Not a book has been written yet about a Russian dark scene in contrast to other national scenes… Yet, it has a short history with its peculiarity, attraction and charm which can be put in a small story and which can get a nice continuation…

Like other countries, which were hidden behind an "iron curtain", our country had a number of features, inexplicable to anybody. One of them is the absence of rock music as such. Then, in the USSR, one of the Party`s women-workers pronounced a world-known slogan: "There is no sex in the USSR!" What do you want after such statements? Naturally, that the indissoluble chain "Sex & Drugs & rock`n`roll" in the absence there of the first item excluded the second and the third items… at least officially. In the years of 1980s, rock music was a riot against the existent national system and it wasn`t an appendix of mass media and show business as it was in the rest parts of the world Musicians` creative work also differed in its originality, and it was also shown in a form of a protest. Possibly, it was the struggle with the system which left an imprint of depressive romance and gloominess, possibly, something else but in the middle of 80s the first groups appeared in the USSR, which could be obviously called the first gothic rock groups of the country. They in no way had an impact on the development of the national gothic scene but then they were the first. The Russian dark scene associated with a gothic one, got the real development after the break-up of the Soviet Union… in the middle of 1990s. At this time the first communities started appearing which denoted themselves as gothic. At this time in the Internet appeared the first site devoted to the gothic scene, the first gothic fanzines, and of course the first musical projects…

In 1998, with the Russian Gothic Project`s might, the first compilation of Russian gothic/ethereal/ darkwave groups by the name "Edge Of The Night: Russian Gothic Compilation" was released. Some projects took part in the compilation, which could then in a worthy manner present the native dark scene. The audience, which was not spoilt by the local releases of such sizes, received eagerly the disc. The main thing - the fact about the publication and the further success of the collection showed even the confirmed skeptics: Russian gothic subculture existed and hardly who dared to doubt it. 5 years later, the native scene, which is not surprising, widened and went up to a more high-quality level. There appeared more actors, more Internet resources and of course, more young people who were interested in the appearance of subculture… The narrower definition of the gothic scene gave place to the "dark" or "schwarze" scene, which covered more palettes of genres and directions.
Colours of Black - the attempt to represent today`s stage of the native scene development. This is the attempt to show the musicians` creative work to the listeners when musicians, avoiding the laws of the show business, major media continue to create and they stay meaningly in Underground. And before all this, this release is devoted to all of them who support the national scene.