Group "Vacuum": composition, photo

The Swedish group Vacuum ("Vacuum") is certainly an incredibly popular project of the 90s of the last century, conquering not only Europe, but all post-Soviet countries. An attractive androgenic soloist, unusual music and unheard texts - all this favorably distinguished the band from a number of other bands, and her songs and clips invariably appeared on the tops of the charts. Despite the fact that the 90's have long passed, the group "Vacuum" has changed its composition, style and sound, it still creates and pleases fans with new singles.

History of creation

Back in 1994, member of the Army of lovers Alexander Bard, as well as composer and producer Anders Wolbeck, conceived a new project, the main "chip" of which would be instrumental electronic symphonic music. It was planned to call it the Vacuum Cleaner, which would literally be translated as a "vacuum cleaner". But after thinking, the creators decided to leave only the first word for common euphonies and progressiveness.

At the planning stage of the project, Bard and Vollbek decided to add vocal parts and began to squeak a suitable soloist. The original contender for this place was Vasa Big Mani. And although this candidate was eventually abandoned, the performer later still collaborated with the band as a songwriter. In 1996, Bard left the Army of lovers and took up the implementation of a new project. Then he met Mattias Lindblom at one of the club concerts of the little-known band Ceycamore Leaves, in which he was a vocalist. Impressed with Matthias' voice data, Bard called him to his project, and a little later he invited the Swede of Ukrainian origin Maria Shipchenko to the team and keyboard player. This is how the group "Vacuum" appeared (the photo of the group is presented below), which soon won the musical Olympus.

Fast start

A few months after the formation of the collective, namely in December 1996, the world heard their first creation. The single I breath instantly took off to the top of the European charts, and the clip for this song became the best in the next year, which was very fruitful for musicians.

Already in February 1997 on the shelves of music stores appeared the first album of the group "Vacuum", which was called The Plutonium Cathedral. On the background of electronic pop sound, the elements of symphonic music, the abundance of orchestral arrangements, as well as the soloist's operatic vocals in some compositions were clearly distinguished. All this favorably distinguished the new record, so it is not surprising that it was a resounding success. After the release of the second single, Pride In My Religion, the band Vacuum went on their first tour of Europe.

Confession

Not resting on its laurels, the team continued to work hard and prepare material for the release of the second album. Already in the beginning of 1998 a completely new song and a clip on it came out, which immediately became one of the leaders on MTV. Tonnes Of Attraction - another masterpiece that created the "Vacuum". The musical group even received for it the Swedish electronic music award SEMA. The next track Let The Mountain Come To Me was very warmly received, followed by the second tour, which included the countries of Europe, Russia and Ukraine.

Post-Soviet phenomenon

The Swedish group "Vacuum" was extremely surprised by the fact of its incredible popularity in the territory of the former Soviet Union, because officially there were very few albums and singles sold in Russia. Nevertheless, the performances of the team were accompanied by an unprecedented sold-out. As it turned out, more than 90% of all the plates of "Vacuum" sold in the post-Soviet countries, and this are millions of copies, were pirated products. In terms of commercial benefits, such a situation was not in favor of the group, but thanks to the mass cheap music production in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the Swedish team was known, if not all, by many, and the popularity of Vacuum here was significantly higher than even in Europe .

Recognizable

In the second album, the musicians wanted to change the sound a little, so that the main idea was perceived in a new way. In connection with this, the release of the record was postponed several times. But the album was released in 1998 in the original version in Russia and Italy called Seance At The Chaebol. The first two studio versions were sustained in the classical spirit of "Vacuum": European pop music and at the same time the socio-political and religious themes of the songs. And although the main genre of the band is synth-pop, this set was somewhat unusual for this musical direction.

Appearance also stood out - thanks to the efforts of the English designer, the group "Vacuum" was dressed in black minimalistic leather suits, the nails of the musicians were covered with black lacquer, and the hairstyles were incredibly stylish. All this made the team recognizable, it was their "chip". Concerts of the group also could not be called entertaining, they were rather static.

Black line

The ideological inspirer of the group Alexander Bard soon lost interest in his offspring and in 1999 left the team, motivating his act with the desire to do literary work and a new dance project "Alcazar". Together with two invited session musicians the group "Vacuum" played a tour around Russia, but it was necessary to do something further. Left without a Bard, and, correspondingly, without new songs, Matthias teamed up with Vollbek to write new material. In the same period, the record company "Stockholm Records", with which there was a conflict since the release of the second album, broke the contract with the group due to lack of prospects for the team without Bard.

The popularity of "Vacuum" in Eastern Europe no longer brought profit. In 1999, the band signed a contract with a new company and released a mini album Icaros. And in 2000, the second album, reissued and supplemented with new songs, was released in Sweden from three different companies called Culture Of Night. But without good advertising, it was a failure, and the group "Vacuum" announced the temporary cessation of its existence. Marina Shipchenko left the project, citing the need to focus on the family and the art gallery, and a little later joined the Bard in his new group - BWO.

Like a phoenix from the ashes

Two years there was absolutely no news. In Europe, but not in Russia, everyone has already begun to forget about the once successful team. However, in May 2002, a new single of the seemingly forgotten project appeared unexpectedly in music stores under the symbolic name of Starting (Where the story ended). The group "Vacuum", whose composition was reduced to two people, Matthias Landblum and Andres Wolbeck, indicated that now it will follow a completely new path. The music was renewed, the image of the collective changed, everything went to the fact that the audience would hear something new and unusual.

However, having returned to the sources, the musicians translated and supplemented the album Culture Of Night, releasing it in the Scandinavian countries. The party of former participant Maria Shipchenko at concerts was now performed by the guitarist. The group decided to change the theme of the songs, leaving sociopolitics in the direction of personal experiences, which was perfectly demonstrated by two new singles of 2004 - Fools Like Me and They Do It. And already in September of the same year the updated team presented the album Your Whole Life Is Leading Up to This with electronic, trance and techno sound to listeners. Following each year the group "Vacuum" consistently delighted the fans with a new track until the release of the supplemented album in Germany. Lately there have been rumors of a new record, but so far no supporting information has been received from the musicians.

Fruitful union

The creative tandem of Wolbeck / Landblum does not only work for the benefit of its own group. Musicians write songs for many performers and teams, among them such European artists as Tarja Turunen, Marcella Detroit, Cinema Bizarre and Monrose bands, and even Russian singer Alexei Vorobyov. Talented composers and pianist Michael Tslanabitnig also worked together very fruitfully, although the result of their works is available only on the Internet. In recent years, musicians often appear with concerts in Ukraine and participate in local talent shows.