(514 words) In September 2017, the group “Bi-2” released the tenth album entitled “Event Horizon“. Needless to say, like all the work of the group, the compositions from the record turned out to be of a very acute social orientation. In some songs, the authors allowed themselves more straightforwardness, in others, on the contrary, much remained talentedly covered by a veil of metaphors. Interesting in this regard is the track “Black Sun”, on which a clip was released, released in the spring of 2018.
The name and text of the “Black Sun” raise a lot of questions, the video sequence of the clip helps to understand them, so I think it’s inextricable to consider them. For example, from the first seconds of the video, it becomes clear that the words “black sun” means a phenomenon of a solar eclipse rather than an occult symbol popular with neo-pagans and neo-Nazis (although, of course, it means the center of the universe, the beginning of being and some light of creativity, in its meaning it fits into the general essence of the text). Throughout the history of mankind in a wide variety of cultures and religious cults it is customary to treat eclipses of the sun with great attention. For example, in the “Tale of Igor’s Regiment”, this event predicts the prince’s failure to march on the Polovtsy. The interpretation of this phenomenon varies from case to case, but it always has a common motive: an omen of significant upcoming changes. This very motive sounds in the chorus of the song:
If the black sun explodes
Everything in this life will turn upside down
The familiar world will never return
He will not return
After a solar eclipse in the video we see a worried emperor and wife: they have anxiety on their faces, they refuse to eat at breakfast. At this time, a lame guest dressed in black confidently walks through the halls of the palace. In his figure the image of the devil is guessed, because it is not for nothing that Bulgakov’s Woland also relied on a cane. Having signed the papers (apparently having abdicated), the emperor leaves, his wife gives away her precious jewelry, the courtiers bow to the devil. The emperor in a strange fit begins to dance, and this is his last dance: going out to the people, he puts his head on the guillotine. In combination with the words, the whole picture as a whole acquires some political subtext:
Paranoia blossomed in crimson tones.
There was a war in a neighboring universe.
Unequal magnetic field
A death wave is approaching us.
In the neighborhood - war, in power - paranoia, and an omen, a warning, it seems to me, is addressed to ordinary people. “In the endless night ... the planets begin the last parade,” the authorities will spit out their last crazy dance, and the consequences of the policy pursued by it will entirely fall on the shoulders of the people, and “everyone will receive a“ happy ”ticket“. Those who really should be held accountable are just “dead gods” who “will not [hear] anyone and [will] help nobody”.
The reference to the events of 1917 is obvious, which, by the way, seems especially relevant for the moment of the release of the album, which was released, I recall, in the fall of 2017 - just in time for the celebration of 100 years of the October Revolution. To draw an analogy with today, I think, is not so difficult. The atmosphere prevailing in the country now: this is both the absurd actions of the authorities and the natural unrest - apparently, it is very similar to what could be observed a century ago. In an environment of growing social tension, the theme of emigration inevitably worsens, with which the guys from Bi-2 are familiar with firsthand, and in tune with which they recently released a joint work with Oxxxymiron’s “It's Time to Come Home”. Apparently, thinking about the fate of the homeland and realizing that it is impossible to really look beyond the horizon of events, the performers can only show their “Black Sun”, warning contemporaries and encouraging them to think about what is happening.
Ranger
