Zvezda Irad (Song)
"Zvezda Irad" ("Star of Irad") is a song by the Iradi duo tüntolk, the title track of their EP Zvezda Irad (2002). It is sung in Iradi and answered by sampled voices in Russian.[1]
Music
The song rests on a dark, steady mid-tempo electro pulse in a minor key. Through the whole track sounds a sonar-like ping, the pips of the radio time signal slowed down and echoed, which critics have heard as a signal sent up to the star. Mira Temirova half-sings the verses in Iradi and half-shouts the chorus as a chant, each line thrown into a long echo, in the manner of her barked chorus on "Umay". Between her lines Askar Daniyarov placed Russian voices sampled, with the sampler he had borrowed in Almaty, from his own tapes: a Soviet-era announcer of the Kobozev radio station reading the time and the weather, and the tannoy of the Nurzhan rail station calling a train to Shymkent.[1][2]
Themes
The title is the joke of the EP: the same words, "Star of Irad", in Russian (zvezda) and Iradi (jyldyz), for a city with two names and two languages. The verses describe a mother who speaks Russian and a grandmother who speaks Iradi, and a single star, Polaris, above the flare of the Nurzhan refinery, "belonging to no one". In the bridge the radio announcer says the city's Soviet name, Kobozev, and Temirova answers with its new one, Nurzhan, before singing "I was born right here". Critics have read the song as a portrait of Nurzhan's divided identity, sympathetic to both halves.[1]
Lyrics
| Iradi | English |
|---|---|
| Intro | |
| Говорит Кобозев. | This is Kobozev speaking. |
| Verse | |
| Shaardyn eki aty bar, | The city has two names, |
| Köchödö eki jazuu. | Two scripts on the street. |
| Apam orusche süylöyt, | My mother speaks Russian, |
| Chong enem iradiche. | My grandmother speaks Iradi. |
| Sample | |
| Погода: ясно, ветер северный. | Weather: clear, wind from the north. |
| Chorus | |
| Zvezda Irad, | Zvezda Irad, |
| Irad jyldyzy. | Star of Irad. |
| Bir jyldyz, eki til, | One star, two tongues, |
| Bir asman, bir tün. | One sky, one night. |
| Verse | |
| Zavod tütün chygarat, | The plant breathes out smoke, |
| Mashaldyn jalyny tündö. | The flare's flame in the night. |
| Anyn üstündö bir jyldyz, | Above it, one star, |
| Ech kimdiki emes. | It belongs to no one. |
| Chorus | |
| Zvezda Irad, | Zvezda Irad, |
| Irad jyldyzy. | Star of Irad. |
| Bir jyldyz, eki til, | One star, two tongues, |
| Bir asman, bir tün. | One sky, one night. |
| Bridge | |
| Кобозев. | Kobozev. |
| Nurzhan. | Nurzhan. |
| Кобозев. | Kobozev. |
| Nurzhan. | Nurzhan. |
| Men ushul jerde tuuldum. | I was born right here. |
| Final chorus | |
| Zvezda Irad, | Zvezda Irad, |
| Irad jyldyzy. | Star of Irad. |
| Bir jyldyz, eki til, | One star, two tongues, |
| Bir asman, bir tün. | One sky, one night. |
| Outro | |
| Говорит Кобозев. | This is Kobozev speaking. |
References
- ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 64–67.
- ^ Central Asian Music Review (2020). 'Mor-Wave and the Post-Soviet Electronic Synthesis in Central Asia.' Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 41–66.