Kobaïan
Encyclopedia
Kobaïan is a lyrical language
created by French drummer and composer Christian Vander
for his progressive rock
band Magma
. It is the language of Kobaïa, a fictional planet
invented by Vander and the setting for a musical "space opera
" sung in Kobaïan by Magma on ten concept album
s.
formed progressive rock
band Magma
in late 1969 in an attempt to fill the void left by the death of American jazz musician and composer John Coltrane
. Magma's first album, Magma (later reissued as Kobaïa) told a story of refugees fleeing a future Earth and settling on a fictional planet
called Kobaïa. The lyrics were all in Kobaïan, a language Vander constructed for the album, some sung by soloists and others by "massive quasi-operatic choruses". Over the next three decades Magma made a further nine albums that continued the mythology of Kobaïa, all sung in Kobaïan.
Vander said in an interview that he invented Kobaïan for Magma because "French just wasn't expressive enough. Either for the story or for the sound of the music." He said that the language developed in parallel with the music, that sounds appeared as he was composing on a piano. Vander based Kobaïan in part on elements of Slavic
-Germanic languages
and in part on the scat
-yodelling vocal style of American avant garde
jazz singer Leon Thomas
. The subsequent expansion of the language became a group effort, and as Magma's personnel changed, so new ideas were incorporated into the language (and the music).
British music critic Ian MacDonald
said that Kobaïan is "phonetic
not semantic
" and that it is based on "sonorities
not on applied meanings". One of Magma's singers, Klaus Blasquiz described Kobaïan as "a language of the heart" whose words are "inseparable from the music". Magma expert Michael Draine said, "The abstraction provided by the Kobaïan verse seems to inspire Magma's singers to heights of emotional abandon rarely permitted by conventional lyrics."
The Kobaïan lyrics on Magma's albums were never translated, but clues to the unfolding story of Kobaïa were given in French in the albums' liner notes
. While the original intent of the language was to avoid over-scrutiny, unofficial Kobaïan online lexicon
s were created by Magma fans, and Vander himself has since translated many of the words.
called Magma
's music "Zeuhl
" (Kobaïan for "celestial"), and it influenced a number of other (mostly French) bands, including Zao
(France), Art Zoyd
(France) and Univers Zero
(Belgium). Zeuhl later became a music genre
which was used to described music similar to that of Magma. Several Japanese Zeuhl bands also sprang up, including Ruins and Kōenji Hyakkei
, whose lyrics are also sung in a constructed language
similar to Kobaïan.
Artistic language
An artistic language is a constructed language designed for aesthetic pleasure. Unlike engineered languages or auxiliary languages, artistic languages usually have irregular grammar systems, much like natural languages. Many are designed within the context of fictional worlds, such as J. R. R....
created by French drummer and composer Christian Vander
Christian Vander (musician)
Christian Vander is a French drummer, musician, and founder of the band Magma. Besides his work with Magma, he has also performed solo, with the Christian Vander Trio and Christian Vander Quartet, and in Offering....
for his progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band Magma
Magma (band)
Magma is a French progressive rock band founded in Paris in 1969 by classically trained drummer Christian Vander, who claimed as his inspiration a "vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future" that profoundly disturbed him. In the course of their first album, the band tells the story of a...
. It is the language of Kobaïa, a fictional planet
Planets in science fiction
Planets in science fiction are fictional planets that appear in various media, especially those of the science fiction genre, as story-settings or depicted locations.-History:...
invented by Vander and the setting for a musical "space opera
Space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...
" sung in Kobaïan by Magma on ten concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
s.
Development
French drummer and composer Christian VanderChristian Vander (musician)
Christian Vander is a French drummer, musician, and founder of the band Magma. Besides his work with Magma, he has also performed solo, with the Christian Vander Trio and Christian Vander Quartet, and in Offering....
formed progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band Magma
Magma (band)
Magma is a French progressive rock band founded in Paris in 1969 by classically trained drummer Christian Vander, who claimed as his inspiration a "vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future" that profoundly disturbed him. In the course of their first album, the band tells the story of a...
in late 1969 in an attempt to fill the void left by the death of American jazz musician and composer John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
. Magma's first album, Magma (later reissued as Kobaïa) told a story of refugees fleeing a future Earth and settling on a fictional planet
Planets in science fiction
Planets in science fiction are fictional planets that appear in various media, especially those of the science fiction genre, as story-settings or depicted locations.-History:...
called Kobaïa. The lyrics were all in Kobaïan, a language Vander constructed for the album, some sung by soloists and others by "massive quasi-operatic choruses". Over the next three decades Magma made a further nine albums that continued the mythology of Kobaïa, all sung in Kobaïan.
Vander said in an interview that he invented Kobaïan for Magma because "French just wasn't expressive enough. Either for the story or for the sound of the music." He said that the language developed in parallel with the music, that sounds appeared as he was composing on a piano. Vander based Kobaïan in part on elements of Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
-Germanic languages
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
and in part on the scat
Scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...
-yodelling vocal style of American avant garde
Avant-garde music
Avant-garde music is a term used to characterize music which is thought to be ahead of its time, i.e. containing innovative elements or fusing different genres....
jazz singer Leon Thomas
Leon Thomas
Amos Leon Thomas Jr was an American avant garde jazz singer from East St. Louis, Illinois.Thomas studied music at Tennessee State University. In the 1960s he was a vocalist for Count Basie and others....
. The subsequent expansion of the language became a group effort, and as Magma's personnel changed, so new ideas were incorporated into the language (and the music).
British music critic Ian MacDonald
Ian MacDonald
Ian MacCormick was a British music critic and author, best known for Revolution in the Head, his forensic history of The Beatles which borrowed techniques from art historians, and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich...
said that Kobaïan is "phonetic
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...
not semantic
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
" and that it is based on "sonorities
Sonority hierarchy
A sonority hierarchy or sonority scale is a ranking of speech sounds by amplitude. For example, if you say the vowel [a], you will produce a much louder sound than if you say the plosive [t]...
not on applied meanings". One of Magma's singers, Klaus Blasquiz described Kobaïan as "a language of the heart" whose words are "inseparable from the music". Magma expert Michael Draine said, "The abstraction provided by the Kobaïan verse seems to inspire Magma's singers to heights of emotional abandon rarely permitted by conventional lyrics."
The Kobaïan lyrics on Magma's albums were never translated, but clues to the unfolding story of Kobaïa were given in French in the albums' liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
. While the original intent of the language was to avoid over-scrutiny, unofficial Kobaïan online lexicon
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
s were created by Magma fans, and Vander himself has since translated many of the words.
Influence
Christian VanderChristian Vander (musician)
Christian Vander is a French drummer, musician, and founder of the band Magma. Besides his work with Magma, he has also performed solo, with the Christian Vander Trio and Christian Vander Quartet, and in Offering....
called Magma
Magma (band)
Magma is a French progressive rock band founded in Paris in 1969 by classically trained drummer Christian Vander, who claimed as his inspiration a "vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future" that profoundly disturbed him. In the course of their first album, the band tells the story of a...
's music "Zeuhl
Zeuhl
Zeuhl means celestial in Kobaïan, the constructed language created by Christian Vander. Originally solely applied to the music of Vander's band, Magma, the term zeuhl was eventually used to describe the similar music produced by French bands, beginning in the mid-1970s...
" (Kobaïan for "celestial"), and it influenced a number of other (mostly French) bands, including Zao
Zao (French band)
Zao was a progressive rock/zeuhl band that was founded by Yochk'o Seffer and François Cahen . They were active from 1971 to 1994 and released 6 studio albums. Both Seffer and Cahen were ex-members of Magma...
(France), Art Zoyd
Art Zoyd
Art Zoyd is a French band formed in 1968, mixing free jazz, progressive rock and avant-garde electronica.Like other members of the Rock in Opposition movement, Art Zoyd fuses progressive rock and jazz with contemporary classical music. Like fellow RIO member Univers Zéro, they are also influenced...
(France) and Univers Zero
Univers Zéro
Univers Zero are an instrumental Belgian band known for playing dark music heavily influenced by 20th century chamber music. The group's name has had three variant spellings, the others being Univers Zéro and Univers-Zero....
(Belgium). Zeuhl later became a music genre
Music genre
A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...
which was used to described music similar to that of Magma. Several Japanese Zeuhl bands also sprang up, including Ruins and Kōenji Hyakkei
Koenji hyakkei
, also known as Kōenjihyakkei, is a Japanese Zeuhl band led by Yoshida Tatsuya of Ruins fame. The band released their first album in 1994 with Aki Kubota from Bondage Fruit on vocals and keyboard...
, whose lyrics are also sung in a constructed language
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...
similar to Kobaïan.
External links
- The story of Magma, including the Kobaïa mythology. Perfect Sound ForeverPerfect Sound Forever (magazine)Perfect Sound Forever is one of the longest-running online-only music magazines . Along with Michael Goldberg's Addicted to Noise Perfect Sound Forever (est. 1995) is one of the longest-running online-only music magazines . Along with Michael Goldberg's Addicted to Noise Perfect Sound Forever...
. - Unofficial Kobaïan–English Dictionary.