Alexander Kostarev
Aleksander Kostarev () is a Russian progressive rock musician. He began his musical career in the 1970s, but did not garner popular recognition until the 2000s when he became one of the most important artists of the Russian progressive rock scene. Style. Trained as a guitarist, Kostarev primarily creates instrumental music. His musical genre is usually considered progressive rock, but it blends a mix of influences and styles, including art rock, psychedelic rock, jazz fusion, experimental rock and many more. Biography. Alexander Kostarev was born on July 1, 1954, in Novosibirsk. The first band he played with was "Perekrestok , a jazz-fusion ensemble which he formed in 1976 with a group of fellow students at the Ural University. In 1986 Kostarev moved to Moscow and together with other musicians started a band called Alexander Kostarev's Quadraphonic Sound Theatre", which was soon renamed to "KosMoBob" (Alexander KOStarev-Ekaterina MOrozova-Roman BOBrovsky). At the same time, Kostarev worked with many Russian jazz and rock musicians as a session guitarist, one of them being Sergey Letov. In 1995 "KosMoBob" changed its name to "Dead Music", but soon returned to "KosMoBob". In the 2000s Kostarev started performing solo and gained popularity as  one of the most important Russian progressive rock figures. In 2003 the band "KosMoBob" decided to change its name to "Kostarev's Group". In 2003 the "Kostarev Group" first album was released by Starless Records. The album was called "Live@InProg 2003" and it was recorded during the band's performance at the InProg music festival in 2003. In the years 2003-2005 "Kostarev Group" was a regular act at the InProg festival, which was the leading progressive rock festival in Russia in the 2000s and one of the most important festivals in the genre anywhere in the world. In the  year 2006 Alexander Kostarev received a special invitation to lead the Jam session that concluded the first day of the InProg 2006 festival. At the same year the "Kostarev Group" song "Who's Flying Over Me" appeared on the "Theme of Appreciation: A Worldwide Tribute to Eddie Jobson" compilation. In 2006 Alexander Kostarev released a compilation called "Kostarev. Works 1978-2006", which included selected recordings of Alexander Kostarev and different groups with whom he played over the period spanning from 1978 to 2006.