Kino was a Soviet rock band formed in Leningrad in 1982. The band was co-founded and headed by Viktor Tsoi, who wrote the music and lyrics for almost all of the band’s songs. Over the course of eight years, Kino released over 90 songs spanning over seven studio albums, as well as releasing a few compilations and live albums. The band’s music was also widely circulated in the form of bootleg recordings through the underground magnitizdat distribution scene. Viktor Tsoi died in a car accident in 1990. Shortly after his passing, the band broke up after releasing their final album, consisting of songs that Tsoi and the group were working on in the months before his death. In 2019, the band announced a reunion with concerts planned in the fall of 2020 for the first time in 30 years, however they were later postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
