IC3PEAK is a musical group formed by Nastya Kreslina and Nikolay Kostylev, the group is recognizable for their dark aesthetics and mix of multiple genres, among them Electronic, Witch house, Trap, Alternative, Rock, Metal, Synth Pop, House and Folk music, Nikolay is responsible for the musical composition and Nastya for the lyrics and vocals.
Because of the lyrical content of their songs they have been accused of distribution of "subversive material" by the Russian government, in 2018 the group performances started being interrupted by the country security forces, this has pushed the duo to become activist for free speech and since then they have appeared in multiple rallies against censorship in Russia.
IC3PEAK has been self described by their members as "Audiovisual terror", because of their intentions of breaking down the established principles of both music and culture.
The duo states that there is no leader in the group and both act on equal terms, everyone is free to express their opinion on any organizational or creative issues,
Members[]
History[]
Before IC3PEAK[]
Nastya and Nikolai met in the "RSUH" where they were classmates, they both studied languages with the specialty of translation of English and Swedish, both members grew up in musical families: Nikolay father was a orchestral conductor and Nastya's mother was a opera singer, despite the creative atmosphere that surrounded them since childhood none of them received any full-fledged musical education.
After meeting like-minded people in each other they both decided to quit their studies to turn to their art, by that time Nikolai already had his own project "Oceania" but he was in search of a vocalist, Nastya used to perform as part of the group #PRIPOY- a group of girls who played noise instruments, after working together they decided to join forces to create a musical duet.
Tired of “ordinary” music, Nastya and Nikolai decided to experiment in search of a new fresh sound, they tried torn rhythms, original guitar riffs and computer processing of voice, they considered the result to be quite good and decided to released on the Internet where they got a positive feedback from people, by that time both had finally understood that they wanted to do “new art” with the aim to break down the established principles of music.
The guys suffered for a long time coming with a name for the group: they feel obliged to come up with something out of the ordinary but nothing came to their minds thus they decided to take the first word that came across them, It became "Icepeak" because of the name of the Finnish brand written that was on the cover of Nastya's laptop, later they decided to modify the name a little by changing the first "e" for a "3" to avoid conflicts with the brand.
2013[]
The first performance took place in one of the clubs in St. Petersburg but the reception by the audience was cold, it was followed by a concert at the party VV17CHQU7 at Moscow with an audience of over 600 people, here they received a warm welcome by the people in the audience who enjoyed their performance.
2014[]
In early 2014 the group released their debut EP "SUBSTANCES" under the label STYLSS along with a Music video for the song “Ether", it was followed by the releases of “VACUUM”, "Ellipse" and "I'll Be Found", the same year IC3PEAK made its debut outside Russia after performing in France and Latvia.
2015[]
In early 2015 the group released their self titled album "IC3PEAK", as a departure from their previous releases this album wasn't released under a label but it was self published by them, late that year the group released their next work "より多くの愛"
At the end of 2015 IC3PEAK attended a concert in Brazil where the majority of the audience was not composed by Russian speakers and the group were surprised how well they were known there, after that they went on a tour of Europe, according to the them they came across the most “strange” audience in Poland: instead of the usual slam and dancing the club guests politely listened to them, standing in one place and only applauded during the breaks.
In order for the music to have a higher quality sound it was decided to start recording exclusively at studios but they lacked the money, to do this, Nastya and Nikolai conducted a 2-month tour of the CIS countries and Europe and the rest of the money for the album was collected using crowdfunding.
2016[]
In 2016 IC3PEAK toured Brazil, the USA and Mexico, in May the album "Fallal" was released along with music videos for the songs "Go With The Flow" and "So Safe", it was followed by the single "Really Really" and the single "Kawaii / Warrior", after the release of this singles fans noted that the group sound became more refined and their lyrics more meaningful - before that IC3PEAK did not attach any special meaning to the lyrical component, however, even then the songs still can be unclear to the average listener since their lyrics became more abstract.
2017[]
In 2017 the group released the EP "So Safe", it was followed by the singles "KTO" and "Monster", in November the group released their next album "Сладкая Жизнь", this was their first album fully in Russian, a music video was released for the song "Грустная Сука / Sad Bitch"
the same year IC3PEAK won at the Jager Music Awards's Electronic category, they also received the Golden Gargoyle Award for best experimental project of the year.
Later that year they went on a tour of the United States and Latin America, back in Russia they started to face resistance from the more conservative part of society, the group was even accused of distributing forbidden information to children, as some songs have obvious political overtones and their work was called frightening and destructive with the group being described as "Audiovisual Terrorist".
2018[]
The group released their next album "СКАЗКА" which features horror elements in both it's content and imaginary, a music video was released for the song "Сказка / Fairy tale", in the fall IC3PEAK performances started being repeatedly disrupted and canceled by security forces: this happened in Voronezh, Kazan, Izhevsk and Saratov, clubs reserved in advance were closed under various pretexts and the administration had to look for alternative venues
2019[]
After suffering censorship at the hands of the Russian government IC3PEAK decided to turn to activism, on March 10, 2019 the group spoke at the rally “Against the Isolation of the Russian Internet” where they performed the song “Смерти Больше Нет / Death no more” and on August 10, 2019 they spoke at the rally “Let us regain the right to vote” in Moscow, which was attended by 60 thousand people and where they performed several of their songs.
2020[]
In April IC3PEAK released their album "До Свидания" along with music videos for the songs "Марш / Marching" and "Плак-Плак / Boo Hoo", both of them gained more than 1 million views on YouTube in the first 24 hours, the album also features rappers ZillaKami and Ghostemane as well as the Russian rapper Husky