NOM — Kings of the Avant-Garde | Tallinn

NOM — KINGS OF THE AVANT-GARDE
DRAMATIC-IDIOTIC SHOW

The legendary kings of avant-garde rock, NOM, present their dramatic-idiotic show—a signature blend of music, theatre, absurdity and satire. The programme includes all the hits and new songs.

NOM is an acronym for “Informal Association of Youth.” This term was widely used by the official Soviet press in the early 1990s to describe groups of young people who opposed the “Komsomol.” NOM was formed in St. Petersburg by students and former classmates. The name was chosen as an alternative to the “serious” rock movement that had gained strength during perestroika. An ironic and mocking approach became the foundation of NOM’s work.

“Making the dramatic aspects of life idiotic and the idiotic aspects dramatic” was the manifesto with which the group appeared on the Leningrad rock scene in 1989. The musicians avoided a rigid definition of their style, moving freely from garage rock to German electronic minimalism and comic opera. NOM’s lyrics continue the tradition of absurdist poetry, from Kozma Prutkov to OBERIU (Daniil Kharms, Alexander Vvedensky and others).

Critic Artemy Troitsky called NOM “the last bastion of merciless satire”—and today those words sound especially relevant.

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