Kobaïan
| Kobaïan | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Christian Vander |
| Date | 1969 |
| Setting and usage | Lyrics for a musical group |
| Purpose | |
| Sources | Based on elements of Slavic and Germanic languages and the scat-yodeling vocal style of Leon Thomas |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
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 albums.
French drummer and composer Christian Vander 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 (his Kobaïan name is Zëbëhn Straïn dë Ğeuštaah) 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 and Germanic languages and in part on the scat-yodeling 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).
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