White Stallion in Fog
White Stallion in Fog (Iradi: Tumandagy Ak At) is the third studio album by the Iradi electronic duo tüntolk, released in 2017. Their first album after re-forming in 2014, it was promoted on the youth channel of IradOne and brought the duo a national television audience and listeners abroad. Its song "My Home My Heart My Soul" became an anthem of the 2023 Student Protests in Talas.[1][2]
Background and recording
Mira Temirova returned from Almaty in 2014, and the duo re-formed in Talas, where Askar Daniyarov had worked since 2008 as a sound engineer at Talasfilm Studios. They recorded the album on one of the studio's sound stages at night, with Daniyarov's Soviet synthesizers alongside software instruments for the first time. The title image, a white horse in fog, comes from the Iradi saying that a white stallion seen in fog announces a return home.[1]
Release and promotion
The album was released in March 2017, before Nooruz, by the Talas label Tündük Records, on streaming services and in a small vinyl pressing. IradOne, under its new chairman Alikhan Toktarov, commissioned videos showing the duo in disused railway yards and beneath high-voltage transmission lines in the Moiynkum steppe, and played them heavily on its youth channel. Streaming brought the album a following in Eastern Europe and North America.[2]
Reception and legacy
Critics welcomed the album as a return that kept the duo's sound while reaching a wider audience; "My Home My Heart My Soul", in which Temirova screams a plain patriotic text over a continuous hum, was singled out as the strangest song in their catalogue. During the student protests of October 2023 marchers chanted its refrain, and IradOne afterwards removed several of the album's videos from rotation, according to the Talas Herald. The duo said only that their songs "belong to whoever sings them".[2][3]
Track listing
All music by Askar Daniyarov and Mira Temirova; all lyrics by Temirova.
| No. | Title | English translation | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Tumandagy Ak At" | "White Stallion in Fog" | 5:41 |
| 2. | "Üyüm, Jürögüm, Janım" | "My Home My Heart My Soul" | 4:03 |
| 3. | "Temir Torlor" | "Iron Nets" | 5:28 |
| 4. | "Moiynkum" | 6:12 | |
| 5. | "Kaitysh" | "Return" | 4:47 |
| 6. | "Altyn Kazyk" | "The Golden Stake" (Polaris) | 5:05 |
| 7. | "Jaña Talas" | "New Talas" | 3:56 |
| 8. | "Uktaba" | "Don't Sleep" | 4:34 |
| 9. | "Kara Jash" | "Black Tears" | 5:19 |
| 10. | "Ak Jol" | "White Road" | 6:50 |
| Total length: | 51:55 |
Personnel
- Mira Temirova – vocals, lyrics
- Askar Daniyarov – synthesizers, programming, bass guitar, production, engineering
- Talasfilm Studios orchestra strings – (6, 10)
References
- ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 120–141.
- ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2022). 'Nocturnal Steppe: Electronic Subcultures in the ISEZ.' Vol. 14, pp. 88–104.
- ^ Talas Herald (16 November 2023). 'IradOne drops tüntolk videos after protests.' Talas.