Среднерусская Возвышенность

The Central Russian Upland (Среднерусская Возвышенность) was a Soviet "simulative" rock band, formed in 1985 by Sven Gundlach, Nikola Ovchinnikov, Nikita Alexeev, Konstantin Zvezdochetov, Sergej Voronzov and a few other conceptual artists and painters from Moscow. Before establishing the band, Gundlach and Zvezdochetov worked together in Toadstool art-group. The Central Russian Upland was merely an art-project, never meant as a serious music group. They existed for a couple of years only, recorded one album and gave a dozen live performances. Dmitri Prigov participated in their concerts on several occasions, and once Central Russian Upland shared the stage with Petr Mamonov. In 2003, Sergej Voronzov (the only artist who pursued a real career in rock music) gave a special one-time comeback concert of the band at the Zverev Center of Contemporary Art in Moscow. A couple of years later, Central Russian Upland reunited once again, for the last time ever, to commemorate a disappearance of Central Russian upland ("Среднерусская возвышенность") toponym from the maps – from now on, this geographical area is officially called Central Russian plain ("Среднерусская равнина").