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History Dating back to 1994, "Little
Tragedies" were formed around
the graduate of St. Petersburg Conservatory, composer Gennady Ilyin, in
the city of Kursk. Their early music focused on the genres of instrumental suite,
variations, different combinations of classical, contemporary and rock
music. According to Gennady Ilyin, it was more like improvisations without lyrics and
vocals - he was just interested in working with 'pure' music.
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Although
in the beginning the band consisted of four musicians, it was still
"Emerson, Lake and
Palmer"- oriented, with a reliance on the soloing keyboards. However,
it was
not an imitation, it was just a hint at the starting point. In fact, it
was quite a heavy art-rock with an improvisation
accent. The first album, called "Little Tragedies I" was not
properly recorded in a studio and exists only on an amateur
videotape made at
the band's single concert at that time.
The
major themes of "The Paris Symphony" are based on the tunes of and
allusions to the
Catholic
Easter worship service in the
Notre-Dame Cathedral. It is true that "Little Tragedies" of that period
very much reminded of E.L.P.: a battery of keyboards - drums - bass;
heavy
rhythm section against the soloing keyboards. "The Paris Symphony" was
played a few times in music schools and concert halls of Kursk.
In
1998-1999, G. Ilyin recorded his solo albums "The Sun of the Spirit" and "Porcelain
Pavilion" to the poems of N.Gumilev, and instrumental
albums "Christmas Music" and "Passions For 
Titanic" at the "ART-TECHNOLOGY" studio in
Moscow. "The Sun of the Spirit" and
"Porcelain
Pavilion" were released by the label "Boheme Music" in 2000 with the
name "Little Tragedies" thanks to the great help of Igor Mikhel
(guitar) and Evgeny Shchukin (sound engineer). At that period,
"Little Tragedies" were a project of an affinity group rather than
musicians, that is why it was decided to keep the original name, as
there was still a feeling of a band, though studio-like. There is a
video clip left from those times featuring one of the most powerful
songs of "Porcelain Pavilion" - "The Road" (The Way).
In
summer 2000, Alexander Malakhovsky (guitar) and
Aleksey Bildin (saxophone)
joined the trio. With the full line-up, the band worked on the last album of the
trilogy to the poems of N.
Gumilev - "Return" (the first were "The Sun of the Spirit"
and "Porcelain
Pavilion"). The band did a few shows with this music in Kursk, and
in spring 2003 presented this project at "SKIF" - the international
music festival in memory of Sergey Kurekhin - in St. Petersburg.
The first
‘draft’ material (5 hours of music) with the themes
of New Faust was composed back in 1997-1998. These
were improvisations sketching the musical language of the future album.
“New Faust” was not intended as an illustration of
Goethe’s Faust. Here Faust is not the character of a
national drama who is conflicting with the society, but rather a man of the
universe seeking ways to cleanse his soul and acquire spirit. 
