AIGEL was founded in 2016 by Tatar singer-songwriter Aigel Gaisina, originally from Kazan (Tatastan), and music producer Ilya Baramila from Saint Petersburg. Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the duo took a firm anti-war stance, resulting in their ban from Russia and subsequent relocation – Aigel now resides in Berlin, while Ilya is based in Montenegro. The duo creates and performs music in Russian, Tatar and English, blending diverse linguistic and musical influences to craft their distinctive sound.
AIGEL first rose to prominence with their debut album, ‘1190’ (2017), which addresses issues surrounding judgement and the Russian prison system. The album captured widespread attention, leading to a performance on Russia’s premier late-night show, ‘Evening Urgent’ on Channel One. Their track ‘Tatarin’ from the same album became a viral sensation, amassing over 118 million views on YouTube and earning the Berlin Music Awards.
The band continued to make waves with their 2020 music video for ‘You’re Born’, released just two days after Vladimir Putin’s presidential terms were ‘zeroed out’. The video, depicting an aged authority figure becoming young again through a religious ice-bathing ritual, was widely seen as prophetic. It gained international acclaim, earning a Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions festival and winning over 15 awards at global festivals, including the Berlin Music Awards.
In autumn 2023, AIGEL’s ‘Piyala’ – a track in Tatar – topped the global Shazam charts and reached #1 on Apple Music and Spotify Top-100 charts across Russia, Ukiraine, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, and Turkmenistan. The song also secured the #11 spot on the Billboard TikTok Top-100. Its accompanying music video garnered 40 million views in just four months.
The upcoming album ‘Killer Qiz’ tells the story of a DJ who takes down a high-ranking official on the dance floor using her music before fleeing the country with her boyfriend. The narrative unfolds in a satirical portrayal of contemporary Russian society, where character such as ‘couch troops’, ‘Rospotrebnadzor employees’ and ‘war correspondents’ scramble to escape, only to be left behind as the protagonists speed away – “the pilot playing hardcore at the controls”.
Despite its playful audacity, ‘Killer Qiz’ is deeply serious and lyrical, reflecting themes of death, rebirth, human nature, and faith in God. Musically, it is an eclectic fusion, drawing influences from K-pop to hardbass, yet retaining AIGEL’s signature non-mainstream electronic sound.
One of the tracks features no vocals from the duo’s singer, Aigel Gaisina. Instead, over a melancholic, monotonous beat, a young child gradually forgets Tatar in real time, transitioning to German. At the album’s conclusion, Aigel herself recites in German, pondering the meaning of a true home – whether it is where one is born or where one is laid to rest. As a bonus, the release includes a light, danceable English track with minimal lyrics about how “life is a comedy”, originally composed as a soundtrack for a short film about a picnic at the Yellow Mill by clown Vyacheslav Polunin.
Aigel shares about the album: “Since February 2022, we’ve had a long creative pause – nothing was written, and all the words seems to lose their meaning. For three years, we slowly finished pre-war demos and pieces ourselves back together”. Emigration deepened the search for new words, with Aigel in Berlin – a place that’s hard, stylish, and often gloomy – and Ilya in sunny, calm rural Montenegro. This contrast subtly influenced their music.
After a long creative block, Tatar emerged as Aigel’s first language, which she finds amusing, as it happened during a past creative crisis too, leading to a Tatar album in 202. Just a day before their album release, they created a nearly documentary track called “Assimilation”, depicting children’s transition from resisting relocation to adapting and replacing their Tatar words with German. The track includes sounds from the Berlin subway, and only after completion did Aigel realise the announcer’s words, “the train heading towards Ruhleben”, meaning “peaceful life”, perfectly matched the track’s theme.
Aigel reflects on her experience with assimilation, observing Russian-speaking children in Germany replacing their language with German, much like Tatar children in Russia assimilating in to Russian. With her “mixed identity” shaped by cultural blending, Aigel feels free to continue creating in any language. The album also includes their first German-language track, which Aigel describes as thrilling, likening it to playing with new clay – exciting and full of creative potential.
Some of the album was created at Ilya’s studio in Montenegro, with the rest done remotely, focusing heavily on vocal textures that may sound like synths but are acutally the human voice.
Ilya adds about the album, referencing Baauer’s 2020 commentary on his “Planet’s Mad” album, which was inspired by the ‘90s dance music icons like Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers. Ilya explains, “They used simple tools and didn’t focus on genres, but rather created their own atmosphere”. Ilya, being 17 years old than Baauer, shares a similar approach. For this album, they aimed to explore a broader range of genres – from K-Pop to hard bass – while leaving out elements of hip-hop.
Upcoming Concert Tour
To celebrate the release of ‘Killer Qiz’, AIGEL will embark on a concert tour. Tour dates and ticket information can be found on their official website: aigel.band.
🔥 Helsinki | APOLLO | 20.03.2025
🔥 Tallinn | PRIVÉ CLUB | 21.03.2025
🔥 Riga | TOWER | 22.03.2025
🔥 Vilnius | MELLO | 23.03.2025
🔥 Warsaw | ODESSA CLUB | 25.03.2025
🔥 Paris | LES ETOILES | 26.03.2025
🔥 Zurich | KANZLEI CLUB | 28.03.2025
🔥 Prague | FUTURUM MUSIC BAR | 09.04.2025
🔥 Berlin | BI NUU | 11.04.2025
🔥 Belgrade | DOM OMLADINE | 13.04.2025
🔥 Vienna | SZENE | 14.04.2025
🔥 Köln | YUCA | 16.04.2025
🔥 London | EARTH HALL | 22.04.2025
🔥 Amsterdam | P60 | 23.04.2025
🔥 Barcelona | SALA BIKINI | 24.04.2025
🔥 Valencia | MADISSON | 25.04.2025
🔥 Lisbon | LISBOA AO VIVO | 27.04.2025
