Anna Morys

Song: (Zvezda po imeni solntse) The Star Called Sun

Artist: Kino

The Fall of Soviet Icarus in Star Called Sun by Kino

Raving teenagers and rock concerts is rarely the image that comes to mind when one hears of
Soviet people. Unknown and odd to the West, the legacy of one rock band Kino and their solist
Viktor Tsoi once infinitely engraved into the hearts of many Soviets and modern Eastern
Europeans. Tsoi, a man of simple habit and a guitar, wrote about the liberation of the spirit and
“changes”. In 1989 the band releases an eponymous song which immediately becomes a source of
inspiration for millions of young people; just two years later, now even more relevant “Changes”
peaked at the national music charts as the new political anthem. “We demand changes!” raved the
youth, as Tsoi admitted he never had a stern of political theme in his writing. “ The changes should
happen within us. This is not about laws.”

Later in the same 1989, Tsoi and Kino released another album “The Star named Sun”. As bright
as the album was, still until today it has been outshined by its game changing brother. Years later,
people still fail to recognize one of Tsoi’s best lyrical pieces, rich in narrative, allusions, and
context. In common to this album style, Tsoi is telling a story by singing rather than performing a
song. There are no verses or repeating choruses. We are listening to the ballad about one city which
leaves under the “star called Sun”, a symbolic reference to our planet nourished by Sun’s warmth.
Sun in this case is the witness of everything that is happening on Earth for thousands and thousands
of years, and ane of the lyrics in the song say “There's red, red blood, After an hour, it was absorbed
into the ground, After two there were flowers and grass, After three, the earth lived again, And it
was warmed by the rays of a star Called the Sun..”, Tsoi is making a statement: life as it is is just
a never ending monotonous cycle. A bit deeper into the story, and we witness Tsoi being his true
self: romanticizing about fate’s will. He claims it loves those who live by their own rules, even if
they die young. Hence Tsoi is singing about himself, as he is the perfect example of a weirdo, an
outsider, an individual with a distinct vision dead at 28. The more you think about it the crazier it
becomes, while some might or might not see the connections in Star Called Sun and artist’s life,
Tsoi technically foreshadowed his own death. He was the one whom the fate loved, and was taken
by it just two years later after the song was released.

Another aspect of Tsoi’s sung narration is his allusion to the Greek mythological hero Icarus.
Icarus was the son of the craftsman Daedalus, both the sun and father were imprisoned in
Minotaur’s maze. We learn the story of Daedalus and his son Icarus, as the story of a genius father
coming up with a plan to escape the maze, and the foolish son losing his chance of freedom by
making irrational choices. Daedalus crafts out the wings out of feathers for his sun and himself
with the hope that one day both will be able to fly away from the Minotaur’s trap. It take a long
time to perfect his design and make a human fly, but the day comes. Icarus with his father attempt
to fly, and they do. In the heat of the moment, Icarus realizes that for the first time he is able to
sense freedom. He is not held by anything, even land does not define it anymore. Icarus wants
more, and unaware of what will happen he flies up to to the sky higher and higher with each second,
disregarding his father’s cry to stop. At one point, the Sun burns Icarus and he falls dead into the
deep sea right in front of Daedalus’s eyes. We read, we are taught, and eventually we learn to not
be Icarus; to control ourselves so we can survive and be free.

Tsoi disagrees, in the song he states that the one whom fate loves, “doesn't remember the words
"yes" or "no", he doesn't remember ranks nor names, and he could reach the stars, not realizing,
that it was a dream, and to fall down dead, burned by a star Named the Sun..” It seems as the artist
favores the idea of being burned out by the Sun, or in other words the monotonous imprisoning
lifestyle that it symbolically stands for, just to be able for once to experience total freedom. Tsoi,
the idol, of rebellious teens then and today, saw true freedom as spiritual rather than physical. And
maybe in this song he claims that the only way to attain it is through going all out and burning
down. And it is in this moment we get a different picture of Icarus. We see a boy who senses
freedom for the first time in his life, and realizing the power and happiness it gives him might
never come back, makes a decision to chase the Sun with no regret or looking backwards. He is
killed, but we now can see, that the body that dropped from the sky was happy, and the last feeling
it that beamed through its veins was euphoria of being free. For Tsoi, the fate loved Icarus, it gave
him opportunity to escape the cycle, to live by his own rules, and die young, and die happy.

Along by simple musical theme, Tsoi idolizes those that choose to live over existing. The steady
and monotonous drum beat, and light sounds of keyboard that opens the songs and do not change
for the entire song symbolize the routine of life, as well as the symbol of Sun emphasized
throughout the entire album. In the song April, the artist brings out the identical argument, “The
star shines only in my heart. And April will die, and be born once again, and he's already come forever…”
Keyboards in particular, give off vibes of hot, yellow sunshine beaming through all surroundings.
The guitar played by Tsoi himself is responsible for the melody. A couple of same chords
constantly interchanging each other, are only a proof of Tsoi’s love for simplicity. Star Called Sun
is another masterpiece from the Soviet rock legend, uniting a personal life position, reflection on
society, and a critique of mythological teachings, under the title of one song. Maybe, for many
grieving over the tragic death of the artist back in 1991, Sun Called Sun could become a relief, for
Tsoi’s actions reveal he did all he could he could to be free.