About:

I was born on January 9th 1957, in Alma-Ata, Khazakhstan, a republic of the former USSR. Now it's a famous country, thanks to Borat. I didn't have a chance to drink a fermented horse urine back than, but because I was born on the same date with Jimmy Page, my parents forced me to play electric guitar and study English language :-)

At the age of seven my family moved to Belarus, in the western part of the Soviet Union. After graduating from Mogilev high school , I passed exams and was admitted into the prestigious Radio Engineering Institute (in Belarus known as RTI) and became a hardware expert at the computer factory (manufacturing computers, a sort of main frame dinosaurs). But not for a long ...

Two things happened simultaneously- I finally learned how to play guitar and made my first distortion box. From the late seventies till the beginning of nineties I was on the road 300 days a year with different bands and solo performers, going through all ups and downs of a musician's life. The best part was an opportunity to see much of the world, including: Germany, Italy, India, Burma, Laos, Vietnam (twice), Mongolia, Afghanistan ( yeah, in October of 1984 I played some mean guitar for students of Kabul university ) , Burkina Faso( formerly Upper Volta), Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, USA.

Since 1993 I've lived in NYC and do pretty much the same - play and teach guitar and make some electronic gadgets for musicians and sound engineers. Less touring though, especially after my youngest son Tal was born.My oldest son, Alexander Junior, is 21 years old now and lives in Minsk.

I've played and recorded with a number of New York musicians - Frankie Paris, Mark The Harper, Moose and The Bulletproof Blues Band, Durand Daniel, "Flaming" Amy Coleman, Joyous Perrin, Roxy Perry, David Gross and John Macaluso, Glenn Branca, Laura Berman, Average White Band ( just one session, but that was fun :-), Victor Smolski (once a young member of Pesnyary Studio, now one of the best guitarists on the planet!)

I do repairs, and have taught at The Studio for over five years ... that's the place to meet musicians, rehearse, do some demos, etc., in the heart of NYC.

Contact:

Rastop Designs, USA