Opium's history begins in 1987, when Mirostlav Tkatchenko, along with Iliya Ivanov formed a Synth duo in Vladivostok, Russia called ‘Cold Relations’. At that time they knew about another synth duo which existed, "Depesha", whose members were - Evgeny Maximov (Max) and Yura Eliseev (Vas). They united in 1990 under the guidance of Leonid Burlakov (Leo)- who then became the producer of the new project“Opium”.
Mirostlav, Iliya and Max released an album called "Art"-which was synthpop music sung in Russian. Stage performances followed and a few self-titled singles were released.
In 1993 Mirostlav moved to Israel where he met Liav Shemesh who had the same musical preferences and started cooparating with him on new songs for the band, this time-in English... In order for the vocals to be recorded, Iliya flew from his home town on Russia to the warm city Natanya in Israel, and in the summer of 2001, 11 demos were recorded in "Fire Studios".
Releases
Legend: ) Iliya ^ Miroslav # Max & Vas @ Liav
1987 Cold Relations “Love and Death” EP ), ^
1990 Depesha “Russian Love” LP #, &
1991 Opium “Art” LP ), ^, #
1992 Opium “In Silence” EP ), ^
1996 Iliya “Pity” EP )
1998 Opium “Gral’ LP ), ^
1999 Intra “Intra” LP ), &
1999 Opium “Mysticism of Snow” LP ), ^
06/2000“New Reality” EP ^, ), @
1. Perfect Stranger (techno twins mix)
2. Puzzle (demo)
3. Forbidden Fruit (demo)
4. Too Much to Handle (demo)
5. Faked Emptions (demo)
6. Winter Rose (demo)
04/2002New Reality (demo MCD)
1. New Reality (album version)
2. New Reality (Floating Point mix)
3. Puzzle (original)
4. Faked Emotions (instrumental)
5. New Reality (Reflexion magazine 7")
04/2003Shout - The Story of Opium
1.Glockenspiel (Intro)
2.Faked Emotions
3.New Reality
4.Grece
5.Спутник (Гитарная Версия)
6.Overseen By Fate
7.Крик
8.Surface
9.Too Much To Handle
10.Ангелы
11.Perfect Stranger
12.Torch Of Love
13.Winter Rose
14.Утро Любви
15.Puzzle
16.Мистика Снега
17.Last Teardrop (Old Time Version)
18.Умер Вчера
07/2004Too Many Miles between Us
(debut album released by A Different Drum).
click here for tracklist.
Compilations
Music For a Darkened Room (A Different Drum compilation)
- Forbidden Fruit (album version).
Lexicon Magazine "Now Music for Pop People Vol. III"
(issue #15, 2002)
- New Reality (7" version).
