Yuri Yentin: "This band immediately appealed to me"

Yuri Yentin, Soviet and Russian poet and writer on Gaya quartet

You know so many years have passed, about 50 years have passed since I wrote text to 10 songs of the Gaia band. This band immediately appealed to me and I was glad to work with them.  I watched today the movie about the Gaia band and I need to say that now we are in a place where people are discussing this film that finished just a few minutes ago. I really wanted to run to the stage and to say that Gaia is a great band. Surprisingly, the director managed to create a wonderful film, at least I and the people around me liked it and even shouted “bravo!” It is a great film that shows how it happened, how it was possible to sing in a band when you had to do university degrees. Everybody there had a musical academy degree and before they had all studied in music colleges, they played several instruments. This film shows how important it is to be an educated man and a professional, because now the concept of professionalism is lost in our country.  I am happy that I agreed to come to see this film, I am happy that I saw the first film in 20 years – I never go to the movies to watch films on the large screen, it is the first film I saw. I did not go to the movies because I was afraid of being disappointed because I have seen all the best movies. I felt as if I was both outside and inside the movie, so now I have a double impression. I would recommend everybody to get an old record of Gaia – you can still buy it in some places – and listen to them. I think it is very important for children to listen to them and to get an idea of what a proper band sounds like. Because current bands mostly sing in one voice, it is very monotonous and similar. And this band is very original. Let them live long.