PIKNIK (Russian: = "ru"> Пикник ) is a Soviet and Russian rock band founded in 1978, although musicians consider that professional team was created in 1981, when Edmund Shklarski became the leader of the group.
This group has its roots in Russian rock. He progressed according to an unusual symphonic architecture, using both electronic keyboards and folk and exotic instruments.
According to Shklarsky, the audience is Russian-speaking. "Singing in other languages would not make sense, in Poland we sing in Polish, in England in English, in Russia in Russian, and that's fine," he says.
The group was formed in September 1978 in Leningrad by polytechnic students игравших ⇔ while playing in an amateur group , "Orion". In 1981, the first group PIKNIK is dissolved - Eugene "Jacques" Voloshchuk and Alexei Dobychin remain alone. To replace the guitarist, Voloshchuk invites the member of the group "Labyrinth" Edmund Szklarsky (vocals, guitar, piano). Edmund is followed by Alexandre Saveliev (acoustic guitar) and Ali Bakhtiyarov (percussion). E. Szklarsky started at the Leningrad rock club concert.
In 1982 PIKNIK recorded his first album "The Smoke" (Dym) at the studio Andrei Tropillo. The original version of the album included the songs "Disc Jockey" and "The one who keeps silent" that are excluded from other editions of the same album. In "The Smoke" are excluded also for various reasons, "The Bicycle", "For the innocent victims" (this one published later in the album "A little fire") and some other songs. The title "Smoke" was suggested by Andrei Tropillo and was accepted without much discussion. The order of the compositions was determined by a simple alternation of "fast-slow songs" and "from the strongest to the weakest". Originally, the album did not assume the presence of a jacket even "virtual". In 1993 "La Fumée" was not only reissued in CD, but also re-recorded in the studio specially assembled by the musicians of the first composition of the group gathered especially.
In the autumn of 1982 - the first public presentation of recordings of the album "Smoke" in the club "Phonograph" at the Leningrad Palace of Youth.
