Mify took a break until 1980. A year earlier, Andrei Tropillo had set up what soon became the famed underground recording studio AnTrop. After a year of experimenting with live tapes and DIY reissues of Western rock classics, he decided it was time to start full-fledged studio recordings of Leningrad rock bands.

Tropillo’s first studio trials were with Mify’s keyboardist Yuri Stepanov and Olga Pershina. The “golden lineup” of Mify — Danilov, Gennady Barikhnovsky, Sergey Petrov, and Stepanov — got back together at just the right time. In 1980, the newly opened studio recorded several of Stepanov’s songs. This session was Tropillo’s first real studio project, and they named it “Farewell, Black Saturday.”

Recording Process

As bass guitarist Gennady Barikhnovskyrecalls:

“My first encounter with Andrei Tropillo was a riot. It was 1978, and Mify was playing at Café Surprise on Nevsky Prospect. Tropillo wandered in, came up to us, and said:

— “Hey, I’m selling reel tapes here, and Mashina Vremeni is the hottest band right now. You probably haven’t heard of them, but if you buy this reel for 4 rubles, you’ll be up to date with the latest.”

We started ribbing him, pretending to be amazed by the Mashina Vremeni tape, but eventually got tired of joking and told him:

— “Hey, we know this band. We’re friends with them, and we play together once a month. And we ourselves are Mify!”

Tropillo was pretty shocked — his reels fell out of his hands. He went from red to pale, stammering apologies. That’s how we met. Two years later, in 1980, he invited us to record an album.

We weren’t new to recording, but we were curious about the process. Our first session was back in 1969, when we were still in school. We recorded at the Leningrad radio station. Tropillo’s studio was a bit of a makeshift setup, but it gave us room to experiment with layering guitars and adding a few tricks. I don’t remember who picked the songs, but we weren’t feeling the sound, so we just picked some weaker tracks and recorded them. Listening to that album now feels strange, almost comical.

I mean, with all respect to Andrei, what he kept calling a “studio” wasn’t really a studio. Yeah, it was cool for a bit, but honestly, it was pretty amateur. By then, we had already outgrown that setup. We should have been recorded at Melodiya, not in a closet with two tape machines. Naturally, back then there was no way we could’ve imagined Melodiya. So the fact that any recording happened at all was already something. At Tropillo’s place, you could capture a band as a kind of historical artifact — proof that this group existed and had these songs. Tropillo deserves credit for that. But making a good product in that space was impossible. It wasn’t really a studio, though. There was no sound quality or proper output — just a raw fixation on whatever was happening around.

Before we recorded the album, Tropillo had already worked with our keyboard player, Yura Stepanov, and with Olga Pershina. Olga was a smart girl from St. Petersburg who was very close with Yura. She often hung out with us. She’d also join us on stage every now and then to sing a few songs. She left for England, came back, and then just… disappeared. They say she might’ve gone to a convent. She was clearly talented, but I never followed her later work.”

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Full Album

Tracklist

A1	Песнь О Дружбе
A2	Земляничные Поляны
A3	Одиночество
A4	У Камина
A5	Не Будь Таким Ленивым
B1	О Спорте
B2	Дорога Домой
B3	Блюз Бродячих Собак
B4	Чёрная Суббота
B5	Шок

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Source: Discogs, https://specialradio.ru/art/722/