Otdelenie VYHOD (Отделение «ВЫХОД») is a Russian independent record label, distributor and music publisher, founded in 1994 by Oleg Kovriga and Evgeny Gapeev. Otdelenie specializes in Soviet and Russian rock, particularly rare/out-of-print or officially unreleased "magnet tape" (reel-to-reel) albums, restored concert recordings, anthologies of cult and forgotten singer-songwriters and bands from ex-USSR.
Oleg Kovriga used to organize "квартирники" for Zvuki Mu (flat, or apartment concerts – unofficial gigs held at private flats instead of designated venues). So when Petr Mamonov decided to open Otdelenie MAMONOV studio in 1991, he invited Kovriga to work there as a freelance administrator. During his brief tenancy at Mamonov's studio, Oleg met Andrew Bogdanov and Alexander Danilkin, who established TAU Product (a legal successor of the first Russian independent label ERIO).
Kovriga started working with TAU, trying to release some of his favorite authors through it. In summer of 1992, he met Evgeny Gapeev, who joined him at TAU. Their first release together was EXIT – I Can't Finish LP. Soon the company started experiencing financial troubles, so Oleg and Evgeny organized a financially independent subsidiary within TAU. New partners raised funds and released their first compact disc: EXIT – No Exit.
From the very start, Kovriga was struggling with distribution. For example, it took precisely seven years to sell out 1000 discs of No Exit (with at least 300 given away for free). But they were determined to proceed, and picked a name for the new imprint: Otdelenie (as an homage to Mamonov's studio) VYHOD (Russian for "EXIT" and inspired by Umka's So, Where’s the Exit? song).
By the end of autumn of 1994, Otdelenie released Bashlachev's (they decided to start a seven-part live anthology with a final chapter, and spent extra on audio restoration) and Mike's . Discs were manufactured at plant in Austria, since quality was unsatisfactory, and turned out to be very expensive. Kovriga was hoping that had enough dedicated fans who would buy his latest release, but in fact, sales were devastatingly low.
Across 6 tagged in-scope masters
At the same time, he met Yury Sevostyanov and Yury "Big" Isakin, who were operating Master Sound Records, at the time – a small Soyuz sub-label, which later went independent and hugely successful. They helped Kovriga to organize CD manufacturing in Sweden at a much more reasonable price, and Yury Sevostyanov became Oleg's close friend and partner. Other people who played an important role in developing Otdelenie were Sergey Titov and Andrei Suchilin (he insisted on purchasing Apple Macintosh and professional software to keep authoring, mastering and layout on a professional level). In later years, Kovriga has been working closely with Aleksandr Valedinsky, who also runs Wyrgorod label.
Apart from rock, punk, new wave and other similar genres, Otdelenie also released some electronic, contemporary jazz, dub/reggae (Caribace, Jah Division), industrial and noise (After Overdose, Rиvuщие Strunы), experimental music – such as highly-influential Golden Disc by a legendary art-group Toadstools, Mark Pekarsky solo or playing Terry Riley with his Percussion Project. They used to publish cassettes at early days but switched to compact discs since the 2000s. Apart from standard releases, the label produced some special and limited editions, DVD video and CD+DVD albums, and a few boxsets, including 4xCD Blues De Moscou and Aleksandr Chernetsky's 21xCD Black Raven – I'm Not Yours! Vol I. Studio. Since 2014, the label also re-released some early albums on 180-gr high-quality LP, printed at GZ Media and Optimal Media GmbH. They also re-distributed Jazzus Krest vinyl pressed in 1994 with a new sleeve in a limited to 400 hand-numbered copies edition.