Igor Fedorovich "Egor" Letov (Russian: И́горь Фёдорович "Его́р" Ле́тов, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ ˈfʲɵdərəvʲɪtɕ jɪˈɡor ˈlʲetəf]; was a Russian poet, musician, singer-songwriter, audio engineer and conceptual artist, best known as the founder and leader of the post-punk/psychedelic rock band Grazhdanskaya Oborona. He was also the founder of the conceptual art avant-garde project Kommunizm and psychedelic rock outfit Egor i Opizdenevshie. Letov collaborated with singer-songwriter Yanka Dyagileva and other Siberian underground artists as a record engineer and producer.
Letov in 2007
Grazhdanskaya Oborona, Russian for Civil Defense, or ГО, often referred to as ГрОб, Russian for coffin) were a Soviet-Russian rock band formed by Yegor Letov and Konstantin Ryabinov in Omsk, USSR, in 1984. They were one of the earliest Soviet and Russian psychedelic/punk rock bands. They influenced many Soviet and, subsequently, Russian bands. From the early 1990s, the band's music began to evolve in the direction of psychedelic rock and shoegaze, and band leader Yegor Letov's lyrics became more metaphysical than political.
Yegor Letov live on stage during his solo concert at "Luise Cultfactory" in Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Germany (4 November 2000)