Cut the Stars in the Night
"Cut the Stars in the Night" (Iradi: "Jyldyzdardy Kes", "Cut the Stars") is a song by the Iradi duo tüntolk from their EP Zvezda Irad (2002), and their first single; Jolchu (1999) had none. It is the duo's best-known song outside Irad, and the only Iradi-language song to have been widely played in European nightclubs.[1]
Music and lyrics
The song opens with samples of a herder's throat singing taken from field recordings in the State Archives of Irad, crackling and drenched in tape echo over a slow synthesizer pulse. Mira Temirova then builds the title phrase a word at a time, "Kes." ("Cut."), "Kes, kes.", "Kes, kes jyldyzdardy!" ("Cut, cut the stars!"), and a heavy drum drop brings in a pounding, staccato synthesizer riff. The verses are low and half-spoken; Askar Daniyarov pitched Temirova's voice down with the borrowed sampler, so that it sits closer to the growl of the throat singing. Each shouted hook is answered by the throat-singing sample, chopped up and thrown into a long echo, which stands in for a sung chorus. Crowds at the duo's concerts shout the hook back.[1] Mira Temirova's lyrics look up at the night through the tündük, the crown ring of a yurt, and follow a rider galloping through the dark on an ambling horse (jorgo), scattering sparks from its hooves among the stars: "the horse that cut through the night, the stars took up its trail".[2]
Release and reception
The song was released as a CD-R single on 1 March 2002, six weeks before Zvezda Irad, during the duo's club tours of Almaty and Tashkent, and copies circulated among DJs in Moscow and Berlin. The song was used in nightclub scenes in two films: the American independent film Party Monster (2003) and the German film Head-On (Gegen die Wand, 2004).[1] Foreign critics have compared its place in tüntolk's work to that of "Du hast" for Rammstein: a hard, chanted single that became, for many listeners abroad, the only song by the band they knew.[3]
In Irad the song remains a staple of Mor-Wave club nights in Nurzhan and Talas, and the drum drop is a fixture of the duo's concerts.[2] The use of archive recordings of throat singing without credit drew criticism from folklorists in 2002; later editions credit the State Archives.[2]
Lyrics
| Iradi | English |
|---|---|
| Build | |
| Kes. | Cut. |
| Kes, kes. | Cut, cut. |
| Kes, kes jyldyzdardy! | Cut, cut the stars! |
| Verse | |
| Tündüktön karasam, jyldyzdar küyüp turat, | When I look up through the tündük, the stars are burning, |
| Jerdin üstünö tün kara kanatyn jayat. | Over the earth the night spreads its black wings. |
| Közümdö jyldyz bar, jüregimde jalyn bar, | There is a star in my eyes, a flame in my heart, |
| Tündü kesip ötöbüz, aldybyzda jol bar. | We cut through the night, the road lies before us. |
| Hook | |
| Kes, kes jyldyzdardy, tündün kara asmanyn! | Cut, cut the stars, the night's black sky! |
| Kes, kes jyldyzdardy, tün bizdiki bu tünü! | Cut, cut the stars, tonight the night is ours! |
| Verse | |
| Jorgo atym jeldirip, tün ichinde chabam, | Driving my ambler on, I gallop through the night, |
| Tuyagynan uchkun asmanga chachyp kalam. | I scatter sparks from its hooves into the sky. |
| Jerge jyldyz tüshtü, közüm körüp kaldy, | A star fell to earth, my eyes caught it, |
| Tündü kesip ötkön atty, jyldyz izin aldy. | The horse that cut through the night, the stars took up its trail. |
| Build | |
| Kes. | Cut. |
| Kes, kes. | Cut, cut. |
| Kes, kes jyldyzdardy! | Cut, cut the stars! |
| Hook | |
| Kes, kes jyldyzdardy, tündün kara asmanyn! | Cut, cut the stars, the night's black sky! |
| Kes, kes jyldyzdardy, tün bizdiki bu tünü! | Cut, cut the stars, tonight the night is ours! |
| Bridge | |
| Irad jerin aylanyp, tañdy jyynap alaly! | Circling the land of Irad, let us gather in the dawn! |
| Tündüktön jaryk tüshöt, jerge chachylat nuru, | Light falls through the tündük, its rays scatter on the earth, |
| Final hook | |
| Kes, kes jyldyzdardy, tündün kara asmanyn! | Cut, cut the stars, the night's black sky! |
| Kes, kes jyldyzdardy, tün bizdiki bu tünü! | Cut, cut the stars, tonight the night is ours! |
References
- ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.
- ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 59–77.
- ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2022). 'Nocturnal Steppe: Electronic Subcultures in the ISEZ.' Vol. 14, pp. 88–104.