-09.
- 10.Сергей Курехин – биография. Узнай Всё.
- 11.Власова, Александра. Два брака, роман с Гузеевой, смерть от саркомы в 42. "Трагедия в стиле рок" Сергея Курехина. STARHIT.
- 12.Dutch Skif. gif.ru
- 13.Sergey Kuryokhin Award. kuryokhin.net.
- 14.Sergey Kuryokhin feat. David Moss – 2 For Tea.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
- Певец погибшей культуры 30 лет без Сергея Курехина, создателя «Поп-механики» и «Ленина — гриба». «Медуза» рассказывает историю самого дикого героя советского и российского андерграунда. Meduza. 2026-07-14.
- Кушнир, А. И. Сергей Курёхин. Безумная механика русского рока. Bertelsmann Media Moscow. 2013. 978-5-88353-567-2.
- Muze. The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. 4. 3087. 1998. 1561592374.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
MusicBrainz artist record for The Sergey Kuryokhin Creative EnsembleMetaBrainz Foundation
Verifiedreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q118233: Sergey KuryokhinWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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