Magma Monday 13

Welcome to Just Another Magma Monday.  Once a week, your obd’t narrator and occasional blogger will trawl the expanses of his Magma collection to discuss something of Zeuhl-ish importance.  Whether it’s the studio albums, the best of the AKT archive releases, one of the sundry live DVDs, or a choice artifact from his ‘unofficial’ collection, one thing is for sure…for this writer, Magma iss de hundin!

This week, sit back and relax as we take a look at BBC 1974 Londres, part of the Akt series of archival live albums (and catalogue number Akt XIII, an appropriate choice for Magma Monday 13!)…



The Akt series of releases have gone a long way toward filling in holes in Magma’s catalogue, offering us snapshots of the band at varying points of their evolution.  At the very least they’ve been interesting looks at the band as it has grown and changed; at their best, they offer stunning insight into how their music has developed, grown and become even more keenly honed.  While it’s hard to pick any one Akt release over another in terms of saying ‘if you could only buy one, this is the one to buy,’ in the end for me perhaps the choice is simple…BBC 1974 Londres.

There are a number of reasons for this.

Firstly, this was a session recorded for BBC radio.  As a result, sound quality is absolutely stellar.  If you’ve ever had a chance, for example, to hear the BBC session from other prog bands of similar vintage, you know how incredibly well they were recorded.  This Magma release is no different.  It sounds if it were recorded yesterday, almost...crisp highs, labyrinthine lows, huge presence.  It is one of the best sounding Magma live albums in their catalogue.

Secondly, this recording shows a transitional band.  Stripped back into a sextet, there are no female vocals, with only Christian Vander and Klaus Blasquiz handling the vocal reins.  As a result, there tends to be far more focus on the music versus the vocals.  That’s not to say that this is Magma in instrumental format; however, if you’re not necessarily a fan of the Kobaian vocals and chanting delivery, this may be a good place to look, as there’s significantly less of it.  Jannick Top also takes part in these sessions, meaning that the bass work here is at its deepest and darkest best.  Top is an absolute beast on bass guitar, bringing a classical flair to the material, and while other bassists have more than adequately filled his shoes over the years, I think when most people think Magma bassist, they think Jannick Top.  Add in a pair of keyboardists (Michel Graillier and Gérard Bikialo, both contributing Rhodes electric piano) and a guitarist (Claude Olmos), and you’ve got a tight band that was ready to blow the doors off the BBC recording studio.

We open up with a fantastic rendition of Theusz Hamtaahk, the opening movement of the band’s first trilogy.  Keep in mind that this is a composition that has never seen a studio rendition…all versions we have at our disposal are live.  While others may be longer, none are quite like the version on BBC 1974 Londres.  Slower, less sprightly, this is a version that wrings as much primordial darkness out of the piece as possible, entirely fitting for a song whose title translates from Kobaian as ‘Time of Hatred.’  Quiet almost whispered vocals and gentle Rhodes set the plate for an almost impossibly slow bass part from Top, while Olmos adds glistening guitar chords over top.  Vocals are less chanted than they are intoned…one gets the feeling of an almost religious, sacred telling here.  After listening to so many different versions over the years, I find myself coming back to this, the (chronologically) first recording of this composition, as my favourite.  There are more moments in this recording that get me pointing to my speakers and smiling than in some band’s entire catalogue of releases…and did I mention that this song hasn’t ever been released in a studio recorded version?

The album closes with a 27-minute working of Köhntarkösz.  Not yet released when this session was recorded, this is an intense rendition of the piece that would form the core of Magma’s 1974 studio album.  Tight enough to bounce a coin off of, it’s an amazing showcase for Vander’s drumming, along with some wonderful and all too brief guitar contributions from Claude Olmos.  Top is of course all over this song, providing a heartbeat like pulse, or adding in long swelling slid notes that rise from the primordial murk before descending again.  All the framework for this song is in place, but individual instrumental parts differ from the final studio recordings.  There’s an awesome organ solo about 18 minutes in that sounds so much like 1971 Pink Floyd that it’s frightening.  It amazes, when one thinks about it…between 1973 ad 1974, Christian Vander and crew would write or release Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh, Theusz Hamtaahk, Kohntarkosz, Wurdah Itah, and much of the material that would make up Kohntarkosz Anteria.  I can’t imagine any band doing that today…though I suppose it would be possible.  It just seems like such a once in a lifetime kind of thing.

60 minutes, 2 songs.  It amazes me to this day that bands like Magma got the chance to record hour long session s for the BBC…can you even imagine the same thing happening today?  There actually was a time when major media outlets were willing to take a chance on something outside and artistic because it was outside and artistic.  Thankfully the tapes survived, because this is one of the most amazing sounding examples of a band at their early peak, playing as if their lives depended on getting every note out there as powerfully as possible. 

If you can purchase only one release from the Akt series of archival Magma performances…oh, you know the rest.  This is the one to get.  It really is.



Track Listing:
1 – Theusz Hamtaahk
2 – Kohntarkosz


Musicians:
Klaus Blasquiz: vocals, percussions
Claude Olmos: guitar
Michel Graillier: Fender piano, keyboards
Gérard Bikialo: Fender piano
Jannick Top: bass
Christian Vander: drums, vocals

Magma Monday 12

Welcome to Just Another Magma Monday.  Once a week, your obd’t narrator and occasional blogger will trawl the expanses of his Magma collection to discuss something of Zeuhl-ish importance.  Whether it’s the studio albums, the best of the AKT archive releases, one of the sundry live DVDs, or a choice artifact from his ‘unofficial’ collection, one thing is for sure…for this writer, Magma iss de hundin!

This week, sit back and relax as we take a look at Les Voix, a radically different interpretation of some of the classic Magma repertoire, recorded in 1992 in concert at the Jazz in the Bay Festival in Douarnenez, Brittany, France and released as the first volume in the band’s Akt series of archival releases…




“The music of Magma interpreted in acoustic performance by the band members of Offering - this was the idea behind Les Voix De Magma (The Voices of Magma), presented on the 2nd August 1992 at the Jazz in the Bay Festival at Douarnenez. Subtly re-arranged for 9 voices, double bass and keyboards, the themes underlying the Kobaian Universe here take on a new dimension. Full of power, captivating and lyrical, the absence of electricity takes nothing away from a repertoire which retains all its splendour. A fantastic success, but which at bottom is nothing amazing to those who understand that singing has always been the point of departure for Magma’s music.”

~~~~~From the Seventh Records page for this release


There are several things Magma fans know about Christian Vander…

1)       He loves jazz
2)       He loves acoustic music…keep in mind the heavy use of piano/Rhodes in Magma’s CV. (and yes, I know the Fender Rhodes is an electric instrument)
3)       He’s merged these two elements in the bands Offering and Welcome.

In 1992, Vander, ex-wife Stella, daughter Julie, a group of additional vocalists (including future Magma vocalist Isabelle Feuillebois) and Vander’s band Offering, came together for a show in Douarnenez under the name Les Voix De Magma (The Voices of Magma).  Recorded for this release, the material here recasts several Magma pieces in a far different light.

Gone is the heavy bass.  Gone are the interlocking Rhodes lines.  Present as always are the rich Magma vocals, augmented and built up in a nonet format.  Between this, the acoustic pianos, and much lighter drumming and percussion courtesy of Vander himself, the resultant recording feels like nothing less than a choral recital…something I am very familiar with considering my background in organised singing and classical choral work.  It’s actually a stunning reworking in a lot of ways…where Magma’s music can be bleak, oppressive, dark beyond belief, these vocal arrangements really take their cues from the translation of the word Zeuhl…’celestial.’  There is still heaviness here; that is something that I doubt can ever really change.  However, there is lightness, brightness…there are times that it sounds like choruses of angels singing from on high, and I mean that as the dearest compliment I can come up with.

We open up with an extract from Ëmëhntëht-Rê, at this point still pretty much incomplete, even though multiple sections of this piece had been released across several albums between the release of Üdü Wüdü, Attahk, and Live/Hhaï.  This short excerpt is essentially the opening few minutes of the suite, piano and acoustic bass setting a melodic motif under the mostly female vocals.  It builds slowly, as many of the best Magma compositions do, but this extract, bereft of the music that follows it in the suite, feels somewhat anticlimactic.  The piece that follows, ‘C'est Pour Nous,’ reminds me somewhat of both ‘Rinde’ (from Attahk) and portions of Kohntarkosz Anteria.  There are some wonderful piano parts on this piece, and Christian Vander offers up some fantastic male vocals that help to balance the more heavily female oriented chorus.  I’d be curious to see if the band/Vander might work up something more from this piece, or perhaps even simply come up with more of a band arrangement for it.  While I know that it seems Magma is far more busy with larger scale compositions these days, this is a piece that might well benefit from a fuller band arrangement as well.

Speaking of larger scale compositions…

Les Voix closes out with a pair of just that style piece.  The first is ‘Zëss,’ a piece initially released on the Akt album Bobino 1981.  At that time, it was an otherwise unreleased 30+ minute track in classic Magma style…slow, ominous building, subtle but unsettling conclusion.  While this acoustic/vocal arrangement is a good 13 minutes shorter (or more), it loses none of its ominous power.  In fact, the opening notes, long, deep bass tones sounding like the clarion call of something dark and oppressive heading toward the listener, are for me some of the heaviest, darkest moments in the entire Magma catalogue.  When vocals come in, about 1:30 into the piece, the resulting combination is incredibly impressive, reminding me of the opening of Ëmëhntëht-Rê or Köhntarkösz.  I’ll admit to not listening to the Bobino version very much (we’ll be discussing that album in the near future), but this is one I rate among Magma’s finest hours (OK, 17 to 30 minutes, is that better?).  While I know I would prefer to see the band craft something completely new for a future studio album, one kind of hopes that a proper full band studio recording of this composition can come to be before the end.

The final piece on Les Voix is an extract from Wurdah Ïtah.  Roughly 16 minutes of that 1972 album’s 39 minutes are performed here.  A simple but disarming piano line opens things up, vocals starting out light and very quiet, before huge piano chords break everything apart in the tensest way one might imagine.  There’s a wonderful balance between male and female vocals here, and when one considers the original album was recorded by a basic quartet (Christian Vander, Stella Vander, Klaus Blasquiz and Jannick Top), there was not much that necessarily needed to be done to translate this to this kind of format.  I like this version quite a bit, while fully admitting my preference for the original.  They are two different viewpoints on the same material, and while this was a successful translation, it simply does not touch me as deeply as the original (or other live, full band renditions) does.

The Les Voix style of performing Magma material is not limited to this one release; there have been other similar concerts in the past few years, and there is a live album from Japan (an official one) that pairs a 2005 live band performance of Kohntarkosz Anteria with a revamped Les Voix line up (Christian and Stella Vander, Isabelle Feuillebois, Antoine and Himiko Paganotti on vocals and Emmanuel Borghi on piano) for renditions of Theusz Hamtaahk, Wurdah Itah and M.D.K.  But this is the first, the original, and while perhaps not to everyone’s taste (and perhaps not even to the taste of some Magma fans), it provides an enlightening and interesting look at this material that is every bit as risky as the originals were.  I may not reach for this one every time I want some Magma, but it’s a more than worthy addition to my collection, one I’d certainly miss if it were not there.


Track Listing:
1 - Ëmëhntëht-Rê (announcement) 3:39
2 - C'est Pour Nous 7:55
3 - Zëss 17:18
4 - Wurdah Ïtah (extrait) 15:46
Total time: 44:38


Musicians:
Stella Vander: vocals
Addie Deat: vocals
Julie Vander: vocals
Bénédicte Ragu: vocals
Isabelle Feuillebois: vocals
Jean-Christophe Gamet: vocals
Alex Ferrand: vocals
Jean-François Deat: vocals
Pierre-Michel Sivadier: keyboards
Simon Goubert: piano, keyboards
Philippe Dardelle: bass
Christian Vander: vocals, piano, drums


Find out more:
http://www.seventhrecords.com/MAGMA/AKT1/cdlesvoixuk.html
http://www.seventhrecords.com/indexuk.html

Magma Monday (not quite) 11

Welcome to Just Another Magma Monday. Once a week, your obd’t narrator and occasional blogger will trawl the expanses of his Magma collection to discuss something of Zeuhl-ish importance. Whether it’s the studio albums, the best of the AKT archive releases, one of the sundry live DVDs, or a choice artifact from his ‘unofficial’ collection, one thing is for sure…for this writer, Magma iss de hundin!

This week, sit back and relax as we take a breather courtesy of someone's terminal inability to prep an article properly for posting today...




Yes, I admit it.

I forgot to get a piece ready for today.

It was a long weekend, what can I say?

As a way of making it up to you, I'll again dig into my photo archives and offer up a gallery of photos from Magma's NEARfest 2003 performance. Look at it this way...if you're going to see Magma in concert tonight in NYC, it'll be a nice way to get some excitement going!












More photos from this set can be found here:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v478/prjt2501/billsprogblog/magma_2003/

Magma Monday 10

Welcome to Just Another Magma Monday. Once a week, your obd’t narrator and occasional blogger will trawl the expanses of his Magma collection to discuss something of Zeuhl-ish importance. Whether it’s the studio albums, the best of the AKT archive releases, one of the sundry live DVDs, or a choice artifact from his ‘unofficial’ collection, one thing is for sure…for this writer, Magma iss de hundin!

This week, sit back and relax as we take a look at yr. Obd’t blogger’s second Magma concert, at NEARfest 2007, and listen to him whinge about missing both of this year’s US Magma concerts…



We’ll start off with the whinging…that way, there’s something positive and uplifting at the end for you to look forward to.

Magma is playing two shows in the US in the coming week and a half. The first is as part of this year’s Sonic Circuits week long festival in Washington DC. The show is at the French Consulate…specifically, La Maison Française. I was absolutely gobsmacked to find this out…realistically, I could drive to DC and make the show. And it’s at the Consulate…did I mention that?

Then I saw the date. 18 September. A Saturday. Which would be brilliant, right? It’s a weekend, and I don’t have to work the next day. The start align!

Except.

I have to work Saturdays.

And by the time I get out of work, get cleaned up, and get on the road to DC…there’s no way I could guarantee that I’d make it in time.

As if this were not bad enough, Magma announced a second date in the US to coincide with this DC date. This isn’t unusual, as I know they’ve done the same the last two times they came over to the US. As usual, this second date is scheduled for New York City. Now, I am not a fan of NYC, but for Magma, I’d make an exception.

Except.

The concert is scheduled for a Monday night.

And I have to work Mondays. Also Tuesdays.

And thus, yr. Obd’t blogger is not a very happy camper this week.

But, for those of you going…enjoy. Enjoy it twice as much, so I can enjoy it vicariously through you.

Now, having whinged your ears off (and potentially scaring off half my potential readership)…

2007 would mark my second opportunity to see Magma in concert. NEARfest 2007 was a strong festival, featuring Hawkwind, Pure Reason Revolution, Magenta, La Maschera di Cera, NeBeLNeST, Indukti, and IZZ, along with solo spotlights from Robert Rich (who did not play Somnium, much to my chagrin) and Bob Drake. While there was a lot to enjoy from all of these performers, Magma of course was my highlight. In the 4 years since the 2003 concert I’d gotten really into the band, going so far as to ‘infect’ a very good friend of mine, award winning micro-brewer Kevin Cosentino, whom I dragged up from North Carolina to partake in the goodness that is NEARfest and Magma. I had ulterior motives as well, I admit…he offered to brew up some tasty potables for all of us as well, so in my eyes it was a win win.

To make things even better, I had killer seats for the festival. 4 rows back in the orchestra section, meaning we’d be about 8 rows in total back from the stage. Considering that I was in the balcony at a twice as large theatre for Magma in 2003, I was pretty certain I’d have my head blown off by the intensity at such close range. And we’ll be honest here…I almost was.

In 2007 Magma’s second US concert was actually their first, as they played NYC the night before their NEARfest performance. As such, and through the wonders of technology, I…ahem…had the opportunity to hear what they were playing before they played NEARfest. One might think this a massive spoiler, but for me, it really didn’t matter…even though Magma doesn’t change up set lists across a tour (not usually at least), I’d be willing, if finances allowed and the band actually did it, to follow them on tour Grateful Dead style, just because the music is that intense.

How wrong I was this time.

To whit:

At the Europa Club in NYC on 23 June 2007, Magma offered up the following:

Ëmëhntëht-Rê
K.A. III
Kobaia
MDK (closing)

One hell of a set list, methinks. Only about 86 minutes, but hell, I’d pay full price for that, and walk out with my jaw agape and hanging. I saw the set list for the show, thought carefully about sharing it with my friends who were going to the show, and decided against it. I wanted them to be surprised, even though I with knowing looks let on that I kind of knew that they’d be playing.

And when the band took the stage, 20 odd feet from me, I smiled, knowing that I’d be hearing the tolling notes that led in Ëmëhntëht-Rê. Then Antoine Paganotti strode to his mic, stood there motionless for a few moments, and chanted out ‘Hamtai!’ and the band kicked into Köhntarkösz.

Remember above when I mentioned my jaw being agape and hanging?

Well, it was.

But for totally different reasons.

The rendition of Köhntarkösz the band presented was tight, heavy, dark, amazing. They ripped into it with a passion that was palpable. Bussonnet’s bass notes pulsed from the PA, the choristers’ (the Paganottis, Stella Vander and Isabelle Feuillebois) voices soared. Emmanuel Borghi’s keyboards carried the melodies, James MacGaw’s guitar added flourishes here and there, and newest member Benoît Alziary’s contributions on vibraphone added a new an interesting musical voice to the mix. Finally, of course, there was Christian Vander, center stage, directing and driving everything form his drum stool. I know there are numerous progressive music ensembles that are steered by their drummer (Univers Zero, Forgas Band…Dream Theater), but none I think rely on their drummer as much as Magma does. Musicians come and go…Vander is a constant. His musical vision is Magma. And from the opening moments of Köhntarkösz, we were hearing a drummer who still seemed to have something to prove.

As Köhntarkösz started, I turned to my friend Kevin, who looked at me with a mix of expressions on his face. First was awe…’I can’t believe I’m seeing Magma play live!’ The second was, I think, motivated by the look on my face, one that said ‘This isn’t what I expected them to be playing,’ to which he responded facially ‘But I thought you knew what they would be playing?’ By this point I had pretty much tossed out my expectations for the show…I’d already been shocked once, and it was time to go with the flow.

A huge wave of applause, well earned of course, marked the end of the first piece, and as tolling chords and almost celestial voices came from the stage, I smiled, ready to experience my first listen to the ‘completed’ Ëmëhntëht-Rê. I’ll admit at this point in the piece’s evolution there were still some occasional rough patches…some of the transitions still weren’t perfectly smooth, and apparently there were still some brief sections of material yet to be finished. What we got, however, was a solid and thoroughly enjoyable rendition of this piece, which merged all the various disparate pieces recorded and released over the years into one cohesive whole. I know by this point I’d heard a couple renditions of E-R as the band had been working things out on it, but this night’s take on the composition was pretty impressive all the way around. Again, the conclusion was met with a thunderous and well-deserved ovation.

As the audience died down, I was curious what the band would be playing next. A familiar drum/bass line brought another smile to my face, voices chanting out a memorable horn line, as Magma kicked into the lead track from their 1970 debut album, ‘Kobaïa.’ The vocal sections were as fluid and graceful as ever, with fantastic bass playing and wonderfully light drumming from Vander. An extended instrumental section, drums, bass and heavily fuzzed, distorted organ, took things in a fusion direction that really blew me away. As Vander began assaulting his hit, I felt myself being lifted up with the music. It was, to use a word I tend to over use, but which is wholly appropriate for this, intense. And heavy. There were several moments during this performance, in fact, when the band stripped back to an instrumental group, and I swore we were basically listening to One Shot with a different drummer, and it was something I’d not come to associate with this incarnation of Magma.

By the conclusion of ‘Kobaïa’ I knew we were better than 90 minutes into the performance, and there’d not be much more to be played. Chiming vibes and Rhodes electric piano were a hint, and with Christian Vander taking the center mic, my hopes for some CV lead vocals were more than met as Magma eased into the meditative and beautiful ‘Lïhns.’ I’m trying to remember who took the drum stool with Vander out on vocals, and sadly I just can’t recall. I do know it was a lovely and tranquil way to close out the weekend’s festivities, gentle music to ease the audience out of concert mode. The line for signatures would be long, but I was patient, tho it gave me time to figure out just what I was going to ask to have signed, as I knew there’d be limitations.

You’ve seen the result in the photo accompanying the Mythes et Legendes III DVD review.

And as we drove away from Lehigh University, I was satisfied that the missed chance to meet the band at NEARfest 2003 was rectified.


Set List:
Köhntarkösz
Ëmëhntëht-Rê
- Part 1
- Part 2
- Part 3
Kobaïa
Lïhns


Musicians at NEARfest 2007:
Christian Vander - Drums, Vocals
Philippe Bussonnet - Bass
James MacGaw - Guitar
Emmanuel Borghi - Keyboards
Benoit Alziary - Vibraphone
Stella Vander - Voice
Isabelle Feuillebois - Voice
Antoine Paganotti - Voice
Himiko Paganotti - Voice

Magma Monday 9

Welcome to Just Another Magma Monday. Once a week, your obd’t narrator and occasional blogger will trawl the expanses of his Magma collection to discuss something of Zeuhl-ish importance. Whether it’s the studio albums, the best of the AKT archive releases, one of the sundry live DVDs, or a choice artifact from his ‘unofficial’ collection, one thing is for sure…for this writer, Magma iss de hundin!

This week, sit back and relax as we take a look at something special and a little unique…I won’t reveal it in these opening paragraphs, so please read on to find out what our focus is this week.



So, I admit that I can get out of the loop somewhat.

Case in point:

You may or may not know that above and beyond having a large collection of albums and CDs, I was once a collector of what are known in the trade as RoIO’s…Recordings of Indeterminate Origin. Lots of people call these pirate recordings, which is a misnomer as they aren’t copied from anything that was officially released. Some people call them bootlegs, which I tend to feel still refers to the same thing…a bootleg copy of an official release. In any event, these are concert recordings, often stealth taped, though in some cases bands will either allow board feeds, or a board tape will leak due to a less than honourable person working the recording or mixing desk. Currently sitting on one of the hard drives in my PC are 72 separate Magma concert recordings, dating back to 1970 and all the way up through 2008 or so. Not a large collection, by any stretch of the imagination, but a decent one.

What does this have to do with being out of the loop?

Well, read on.

Last night I was reading through the Kohntarkosz blog (I’ll post a link at the bottom)…something I’ve not had much chance to do recently. As I read back, unto June posts, I came across something that caused my eyes to bug out just a touch. The headline read as follows:

Now on (website name redacted) - Magma - The KA Rehearsals – 1973

*insert picture of Yr. Obd’t Blogger’s eyes bugging out*

Now, I knew that the KA material dated back that far…it was, after all, intended as the first movement in Magma’s second trilogy, leading into Köhntarkösz and finally into Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê. And while I am not surprised that excerpts from the demos and studio sessions exist (after all the same exists for Wurdah Itah and Mekanik Destruktiw Kommanndoh), I’d not necessarily heard of them existing. So finding out that they do, and are now out and about in the wild, was enough of a surprise to me to merit a little bit of sleepless night until I could get them…ahem…acquired.

The fact that I am writing about them here obviously should infer that I do have a copy now.

There’s a lot of music here that will sound incredibly familiar. Tracks 1 and 3 feature a good bit of the opening sections of the first movement of KA, and the melodies, rhythms and vocal arrangements already sound very well formed, to the point that sections that featured solo male vocals do so here too. The biggest difference, I think, is the use of organ versus just piano or Fender Rhodes. As pointed out elsewhere, Magma stopped using organ sometime in 1973, but it was still part of their current battery of instruments. I don’t know that I’d ever really accept organ in Magma just because it is such an alien instrument to the sound I am familiar with, but it does add a fullness and richness that might have otherwise been somewhat missing. We then shift into about a minute of the opening to the second movement, and here the organ makes far more sense. This is massive sounding, dark and eerie and almost evil. There’s a presence in this piece that the final studio release simply cannot match. We get 2 takes of this section, the longest lasting just under 90 seconds, but again, all the familiar elements are here.

‘Les Musiciens du Bord du Monde’ follows, excerpted from the second movement of KA as well. This is the longer vocal section with piano backing. Again I am amazed at how much of this was already formed and ready 37 years ago. I do wonder why we couldn’t have seen it released then…

It seems an odd point, this, to have a break in things. But we’re moving into a second section of the set of demos, and it makes sense. For the first 7 tracks (5 musical, 2 studio chatter), bass was handled by a gentleman named JP Lambert. By the time we get to ‘Om Zanka,’ a more familiar name took over the bass chair in Magma…a guy named Jannick Top. While I can’t complain whatsoever about Lambert’s bass playing, the difference between him and Top is like that of night and day.

‘Om Zanka’ opens the third movement of KA. Rhodes chimes away, and Top’s bass flows from the speakers like some slithering primordial beast. This is a brilliant sounding excerpt (a version of this piece would appear on Magma’s Inedits album from 1977 with Bernard Paganotti on bass) with great Vander drumming and quiet vocals. Again, melodies are in place, arrangements are already pieced together, and really, it seems to have only been a matter of time before the whole piece could have been assembled. Much like KA I and the intro to KA II, we get two takes of this track, showing slight differences in positioning of cymbals, differences in how bass parts were played, et cetera, around the finalised structure.

The next major excerpt on this set of demos is ‘Gamma Anteria + Alleluia,’ nearly 8 minutes of the third movement of KA leading toward the end of the suite. The organ parts are an interesting addition as they have been throughout this set of demos, and again we are seeing a piece that is so very close to what Vander finally did when releasing KA in 2004. The vocal lines are markedly different, yet retain enough familiarity to see where they were eventually going to lead. Much like ‘Om Zanka,’ a version of ‘Gamma Anteria’ was released long before the whole suite was finished; it too was included in 1977’s Inedits album, this time with JP Lambert playing bass. This is one of the more enlightening pieces on this set, simply because of the differences wrapped around the familiar core. Like most of the recordings here with Top on bass, sound quality is very, very good.

The set is closed out with 2 takes on the ‘Alleluia’ section of Movement III, totaling just under 2:30. This is followed by a 12-minute take on Movement II, made up of ‘KA II’ and ‘Les Musiciens du Bord du Monde.’ This is perhaps the most telling section of this set of demos, as we have what is essentially a complete movement here to compare to the final studio version. I love the stately manner and grace of the 2004 rendition, while being unable to deny the sheer energy and power of this 30+ year earlier version.

For someone like me, a fairly new (in the grand scheme of things) Magma fan, things like this are amazing for the insight they give into the creation of this music. They also make me a little sad, knowing how close we came to seeing this album out over 30 years previous. Would it have impressed as much then? It’s so hard to say. I’d like to think it would have, but at the same time, part of the power of KA is the fact that it was ‘new’ Magma released 20 years after their previous studio album. New material or not, it was proof positive that the band remained vital and desiring of new success, and that’s something we’d never have gotten had the album been finished in 1973. A bit of a catch-22, really…

You’ll notice that I’ve redacted the name of the website these are on. It’s easy enough to find, as I’ve provided all the clues you need to find them yourself. I won’t entertain requests for them; I have said that this blog will not have downloads or share out music, and I won’t be starting here. However, they are out there, and as such I feel they are fair game to discuss. Find them at your own discretion.


KA (1973) - 01 - KA I (9:16)
KA (1973) - 02 - Discussion (2:12)
KA (1973) - 03 - KA I (9:23)
KA (1973) - 04 - KA II (Intro) (1:03)
KA (1973) - 05 - Discussion (0:55)
KA (1973) - 06 - KA II (Intro) (1:28)
KA (1973) - 07 - Les Musiciens du Bord du Monde (8:36)
KA (1973) - 08 - Om Zanka (3:27)
KA (1973) - 09 - Transition (0:17)
KA (1973) - 10 - Om Zanka (2:45)
KA (1973) - 11 - Transition (1:39)
KA (1973) - 12 - Gamma Anteria + Alleluia (7:49)
KA (1973) - 13 - Discussion (0:05)
KA (1973) - 14 - Alleluia (0:29)
KA (1973) - 15 - Alleluia (1:57)
KA (1973) - 16 - KA II (6:31)
KA (1973) - 17 - Les Musiciens du Bord du Monde (6:04)

Total : 1:03:56


Kohntarkosz is, for me, the best English language source for Magma and Zeuhl info. If you’ve got me bookmarked or subscribed to, you should do the same for Marc’s blog! Find it here:

http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com/

Magma Monday 8

Welcome to Just Another Magma Monday. Once a week, your obd’t narrator and occasional blogger will trawl the expanses of his Magma collection to discuss something of Zeuhl-ish importance. Whether it’s the studio albums, the best of the AKT archive releases, one of the sundry live DVDs, or a choice artifact from his ‘unofficial’ collection, one thing is for sure…for this writer, Magma iss de hundin!

This week, sit back and relax as we take a look at Epok III, the third DVD volume of the Mythes Et Legendes series, filmed live at Le Triton in Paris France between 24 and 28 May 2005.



Back on 2 August I discussed Epok II, the Magma DVD that featured two thirds of the Theusz Hamtaahk trilogy, along with some other selected pieces featuring monster bassist Jannick Top. This week we’re returning to the Mythes Et Legendes DVD series to take a look at volume III. This one features one of the other major guest musicians present for these four weeks of filming and recording, one Benoit Widermann. Widermann joined the band in 1975 and was first featured on the band’s first full length live album, Live/Hhaï. He remained with the band for the albums Attahk, Retrospectiw I-II, Retrospectiw III and Merci.

Epok III features material based around the second trilogy of Magma albums (Köhntarkösz, Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê and K.A.)…specifically, the first two albums listed there. Of course, when this show was recorded, Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê had yet to be completed and fully realised…instead we mostly get the bits that would be strewn across Üdü Wüdü and Attahk.

But first, we open with Köhntarkösz.

This is one of my favourite versions of this piece. I love the tension as everyone stands on stage, silent. Vander holds his sticks firmly in hand, and the band waits, stick still. Antoine Paganotti moves around his mic stand, smiling a little bit, before his face takes on a look of deadly seriousness. He grasps the mic, forcefully chants out the Kobaian word ‘Hamtai!’ and the band explodes. To my eyes there is an improvement of video from Epok II, as the stage seems brighter, the camera shots utilise a lot more cross fading, and angles seem a bit more inspired to my eyes. The band really tears into the meat of this piece, which took up the vast majority of Köhntarkösz (the remaining 9 and a half minutes of that album would be dedicated to a piece by Vander invoking John Coltrane, and a Jannick Top piece titled ‘Ork Alarm.’). Can I pick a favourite bit! Not likely! Vocals are brilliant, the bass work is sublime, Vander’s drumming is as precise as ever, and Widemann’s synth additions are spot on. It’s just a great rendition all the way around.

Christian steps out from behind the kit for a gorgeous rendering of ‘Lihns,’ a beautiful ballad with hand percussion, pulsing bass, and warm, almost spiritual singing. Vander’s voice is perfect for this style of song, and I love hearing him singing with the rest of the vocalists quietly chanting behind him. Wideman’s synth playing is quiet and restrained (there’s some great Moog on this one!), and James MacGaw adds to and doubles Widemann’s melodic lines. At just under 7 minutes, it’s a wonderful breather after the mania of Köhntarkösz, easing things back before the band kicks into full gear again.

Until Magma released Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê at the end of 2009, most of what we knew of the piece was fragmentary. Most of us were familiar with the extract released on the CD issue of Üdü Wüdü. We’d heard that the full work included bits like ‘Zombies,’ ‘Hhaï’ (which obviously featured on the band’s live album that shared the same name) and ‘Rindoh’ (which was released on 1979’s Attahk as ‘Rindë (Eastern Song’). As for the rest? No real clue. The suite that Magma assembled for these concerts gave us a bit of a clue what the album as a whole might sound like, years before actually assembling it. Totaling around 34 minutes, it was a bit of an early hinting of what Vander was working on for the next major Magma album. Heavy on synth and bass, these pieces pulled together really help to make sense of the bits and pieces spread across the alter day Magma albums, and makes one wish that there had been some way for this material to be properly handled from the get go.

Two more pieces close out this DVD. The first of these is ‘Nono,’ another track excerpted from 1979’s Attahk album. Opening with an amazingly fluid and elastic bass line from Phillippe ‘Bubu’ Bussonnet and almost strident, but quiet Antoine Paganotti vocals, this is a track that combines the jazz and spiritual sides of Vander’s musical loves. The first time I heard this, I was somewhat less than impressed. The second time, layers opened. By the third time I played it (off the Attahk album) I started wondering what a whole album of material like this might sound. Now I absolutely love it. I love how it slowly builds in intensity. I love the bass line. I love the vocals. There’s not a single thing about it I don’t like. Is it typical Magma? Probably not. But it’s amazing, and it has their name stamped all over it. The shots showing Paganotti’s singing show just how much he put into his work with the band; it continues to be a shame that he is no longer with Magma.

Epok III ends with ‘The Last Seven Minutes.’ On Attahk it lasted 7 minutes. Here we get 11 minutes 13 seconds of it. It does make me wonder why they didn’t retitle it for the DVD release to ‘The Last Eleven Minutes,’ but that might be confusing. In any event, this is an intense jazz/fusion workout done Zeuhl style, with Kobaian lyrics and vocals laid over top. It’s one of the faster pieces in Magma’s catalogue, and it’s one that can’t help but get the heart pulsing just a bit faster. It’s perhaps the only appropriate piece to close out this volume of the series.

A lot of times, when I need a serious kick in the arse musically, this is what I reach for. There’s moments of sublime pastoral beauty, and moments of fiery intense music. All sides of Magma’s main sequence playing are on fine display here, and if you had to pick one Magma DVD to check out for a first exposure to them live, this is the one you should pick. And I don’t say that lightly. More than essential…more like pretty much required.


Track Listing:
Köhntarkösz
Lihns
Ëmëhntëht-Rê part 1
Rindoh
Ëmëhntëht-Rê part II
Hhaï
Zombies
Nono
The Last Seven Minutes


Bonus Material
The Last Seven Minutes (from inside the drum kit): a drums only cut of this track, featuring only cameras locked on Chrisitian Vander.


Band Members:
Stella Vander – chant, percussion
Antoine Paganotti – chant
Isabelle Feuillebois – chant
Himiko Paganotti – chant
James MacGaw – guitar, chant
Frederic d’Oelsnitz – Rhodes, clavier
Emmanuel Borghi – Rhodes, clavier
Phillippe Bussonnet – bass, piccolo bass
Benoit Widemann – bass
Christian Vander – drums

Magma Monday 7

Welcome to Just Another Magma Monday. Once a week, your obd’t narrator and occasional blogger will trawl the expanses of his Magma collection to discuss something of Zeuhl-ish importance. Whether it’s the studio albums, the best of the AKT archive releases, one of the sundry live DVDs, or a choice artifact from his ‘unofficial’ collection, one thing is for sure…for this writer, Magma iss de hundin!

This week, sit back and relax as we take a look at Kohntarkosz Anteria, better known as K.A., which was on its release in 2004 the band’s first full length album release in 20 years.



Getting to hear an album before it’s released isn’t really that odd anymore. Between unofficial leaks, official leaks, bands posting their entire album streaming on their websites in order to try and limit the impact of illegal downloading, it’s usually a pretty fair thing to say that if you want to hear something before it’s actually out on disc, you can. It was not always thus, and while I can’t say for certain that Any Magma album has ever leaked out, I don’t believe it to be the case.

That said, I did hear Kohntarkosz Anteria before it actually came out on disc.

Then again, a lot of people had.

Magma does something that a lot of bands seem to have pretty much stopped doing these days…playing out new material before it is actually released. It used to be that a band would go on tour ahead of releasing an album, and play a few selections from it anyway. In some cases, bands would extensively road test material before committing it to album. Of course, often what got released was not quite the same as what they had played out, but that was part of the idea…road testing new material to get audience reactions, to find out what worked and what didn’t. King Crimson did it, Pink Floyd did it, even bands like Rush did it.

And starting in 2002, Magma did it, performing their soon to be recorded/released album Kohntarkosz Anteria in concert.

Now, Kohntarkosz Anteria is not (and was not) exactly new material. Much of this album was written between 1973 and 1974 as an intended prequel to the main work on Kohntarkosz (1974), and this much is obvious in how the music sounds. There is new material fitted around this structure, bridging things and completing sections that may have been left slightly unfinished, but as a whole, this was music that was intended to be released as part of what one might call the ‘main sequence’ of Magma albums, if in fact such a thing existed.

But I digress, if only for a moment.

With Kohntarkosz Anteria not coming out until 2004, the band began airing out the material in concert in January/February of 2002, in a set that also included Köhntarkösz, Flöë Ëssi, Ëktah, Lïrïk Necronomicus Kanht and Ballet Slave, a.k.a. Ballet Turc or Ballet Egyptien. While I can’t say how those concerts were, I can state that looking at those setlists makes me green with envy, especially as the only…ahem…alternate recordings I have heard from the 2002 touring cycle feature a more abridged set (and a different set, actually, with Köhntarkösz, K.A., an excerpt of MDK, and Ballet Slave). I do know how they sounded in 2003, however, because I was at the concert in Trenton NJ at NEARfest, which I wrote about several weeks ago.

I was under the impression, like so many, that Kohntarkosz Anteria would be out that year. And so I waited patiently. This would be the first new Magma album to come out since my discovery of the band, since finding out how much I loved the music, and I was excited beyond believe. The wait dragged on, and the album didn’t hit shelves until 2004. You can believe I snapped it up as quickly as I could.

In prog circles, much is made of the question ‘I’ve never listened to Magma before…what album should I get to try them out?’ So very often the choice seems to be their 1976 live album Live/Hhaï. It is a good choice; the band shone and shines live, and the renditions on this live release are very good. But this Magma was a different band from the band in the studio, with less choral vocals and added violin; while I love Live/Hhaï, I don’t think it the best way to go, as odd as that sounds. Most often, I’ll recommend Kohntarkosz Anteria, not because it was my first (since really it wasn’t my first Magma album, just the first new one for me) but because I find it to be incredibly accessible and easy to listen to. The vocals are lush, the music tight and intense, with less stridency and Orff-ian bombast than some people seem to associate with Magma.

The first movement of Kohntarkosz Anteria is almost subtle, with quiet vocals and soundscapes leading into the kind of music Magma is known for. There are copious quantities of piano, bass and drums driving the music forward, something that really sets the band apart from its contemporaries just from a musical standpoint. Magma has always featured some monster bassists (Jannick Top, Bernard Paganotti, Guy Delacroix), and the latest addition to this roster is Philippe ‘Bubu’ Bussonet. Listening to him play is a revelation; I think if I were in his shoes I’d be shaking at the history I was stepping into, but he makes the position his own. His playing is fluid, effortless, incredibly lyrical, and amazingly powerful. I’d probably enjoy listening to just his bass lines off these recordings. He locks in incredibly well with Christian Vander. Emmanuel Borghi and Frédéric d'Oelsnitz handle the piano and Fender Rhodes, and again, their playing is just right.

Electric guitar has never been a huge featuring instrument in Magma’s sound; it’s one reason they sound so little like other bands. James Mac Gaw does his best to change this, however. He adds little flourishes here and there, and even through the very dense mix, his playing is noticeable and an important addition to the compositions. It was a surprise to me to hear him so present in the mix live, and I was glad to hear him just as much on album.

The one thing Magma is most known for, of course, is their vocals. It’s the one element that seems to drive people away in droves. We’ll even exclude the lyrics in Kobaian. There is something about the choral vocals, often very quickly delivered in chant, which seems to be impossible for some people to get past. It’s a shame, because the vocals are actually very intricately arranged and impeccably performed; I have a background in choral music, and I can state with 100% certainty that it’s incredibly difficult to perform this kind of material with the clarity and accuracy that Stella Vander, Himiko Paganotti, Isabelle Feuillebois and Antoine Paganotti do. Theirs is perhaps the hardest job in Magma, and they handle (handled, as Himiko and Antoine are no longer in the band) it well.

The first movement of Kohntarkosz Anteria, as I had begun before my digression, is very typical Magma in the end. Movement II opens with a slight choral flourish before a single female voice takes the lead over a rolling bass, trilling bass line. Vocals build in intensity with every iteration, tension building through repetition. The vocals take on a bit of a conversational tone, as a male voice takes the lead, followed by the same choral explosions. There are fairly extensive instrumental sections as well, offering a rest for the singers, and allowing the band to stretch out. Mac Gaw’s guitar solo at 4:30 is a bit of a surprise, but a welcome one indeed. While he gets far more opportunity to stretch out in the offshoot project One Shot, I simply can’t imagine this track without his soloing and ensemble playing. As for Christian Vander’s drumming, which I have not as yet mentioned…what can I say? Note for note, stroke for stroke, I know he’s in my top five favourite drummers in rock ever, and some days I’m pretty sure he tops the list. He can play off time better than anyone, he grooves, he swings, and I feel sorry for his drums, which must take a beating unlike any other.

Kohntarkosz Anteria closes out with some of the most intense material the band has ever released, merging the spiritual side that Christian Vander has always loved with the darkly classical material the band has always seemed to gravitate toward. The "Halleluja!" section is amazing to hear, while the instrumental workout that opens the third movement rivals the best of the band’s legendary C.V. (that’s curriculum vitae, not Christian Vander). The movement ends mysteriously, as a single male voice intones several phrases as the music dies away to nothing.

It actually took some looking around to understand a bit of the thematic underpinnings of this album as it fits into the band’s mythos. Magma is a band with a deeply ingrained mythos and story, and Kohntarkosz Anteria is no exception. Over 30 years on, it is the opening movement of the band’s second trilogy, which continued with 1974’s Kohntarkosz and closed with last year’s Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê. Together, those three albums are every bit the equal of Magma’s Theusz Hamtaahk trilogy, perhaps in my mind even a little stronger, and all the more impressive for just how long it took for all the material to finally be completed and recorded. In a catalogue filled with brilliant albums, Kohntarkosz Anteria is a high water mark, and one I still pull out at least weekly to explore again.


Track Listing:
1. "K.A I" – 11:12
2. "K.A II" – 15:53
3. "K.A III" – 21:43

Musicians:
Christian Vander - Drums, Vocals, Percussion
James Mac Gaw - Guitars
Emmanuel Borghi - Piano, Fender Rhodes
Frédéric d'Oelsnitz - Fender Rhodes
Philippe Bussonet - Bass guitar
Stella Vander - Vocals, Percussion
Antoine Paganotti - Vocals
Himiko Paganotti - Vocals
Isabelle Feuillebois - Vocals

Magma Monday 6.5

Welcome to Just Another Magma Monday. Once a week, your obd’t narrator and occasional blogger will trawl the expanses of his Magma collection to discuss something of Zeuhl-ish importance. Whether it’s the studio albums, the best of the AKT archive releases, one of the sundry live DVDs, or a choice artifact from his ‘unofficial’ collection, one thing is for sure…for this writer, Magma iss de hundin!

This week, sit back and relax as we take a breather :-)



Hello there, Constant Reader.

Yr. obd't blogger was away much of the weekend taking care of personal matters, and as a result did not find much time to compose this week's installment of Magma Monday. He was not very prepared in advance like he likes to be.

As a result, I fear I have no new installment for this week.

I will make it up next week.

In the interim, as a bit of a breather, let me offer you this...a small selection of photographs taken at NEARfest 2007 by yours truly. I hope they'll tide you over until next week. You can click on the photos to see larger versions, and a link to the full gallery is available below.

Thanks, and regular programming resumes soon!

~~~~~//\\~~~~~

There are more Magma NEARfest 2007 photos available for your viewing HERE.

(all photos above: Copyright 2007 Bill Knispel.)

Magma Monday 6

Welcome to Just Another Magma Monday. Once a week, your obd’t narrator and occasional blogger will trawl the expanses of his Magma collection to discuss something of Zeuhl-ish importance. Whether it’s the studio albums, the best of the AKT archive releases, one of the sundry live DVDs, or a choice artifact from his ‘unofficial’ collection, one thing is for sure…for this writer, Magma iss de hundin!

This week, sit back and relax as we take a look at Mythes Et Legendes Epok II, the second DVD in a series of four presenting the then-current Magma line-up performing a historical cross section of their catalogue over a 4 week stretch in Paris France.


I’ve spent a decent bit of time so far discussing Magma albums, as well as my first Magma concert and my discovery and subsequent developing fandom for the band and their music. Today I am planning on writing about the series of Magma DVDs that have been released under the omnibus title Mythes Et Legendes. These DVDs are not the first time Christian Vander has used this title for a release…back in 1985 Seventh Records issued an album by the same name intended as a sort of crash course in the themes of Magma in the 1970s. Fortunately, the DVDs are not such a constricted crash course…over an 8 hour stretch, viewers are treated to some excellent performances of material dating back to the band’s first studio efforts in 1970 through K.A., the then most recent studio album.

This first look at Mythes Et Legendes will see is starting somewhere in the middle…Epok II, which covers 2/3 of the Theusz Hamtaahk trilogy, along with a trio of other tracks featuring a guest appearance from Jannick Top, quite possibly Magma’s other most recognisable (former) member.

A bit of back story:

When Magma came back for their second NEARfest performance, I swore to myself that I’d get to meet them and get autographs. Knowing that generally speaking it’s considered polite to limit the number of items you request getting signed from a headliner, I decided on my programme and one of my two Mythes DVDs. After deliberating, I finally picked Epok II, as that one featured two of the three Theusz Hamtaahk suites. I’d hoped that everyone would sign it, but in the end only Christian did. He more than made up for the rest of the band, as a good quarter of the front cover is filled with his autograph and associated images.

When I moved about 6 months ago, I packed the DVD away for safe keeping. As I started unpacking, I couldn’t find it. I got frantic…I could replace the DVD, of course, but there’s no way I could replace the signature unless I saw the band live again. After weeks of looking, and frantic calls to the people who helped me move, I came to the conclusion it was lost…either in transit or left behind where I used to live, and as that place had been sold, well and truly long gone.

A few weeks back, as I went looking for other stuff, I came across a box I’d not looked in before.

You can, I am sure, guess the rest of the story.

Now that we’ve moved past the obligatory personal reminiscence, let’s look at the DVD.

This concert, like the others in this series, was filmed at Le Triton, a club in Paris France. From what I can see, the club is tiny…the band is tightly packed on stage. Yet Le Triton gets in some of the most amazing talent year after year. Magma’s done a number of residencies here, with the biggest one being the four week stand that resulted in these DVDs. Each week was dedicated to a single period of the band’s career…

Epok I: Magma/Kobaia, 1001 Degrees Centigrades
Epok II: Wurdah Itah, MDK, Udu Wudu
Epok III: Üdü Wüdü, Kohntarkosz, Attahk
Epok IV: K.A., Zess, Merci

These are obviously pretty general breakdowns, but you get the gist. During the second week of residency, Magma played a static setlist that drew majorly from the last 2/3 of the Theusz Hamtaahk trilogy. For me, these performances are pretty damned definitive…I know there is much to be said for the energy of youth, but these particular renditions are stately, massive, and to my ears well nigh perfect. The recording quality is so clear and expansive…bass notes roar and rumble from the speakers, while the choral vocals that are such a part of Magma’s identifiable sound are as defined and crisp as you can imagine. Behind it all, Christian Vander puts on a masterclass of jazz-inflected drumming, every bit the monster drummer he has always been. I still get chills every time I hear the Rhodes intro to MDK on this DVD, and there are moments on Wurdah Itah where Vander seems fully in trance as he plays.

One of the downers on a smaller stage is that you are somewhat limited in angles. There are some nice shots that are obscured by part of a monitor or bit of equipment, but this is countered by long shots that are given plenty of screen time. This is also a straight concert video…there are no overlays of projections or treatments to make things arty. If you want to see Magma playing live, well, that’s just what you get here. Nothing more and certainly nothing less.

As mentioned, the majority of this DVD is dedicated to Wurdah Itah and Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh, the concluding movements of the band’s first trilogy. The remainder of offers a reunion of sorts with bassist Jannick Top, who played with the band from 1973 (MDK) through 1976 (Epok IIÜdü Wüdü). For many people, Top is ‘the’ bassist from Magma, even though so many others have had a hand in crafting the Magma bass sound over the years. Since leaving the band, Top’s been very active with a number of other musical projects, including Space, Vander/Top, and Infernal Machine. He’s also been very successful as a producer, working with artists like Bonnie Tyler, Eurythmics, Ray Charles and Céline Dion (and really, did you ever think you’d see her name mentioned in a post on my blog?).

Top joins the band on stage for Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh, replacing Philippe Bussonnet (the band’s current bassist). While I don’t believe that Top necessarily adds anything that Bussonnet lacks, it is a joy to see Vander and Top sharing the stage on the piece that is perhaps Magma’s hallmark composition. After a brief break, Top then opens his spotlight for this set with a rendition of Bach’s ‘Suite pour Violoncello No. 3 (BWV 1009),’ followed by a second bass piece, ‘Quadrivium.’ Both are enjoyable, if somewhat slight, performances, but they set the stage for the final major work on this release…Top’s epic ‘De Futura.’ Originally released on Üdü Wüdü, his final album with the band, the performance here is 21 minutes of bass and synthesizer madness. This take feels slightly more ponderous than the original studio album take, and while at first I didn’t find it as much to my enjoyment, now I find it more the equal of that original version. There’s a menace here that is almost palpable and physical in its presence, and having both Top and Bussonnet on stage was a great touch, as it reminded of the Air Bass and Earth bass of the Attahk era.

While I have yet to pick up any volumes of this series beyond II and III (believe me, they are on my list, but sometimes budgets have to be balanced toward non-essentials…you know, things like car insurance and rent rather than music), I have to believe that the remaining DVDs are every bit as enjoyable as the ones I have. Really, it’s very much like being able to see a Magma concert any time I want, with performances that are pretty close to definitive. If you love Magma like I do, yet are lacking these DVDs, I’d almost say you should turn in your fan card, because these are an essential part of any Zeuhl collection.



Track Listing:
Ẁurdah Ïtah 48:58
Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh 42:52
Suite pour Violoncello No. 3, BWV 1009 2:19
Quadrivium 3:55
De Futura 21:08

Band Members:
Stella Vander – chant, percussion
Antoine Paganotti – chant
Isabelle Feuillebois – chant
Himiko Paganotti – chant
James MacGaw – guitar, chant
Frederic d’Oelsnitz – Rhodes, clavier
Emmanuel Borghi – Rhodes, clavier
Phillippe Bussonnet – bass, piccolo bass
Jannick Top – bass
Christian Vander - drums

(Photograph: yr. obd't blogger's copy of Epok II, signed by Christian Vander)

Magma Monday 5

Welcome to Just Another Magma Monday. Once a week, your obd’t narrator and occasional blogger will trawl the expanses of his Magma collection to discuss something of Zeuhl-ish importance. Whether it’s the studio albums, the best of the AKT archive releases, one of the sundry live DVDs, or a choice artifact from his ‘unofficial’ collection, one thing is for sure…for this writer, Magma iss de hundin!

This week, sit back and relax as we take a look at Archiẁ I & II, the double disc set of rare and unreleased material included in the 2008 boxed set Studio Zünd: 40 Ans d'Evolution.


2008 saw the release of Studio Zünd, Magma’s huge career spanning retrospective covering 40 years of the band’s music. After the troubles and tribulations I went through finally deciding to pick up Theusz Hamtaahk, I wasn’t going to allow myself a second lengthy and arduous process in deciding to purchase this boxed set; I picked it up the first day of NEARfest 2009.

The frustrating thing for me, having purchased the odd Magma album here and there, was this: Studio Zünd is less a ‘traditional’ boxed set and more a one-stop shop for buying Magma Studio albums, as every studio release up through Kohntarkosz Anteria is re-released on this set. By this point in my fandom, I’d already purchased a bunch of their studio albums separately, which meant I was going to have a decent sized batch of duplicate releases. I could easily hand over a bunch of them to some nouveau Magma listener as a starter set, and while that’s a lovely idea and kind and generous, I’d spent a decent bit of cash for them (Magma albums are not inexpensive!), and there was no way honestly I was going to do that. So they sit next to the boxed set, making my collection look that much bigger.

I had it better than many people, however, as there were still Magma studio albums I didn’t have. That made buying the boxed set an easier thing for me. For many, if not most, Magma aficionados, the entire set save Archiẁ I & II would be duplicates, essentially asking those fans to buy the entire catalogue all over again (and with none of the discs seeing any remastering or anything) simply for 2 discs of material that would not be released separately. I can see that being an entirely difficult position to be placed in, and I don’t see any easy way out that would satisfy both sides of the situation. Certainly a separate release of the archive material would be welcomed, but it would have totally hamstrung sales of the boxed set. It’s a catch-22 situation all the way around.

But I’m not here today to discuss the politics of this release; I’m here to talk about Archiẁ I & II. So let’s get down to business.

Archiẁ I & II compiles 17 tracks of unreleased Magma music, with the vast majority of it coming from 1970. Magma in 1970 was a far different band from the one that stormed the stage in all black like some Orff-inspired rock orchestra…they were jazzier, horn driven, at times a lighter band by far from the one we all know and (some of us) love. We start off on Archiẁ I with 7 tracks from a 1970 French film 24 heures seulement. My Google-Fu is apparently weak, as I can’t find any good info about the movie…well, that and it seems most all of the hits I get when I search for “24 heures seulement” link to articles about the release of the sound track on Studio Zünd (shameless bit: I’m linked to on page 3 of the search results). I know that this soundtrack was recorded by the same line-up that would go on to record the first Magma album that same year. Therefore, it’d be safe to assume you’re going to hear the same kind of music that you hear on Magma/Kobaia.

You’d be wrong. Mostly.

Certainly there are points of comparison. Both the first Magma album and this soundtrack are a jazzier Magma than most people are familiar with…but the jazz references are far stronger on this material than on the material written for that epochal first Magma release. Opening track ‘La Foule’ is one of the wildest things I have heard Magma ever do, with BS&T like horns and some psychedelic guitar bringing to mind a strange combination of west coast psych/garage band and jazz combo. It doesn’t sound like magma, and it doesn’t sound like any other band, really. ‘Blues de v.’ carries on this theme, vamping on a cool little progression with loads of funky, wah drenched guitar playing over a great little horn chart. Again, this is a totally different Magma, unlike any you have ever heard before.

‘Fete foraine’ hews closer to a sound that we’d associate with Magma, with a driving bass and drum pattern opening the track. We soon have a return to the heavy guitar focus that has been such a major part of the first two tracks, and while I completely understand that fuzz and wah were major parts of late 0’s/early 70’s psych music, it just doesn’t work for me in Magma. The wild flute playing is nice, however (and if I were doing my job, I’d say that the flute reminds me of Jethro Tull or Camel, but I try to avoid those stereotypes wherever possible). The track’s a brief 2:47, but it’s a cool little piece. Of similar length is ‘Pascale,’ a quiet, acoustic number with some great flute playing mixed with pleasant acoustic guitar and bass. A good bit of this reminds me of ‘Bolero’ from King Crimson’s Lizard album. Is this Magma? Maybe not as we know then, nor as they’d ever be again. But it’s a gorgeous song, and that simply cannot be denied.

‘Ourania’ is the longest piece from the soundtrack. Nearly nine minutes long, it comes closest to the sound listeners who own Magma/Kobaia and 1001 Degrees Centigrades would be familiar with. Vander’s drumming is very busy, with loads of percussive accents scattered about, the bass playing is present and a joy to listen to, and while there are horns, they are used more like voices rather than sheets of sound. It builds slowly, much like later Magma works, the pace increasing, the playing picking up speed, the song driving forward toward its inevitable conclusion. We even have a nascent, early Vander drum ‘solo’ that shows even in the early days of his playing that he was a force to be reckoned with.

For most Magma listeners, however, it is the second half of Archiẁ I that is likely of most interest. This compilation includes the third different release of Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh to come from the band since the original studio release in 1973. To give you a general overview…

1) The original 1973 studio release, now out on CD on Seventh Records individually and in the boxed set.
2) A second 1973 recording, released on Akt Records (Magma’s ‘official bootleg’) label, featuring a stripped back mix and many differences from the well-known album above.
3) This alternate demo version, described below.

This has all the feel of a classic demo, and while it gives us the form of MDK as we know it, there are so many differences. For one, there are next to no vocals. Next, there’s a lot of organ scattered here and there throughout the song. Organ is not an instrument I typically associate with Magma, and it’s odd to hear. Then there are these odd bits of horn here and there that sound like elephant skronks. It’s MDK, to be sure, but not like we’ve ever heard it. As a lesson in how the song evolved, however, I think it’s brilliant, and I enjoy it greatly for what it is. It does make me wish the band would consider releasing more extracts from their demos…I know they are out there (at least, I know additional MDK demos exist, as well as extracts from Wurdah Itah recordings).

Archiẁ II, by comparison, is generally much less interesting, as it is based entirely around material that most Magma listeners have a decent familiarity with. The opening 51 minutes of this disc is dedicated to the band’s first demo recordings of material that would be released later that year as Magma/Kobaia. These recordings, unlike the soundtrack material of similar vintage, are taken from an acetate cut from the sessions. As a result, the songs do have a varying degree of static and pops throughout. I don’t know how easy it would have been to clean these up as they are pretty prevalent throughout the material. It’s a shame that masters from these sessions seem to no longer exist (I’d assume that’s why the acetate was used), as I think for most people that’d make the listening experience more enjoyable. I admit to not having done extensive A/B listening of this recording with the versions released officially, but there seem to be minimal differences from these renditions to the final ones. What little differences I’ve picked up seem more in accents than extensive structural changes.

The final piece on Archiẁ II is the song ‘Eliphas Levi,’ originally released on 1984’s Merci album. This version features drums and percussion that the original release did not. It’s also significantly shorter, 9:35 versus the 11:15 of the original Merci rendition. It’s a particular favourite of mine from a release that I generally don’t rate all that well, and while the drums don’t necessarily add a huge amount to the song, it’s interesting indeed to hear the song in a different way.

Archiẁ I & II is a mixed bag for me. There’s some very interesting material on here, and most of that for me is on the first half of the release. Magma’s not a band that has necessarily offered up a lot of alternate recordings or archival studio recordings in the past (though they are impressively well represented with some great older live releases over the years). Would I have bought Studio Zünd: 40 Ans d'Evolution for this 2-CD set alone, had I already owned the full set of studio releases? That’s a hard question to answer. Is this essential? That question, I think, is even harder. I enjoy it, even if half of the material is reasonably familiar to me (and even though we’ve all heard MDK, the demo is different enough that I think of it as unfamiliar territory). I don’t think it essential to the more casual fan, but then again, the casual fan isn’t going to be buying Studio Zünd.

I have no idea what I’ll be covering next week in Magma Monday…it’s a tough choice! I will say that I’m deciding between Mëkanïk Kömmandöh (the alternate version of mentioned above) and MDKMythes Et Legendes Epok III DVD, so either voice your opinion below or wait till next week and see which side of the coin came up to help me decide!



Track Listing CD 1:
La Foule
Blues de v.
Fete foraine
Pascale
Ourania
Kalimouna (extrait)
Africa Anteria
Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh

Track Listing CD 2:
Kobaïa
Aïna
Malaria
Sckxyss
Auraë
Thaud Zaïa
Nau Ektila
Muh (extrait)
Eliphas Levi


Musicians:
Christian Vander
Stella Vander
Francis Moze
Jannick Top
Klaus Blasquiz
Teddy Lasry
Alain ‘Paco’ Charlery
Francois Cahen
Richard Raux
Jacky Vidal
Rene Garber
Jean-Luc Manderlier
Guy Khalifa
Liza Deluxe

http://www.magma40ans.com/
http://www.seventhrecords.com/indexuk.html

Magma Monday 4: Theusz Hamtaahk

Welcome to Just Another Magma Monday. Once a week, your obd’t narrator and occasional blogger will trawl the expanses of his Magma collection to discuss something of Zeuhl-ish importance. Whether it’s the studio albums, the best of the AKT archive releases, one of the sundry live DVDs, or a choice artifact from his ‘unofficial’ collection, one thing is for sure…for this writer, Magma iss de hundin!

This week, sit back and relax as we take a look at Theusz Hamtaahk, the 3 CD boxed set of Magma performing the Theusz Hamtaahk trilogy at the Triannon theatre in Paris on 13/14 May 2000.


As I think back on the trials and tribulations I went through in deciding to finally purchase this set, I wonder what exactly was wrong with me at the time. After all, we are talking about someone who didn’t blink some 10 years earlier at spending 40 to 50 dollars US for copies of three Renaissance albums that were only available and in print in Japan at the time (but that’s a story for another post)…nor did I have issues with spending close to 30 dollars a piece for 2 of the 4 Mythes et Legendes DVDs a couple years later. Hell, I didn’t even have a problem spending the 65.00 US at the time to purchase a copy of Kenso’s Live in USA DVD (a price that’s now up around 80.00 thanks to exchange rates).

But the Trilogie boxed set…for some reason, that would be a totally different story.

The 3-CD boxed set came out in 2001, and I’d become a covert to the cause, as it were, 2 years later. At NEARfest 2004 I started looking seriously at the boxed set, thinking to myself ‘Self, here is a way to get three Magma albums you don’t yet have, in one fell swoop, and get live takes on them as well. Buy!’ And I would pick it up, turn it over…and then put it back down. The same thing happened in 2005. And then again in 2006…at least through the first 2 bands. Finally, before Riverside took the stage, a friend of mine pulled me aside and said ‘Bill, if you don’t buy that (redacted so as to not offend sensitive eyes) Magma boxed set right now, I’m going to take your wallet and buy it for you!’

Suitably chastened, I bought it. And I didn’t regret it. Of course, I then proceeded to leave the boxed set in the theatre and had to run back in to get it, nearly running over a somewhat surprised Mike Portnoy, but that’s neither here nor there, and realistically is one of those stories for another time yet again.

Let’s take a look at the set, in case you’ve never seen it:

My box is sadly a little crushed these days, having survived but barely 2 moves in about 2 years. But it’s a glossy little box, a little larger than the mini-LP style sleeves inside. The Magma logo is gold foil stamped on the front, the back is printed with a list of the material presented within, and the spine is printed to look like three of the Seventh Records jewel cases, one for each disc. It’s a classy looking boxed set, to be sure.

Inside the box are two booklets. The smaller features photographs from the performances, as well as track listings and performer/production credits. Had this set come in a jewel case, this would be the basic liner notes booklet. It is the second book that is far more interesting, as it is the libretto for the performance; all the lyrics to Theusz Hamtaahk, Ẁurdah Ïtah and Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh, in their original Kobaian, for your reading and singing along pleasure. Sadly there’s no translation, but that’s just as well, as these are albums intended to be listened to as is, with the listener being moved by the sounds of the instruments and the voices of the singers.

Each of the three albums inside are encased in sleeves of similar design, with a treated band photo in differing primary hues. No track listings are included on any of the three albums, though a list of who plays on each release is includes inside the gatefold, with tiny pictures of each musician next to their names. Everything fits fairly firmly in the box; there’s not a lot of room for things to slide around a lot.

The performances are the area most readers are going to be interested in, and I have to say that at the time I purchased this, these are preferred recordings for me. As time has gone on I think other performances have eclipsed at least one of the three suites (Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh, for which I prefer currently the Epok II DVD), but the rendition of Theusz Hamtaahk in here is still the one I reach for when I am in the mood for that particular piece. Of course, it usually follows that I want to hear the rest of the trilogy in succession by that point, so this boxed set still gets a lot of play.

I don’t want the above paragraph to imply that the performances of Ẁurdah Ïtah and Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh are poor here; I do think that a few more years of playing together leads the band to be much tighter, their playing more telepathic and powerful, on the Epok DVDs filmed at le Triton. However, when one considers the length of time this particular band had been playing this particular set of material, the performances here are nothing short of astounding. It’s only been in the last 10 years, really, that Magma has become more of a constant focus for Christian Vander again, but in 2000, to have a band convene for a series of concerts playing this material to the level of quality here is amazing. Vander’s playing is as impressive as ever, and there are reasons James Mac Gaw and Philippe Bussonnet remain essential parts of Magma to this day. I do rather wish that the encore material from these shows ('Hhaï') had been included, but as it’s not part of the trilogy, I can accept their exclusion.

As I look back, nearly 10 years on from the release of this set of concert recordings, I can state that there are perhaps better places for a Magma fan new to the band in a live context to dig in. There are none quite as inclusive for the same price, however, and once you factor in the libretto of Kobaian lyrics (and believe me, it does help in some of the faster sections to understand what words are being sung, even if you don’t understand the words), there aren’t many places that are as ‘user friendly’ as this. I just wish I had picked up the box sooner :-)

Join me again next week for another trip back into the Magma Vaults, as we look at the bonus discs packed in to the recent Studio Zünd: 40 Ans d'Evolution boxed set. As always, thanks for spending some of your Monday with Magma and me, and I’ll see you next week!



CD 1 - First Movement: Theusz Hamtaahk
1. Malawëlëkaahm − 6:28
2. Sëwolahwëhn Öhn Zaïn − 6:42
3. Dëümb Ëwëlëss Dölëhn − 3:52
4. Zeuhl Wortz − 2:28
5. Gorutz Waahrn − 3:15
6. Tü Lü Lï Ë Üi Dü Wiï − 1:08
7. Se Lah Maahrï Donsaï − 2:31
8. Slibenli Dëh Theusz − 5:21
9. Zortsüng − 3:09

CD 2 - Second Movement: Ẁurdah Ïtah
1. Malawëlëkaahm (Incantation) − 4:21
2. Bradïa Da Zïmehn Iëgah (L'initié A Parlé) − 2:35
3. Manëh Fur Da Zëss (Ensemble Pour Le Maître) − 1:42
4. Fur Dï Hël Kobaïa ( Pour La Vie Eternelle) − 5:38
5. Blüm Tendiwa (L'Ame Du Peuple) − 5:49
6. Wohldünt Me¨m Dëwëlëss (Message Dans L'étendue) − 3:08
7. Waïnsaht !!! (En Avant !!!) − 3:11
8. Wlasïk Steuhn Kobaïa (Ascension Vers L'éternel) − 2:44
9. Sëhnntëht Dros Wurdah Süms (la Mort N'est Rien) − 6:00
10. C'est La Vie Qui Les A Menés Là! − 4:32
11. Ëk Sün Da Zëss (Qui Est Le Maître) − 2:37
12. De Zeuhl Ündazïr (Vision De La Musique Céleste) − 6:11

CD 3 - Third Movement: Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh
1. Hortz Fur Dëhn Stekëhn West − 10:16
2. Ïma Sürï Dondaï − 4:13
3. Kobaïa Iss Dëh Hündïn − 2:07
4. Da Zeuhl Wortz Mëkanïk − 7:20
5. Nebëhr Gudahtt − 7:39
6. Mëkanïk Kömmandöh − 8:05
7. Kreühn Köhrmahn Ïss Dëh Hündïn − 1:30
8. Da Zeuhl Wortz Waïnsaht (Hymne De La Zeuhl Wortz) − 1:53
9. Untitled (Joyeux Anniversaire) − 5:41

Personnel
Christian Vander − Drums
Emmanuel Borghi − Piano
Stella Vander − Vocals, Piano, Percussion
Antoine Paganotti − Vocals, Piano
James Mac Gaw − Vocals, Piano, Guitar
Claude Lamamy − Vocals
Jean-Christophe Gamet − Vocals
Julie Vander − Vocals
Isabelle Feuillebois − Vocals, Percussion
Philippe Bussonnet − Bass
Fred Burgazzi − Trombone
Ronan Simon − Trombone
Benoît Gaudiche − Trumpet
Yannick Neveu − Trumpet