Sergey Letov

Sergey Letov is a Russian free jazz musician and composer born in 1956 in Semipalatinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan, who later moved to Omsk, Siberia. He has been an influential figure in the Russian avant-garde jazz and experimental music scene. Letov is known for his improvisational style and plays instruments like saxophone, bass clarinet, and flute. He founded the recording label Pentagram and has collaborated extensively with a wide range of artists including his brother Yegor Letov, composer Sergey Kuryokhin, and the Soviet art punk band DK. His main project, TRI-O, blends minimalism, fake jazz, classical imitation, and free improvisation, performing widely in Russia and internationally. Beyond music performance, he has also composed for films and theater productions in Russia and Europe, engaging with institutions like the Goethe-Institut and Moscow Institute of Journalism and Literature.

Letov's career took off with his first public performance in 1982 in Moscow, and through the 1980s and 1990s he collaborated with notable musicians and bands such as Sergey Kuryokhin's Pop Mechanics and the Gypsy singer Valentina Ponomareva. TRI-O, his wind ensemble, has played at numerous jazz festivals across Europe and the USA, including iconic venues like the Knitting Factory in New York. His work spans free jazz, experimental rock, ethnic music, and avant-garde, reflecting his versatile and boundary-pushing approach to music.

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