The history of the "TESAURUS" project started in 1997 from the band "Armageddon" which consequently changed its name to "TESAURUS". From the beginning till present moment, the creative work is based on Jesus Christ and his teaching. The group is headed by Mikola Ptashnikoff.
Musically, Mikola Ptashnikoff began with clarinet and bayan (Russian accordion) lessons but his environment encouraged him to pursue other interests: guitar and rock music. He learned to play the guitar by himself as if just for fun. Furthermore, he chose a career that has seemingly nothing to do with music, a career of cabinet maker. He studied cabinet making at a college in Bobruisk, Belarus. Who would say that he would be ever able to combine it all in one? In five years Mikola became an apprentice of a famous Belarusian guitar maker Vladimir Milun and later entered the Belarus rock scene with a self-made guitar.
Cooperation with Vitaut Martynenka, the famous Belarusian music journalist, stimulated the band's professional growth. It was him who encouraged TESAURUS to ground the chosen genre (rock, nu metal) on Belarusian poetry (initially, it was the poem "Jerusalim" (Jerusalem) by Ryhor Baradulin, the outstanding Belarusian poet). The experiment was successful and the band decided to translate all the songs that had been composed from Russian into Belarusian with the help of Vitaut. Meanwhile, Vitaut Martynenka who is the author of the Belarusian version of Henryk Sienkievicz's novel "Quo Vadis" wrote lyrics of his own that reflect his poetic understanding of Christian morals. These lyrics became a part of the band's repertoire. At that time a demo CD with Armageddon's live performance at the BASowiszcza rock festival in 2002 was released. The songs from that CD were played on the local radio radio, were covered in mass media the local newspapers ("Muzykalnaya Gazeta" (Music Newspaper), "Perekhodny Vozrast" (Awkward Age), "Znamya Yunosti" (The Youth Banner), religious editions).
However, the initial band's name "Armageddon" constricted its creative ambitions. One of the reviews by another famous Belarusian music journalist Anatoly Melguy contained such a comment: "New contents of TESAURUS's creative work promote the idea of the renewal of Belarusian national thesaurus". It was then that Vitaut Martynenka wrote concept lyrics for a new song "Adnova Tesaurusa" (Renewal of Thesaurus). It opened a new period for "Armageddon". On June 8, 2003, the band changed its name from "Armageddon" to "TESAURUS". The band's name originates from the Greek word "thesauros" and it means "treasure, riches, storehouse, treasure-house, stock, treasure box".
In 2004, the band released its debut album "Adnova Tesaurusa" (Renewal of The Thesaurus). It was recorded at Parochia Records in Baranovichi, Belarus. The band performed several times at the BASowiszcza rock festival in Poland. They got acquainted there with the prominent Polish rock band "Armia" and got in touch with the organizers of other rock festivals to the west of Belarus. One of these festivals is a major European ecumenical rock festival "Song of Songs" where TESAURUS performed in the star program in June, 2004. "TESAURUS" so impressed the Polish audience that next morning a picture of the band was published on the front page of the major Polish newspaper "Gazeta Wyborcza" with circulation 500,000 copies.
TESAURUS took part in many concerts and festivals including:
"Bel Creation 2002, 2004" (Baranovichi/Gomel, Belarus),
"BASowiszcza 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005" (Grudek, Poland),
"Tvoyo Pokolenie (Your Generation) 2004" (Zhodino, Belarus),
"Song Of Songs 2004" (Torun, Poland),
"Generaly Aichynnaha Roku (Generals of Native Rock)" (Minsk, Belarus),
"Pokolenie Kotoroe Verit (Generation That Believes) 2005" (Zhodino, Belarus),
"Pokolenie Kotoroe Verit (Generation That Believes) 2007" (Zhodino, Kobrin, Belarus),
"Beliye Nochi Na Tarkhankute (White Nights In Tarkhankut) 2005" (Crimea, Ukraine),
"Rok Kola (Rock Wheel) 2005" (Polotsk, Belarus)
"All For You 2007" (Borisov, Belarus)
The band also played numerous concerts in Smolensk, Russia, etc.
In 2005, the band was proposed to open for the famous German metal band "ACCEPT".
In 2006, Mikola Ptashnikoff replaced the lead vocalist Victor Kozel who left the band. TESAURUS turned the steering wheel of its rock engine so radically that even the name of the band was changed for "U-TURN". Yet, the new name survived just for one month.
If earlier the band used to place emphasis on the Belarusian lyrics, now the creative work of the band is international and it is aimed at the heart of each listener. The band believes that it is your heart where all the treasure is hidden that is never to be found in a materialistic world. The band is working on a new program since 2006.
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