In fact, even after Dunno he had projects. For example, the play “How I read Isaac the Sirin”, which also has music. But it just so happened that it was the album based on the children's book by Nikolai Nosov that became the last completed work of Petr Nikolayevich, practically a testament. Mamonov bequeathed us not to offend shorties, artists and poets.
Peter Mamonov. Photo: Sergey Kuznetsov
It seems to be an obvious thing, it lies on the surface, but for some reason few people notice it. All his life, starting from the earliest songs of the «Sounds of Mu», Mamonov wrote about little people, about a little person. The Gray Dove formula, found back in the 80s: “I am the worst, I am worse than you, I am the most unnecessary, I am disgusting, I am rubbish, but I can fly!” — in fact, quite Christian, it just did not immediately become clear, even to himself.
He rushed through life. He performed at stadiums, then went into hermitage. He played in the cinema, radically, like no one else at that time, experimented with music and preached Christian values.
But only in the 10s, when he was already over sixty, he suddenly spoke in an interview not about the avant-garde, which loved it very much, but about Gogol's «The Overcoat»: «It worries me, like Gogol in The Overcoat.» We have a lot of lonely, young guys. It’s hard for a person, it’s lonely.”
This is in the wonderful film by Sergei Loban «Dust» (2005), where Mamonov played. A young guy, an outsider and a little bit autistic, lives so lonely and depressing that he easily succumbs to the provocation of the FSB and to the persuasions of sectarians. And in the album «Tales of the Brothers Grimm», released at the same time. The boy-with-a-finger there complains in a thick mammoth bass: «I was born so — small!» And in the play «Grandfather Peter and the Hares» the same note: the little ones are the most vulnerable, helpless. They could fly, but they are sitting in a dirty Moscow puddle, poor stupid hares.
Immediately after «Zaitsev» he began work on a new program and for the first time in hell knows how many years he assembled a full-fledged group for her — «Completely New Sounds Mu.» Moreover: he brought her to the stage in the play. An unprecedented act for such an egocentric and lone wolf as Mamonov.
Here are these people. Grant Minasyan (drums), Ilya Urezchenko (bass), Alexander Gritskevich (electronics), Vyacheslav Keyzerov, aka Slava Losev (trombone, trumpet, keyboards). All young, at that time with minimal musical experience. They worked for a long time, several years. It took about a year just to set up the sound and set up the home studio, Losev talks about this in his recently published book of memoirs, “What Petya I am to you.”
At first, he sketched out a bunch of cultural references for them. No classics, mostly non-obvious names: Nord Borders, Wagon Christe, Dj Food, Dj Vadim, Detroit techno, modern jazz, soul, hip-hop, electronica… It was all remade, absorbed, and then he suddenly came with a completely new melody under acoustic guitar and change the angle of view.
The Dunno album
My ear can hear Pink Floyd and Miles Davis in Dunno, but it's an angular mammoth Pink Floyd that has little in common with the original. Played not so much for beauty, but for mental anxiety.
In the end, everything sounds very ascetic, without exaltation. And on the stage he behaved very reservedly lately.
So he said: “And we are here slowly, like an old man, uncertainly, clumsily. Life is now such that you want without these jumps there, without squeals.
The premiere took place in 2015 at the Central House of Artists, and for another five long years, before recording the album, they rolled the program around the country, Mamonov changed something all the time, finalized it, threw out pieces, added new ones. The recording approached only in 2020. But the work came out monumental. Double album, 18 tracks, every note is tuned. But even after that, when everything had already been done, he was in no hurry to release Dunno. It was published after his death.
Why Dunno? According to Mamonov, there is a combination of circumstances. “I collect vinyl records. And I began to collect Soviet speech recordings on 10-inch plates. I came across the radio version of «The Adventures of Dunno» and realized — this is about our life!
Photo: Sergey Kuznetsov
Well, it's not obvious. Nosov's book is generally very strange. He began to write it under Stalin. Just imagine. Campaign against rootless cosmopolitans, they smash literature, music… And he defends the right of short men to draw differently and write strange poems. That is, simply to be different, to be yourself.
And Dunno is born, a charming little freak in a blue hat with huge brim. A sort of Russian hobbit.
And here is Mamonov's interpretation: “He painted all night, and in the morning he was told that everything was wrong, that one was not similar, this one was not similar. I do not like. Then he began to write poetry. He walked around the room, holding his head, then his chin, looking first at the floor, then at the ceiling. And finally, bam: “Brothers, listen to what poems I composed!” «And what are the poems about?» — “About you…” — “About us? Curious». — «Znayka went for a walk to the river, jumped over a sheep.» “When did I jump over a sheep?” — «Yes, I just said that for rhyme.» “What are you doing now, because of the rhyme, will you compose all sorts of lies against us?” And why compose the truth, it already exists. This is how we treat our young people — everything is wrong with us. And at home they are not so, and at school. And they listen to the wrong music. They don't dress like that. Here we know how. Both Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry were the same Dunnos: they were all trampled on, they all suffered. Only from a position of love can one relate to a person, especially a young one.”