A tribute to the sleeve of Звезда по имени Солнце (“A Star Called the Sun”) — the last Кино album released in Viktor Tsoi’s lifetime.
Recorded 21–30 December 1988 in Valery Leontiev’s Moscow studio, released 29 August 1989 around Мелодия and the state record industry entirely — cassettes and reels sold at concerts, with no cover at all. Tsoi died on 15 August 1990, not quite a year later.
The eclipse arrived in 1993 with the first proper edition, vinyl on Moroz Records: Andrei Gusev built it from a schematic solar eclipse. It works as a logo of sorts now, turning up on shirts, stickers and memorabilia around the world — an emblem Tsoi never saw.