Officials

So. After 20 years of evading the point Christian Vander has finally deigned to the return to the masterwork style which brought us all to his door in the first place. With our tongues hanging out. Of all the many noble attempts of the prog rockers to create a grand compositional style which blended elements from classical music with rock, none, in my view, ever reached the intensity, complexity and raw savage excitement of the great Magma masterworks such as M.D.K, Kohntarkosz, Theusz Hamtaahk, etc…
Now it’s one thing to rest on your laurels and quite another to come back after such a great amount of time and to try and completely re-capture the original essence of your art. So many come backs have turned into let-downs ; and thus it is with some trepidation that I approached listening to K.A. I had seen many of the great Magma line-ups of the seventies performing these classics live. So the other question in my mind was : could the present band do it ?
All of you out there reading this will be delirious to know that it is almost as if time stood still. Of course K.A itself was composed 30 years ago and is the missing link between MDK and Kohntarkosz but that is hardly the point. K.A is the real thing. The hypnotic tension, the explosive climaxes, the fantastic pyrotechnic drumming, the massive and intricate vocal arrangements, the gut-wrenching bass lines and the classical pomposity fused with almost jungle-strength R n& B – all the hallmarks of Christian Vander’s special genius are found here intact.
I have nothing further to say except that we got lucky. Buy it.

Recorded in Paris at the Theatre du Trianon during the 30th Magma anniversary celebration.

The complete THEUSZ HAMTAAHK Trilogy
Triple digipack  + 16 pages colour booklet + 80 pages lyrics booklet in a wraparound. For the first time ever, the complete lyrics to the Trilogy.

Since November 1996 and the return of MAGMA to the stage there have been a high proportion of sell-out concerts; usually the audience included many teenagers who were amazed to discover this music, the existence of which they had never suspected. KOMPILA was released at the end of 1997 to help them discover the splendours of the Kobaian repertoire. The 22 extracts featured on this album cover MAGMA’s journey from KOBAIA (1970) through to HHAI/LIVE, which was released five years later. The masterworks which are the basis of the group’s legend are all visited: KOBAIA, STOAH, RIAH SAHILTAAHK, THEUSZ HAMTAAHK, WURDAH ITAH, MEKANIK DESTRUKTIW KOMMANDOH, KOHNTARKOSZ and HHAI. Carefully selected, these extracts provide an easy introduction to MAGMA and show the perfect internal coherence of Christian VANDER’s musical output. At a promotional price, this is CD is too good to miss.

An introduction to the universe according to MAGMA, MYTHES ET LEGENDES highlights the themes composed by Christian VANDER at the beginning of the 1970s. Extracts are found here from KOBAIA, 1001 CENTIGRADES and the three movements of the trilogy THEUSZ HAMTAAHK, including, for the first time, KLAUS KOHMBALAD, the long version of the coda of RIAH SAHILTAAHK. Nicely blended into the music, the speaking voices of Christian and Stella VANDER and Guy KHALIFA link the different titles to give us the keys which enable us to go deeper into this totally original music. Their presence breathes a life and warmth into the record which is diametrically opposed to the insipid succession of disconnected titles so often heard on compilation albums.

Released in 1985 and dedicated to John COLTRANE, MERCI is the last studio album by MAGMA to be released before Christian VANDER dedicated himself to his new group, OFFERING. Recorded between June 1982 and October 1984 at Studio Davout, with the help of a galaxy of musician friends, MERCI perfectly demonstrates the seamless transition from the electric music of MAGMA to the acoustic serenity of OFFERING. The album is, in effect, divided into two sections. The four opening titles present the MAGMA rhythm’n blues of the early 1980s, a cool, soul-wrapped unit full of melodic richness, and embellished with fabulous brass and vocal arrangements. The final two pieces by contrast are in a stripped-down, purified style which declares what the quest of OFFERING will be to touch the human being in the depths of his soul via a music which has been reduced to its essentials.

After an opening cycle of 7 years marked by magnificent albums and memorable concerts, Christian VANDER tired of having the feeling that he was only playing for a elitist clique of insiders, in effect locking him into a sort of musical ghetto. Thus ATTAHK, recorded at the end of 1977, sees the beginning of an attempt to win a wider audience by taking MAGMA in a new direction. Consisting of seven short titles, ATTAHK, by comparison with the earlier discs, offers a simplified music which is much more accessible. This doubting of the form does not however change in any way the basis of VANDER ‘s musical concept, nor does it lose even in the slightest degree its power of fascination. Suited as much to the body as the soul, the music radiates a brutal physical energy comparable to rock, and shocks the listener as greatly as KOBAIA (1970). In ATTAHK, VANDER also reveals for the first time his immense vocal ability and succeeds in the tour de force of making his music more open without betraying the spirit of MAGMA for even a moment.

Released in 1977, INEDITS features 6 titles regularly played in concert but never recorded in the studio by any of the different MAGMA line-ups which existed between June 1972 and January 1975. Mostly recorded with whatever equipment was to hand, either in concert or at rehearsals, these recordings nevertheless have a good sound and are an essential part of the history of the band. Although the musical interest is constant throughout the album, the highlights nevertheless are the two opening titles, which bring the incredible bass playing of Jannik TOP to the fore.

UDU WUDU (1976) saw the return of Jannick TOP to the heart of MAGMA, a reunion desired passionately by Christian VANDER, who asked Jannick to collaborate as co-leader in the creation of this record. The new MAGMA line-up not being final at the time the recording took place, the basics of the work were laid down by VANDER and TOP, who besides their usual instruments brilliantly integrated the keyboard parts into the tracks. The musical voyage into which they draw us is performed in two sections, the first containing short pieces with diverse atmospheres and styles, which use the brass and flutes of the early albums, and the the second comprising the 18 minute composition by Jannick TOP, DE FUTURA. Completely dfferent in apearance, the two sections are in fact complementary, the first being designed to put the listener in the most receptive state of mind before the arrival of the music cataclysm represented by DE FUTURA. A monumental work, this piece generates, by means of the titanic force of the bass and drums, an incredible power which gives it the unquestionable status of a mythic work.

After the departure in autumn of 1974 of Jannick TOP and most of the other members of the band, MAGMA rose phoenix-like from the ashes with a new, hot, line-up which saw the musical opportunity lying before it. After long rehearsals Christian VANDER realised that he had yet another exceptional groupand the decision was taken to record the first MAGMA live album. The recording, made in June 1975 at the Taverne de l’Olympia, perfectly demonstrates the incredible impact made by MAGMA. Absolutely dedicated to the music of Christian VANDER, who by that time had reached the summit of his art, the band plays as if it were one man and sweeps all before it in its triumphant passage. Whether it was a new arrangement of any of the old pieces (KOHNTARK, KOBAIA, MEKANIK) or a previously-unheard piece (HHAI, LIHNS), the sound of MAGMA has never been heard more powerfully as on this incredible recording. Although it remains difficult to point to any one performance as being outstanding, it would nevertheless be difficult not to react to the mind-blowing performance by Didier Lockwood, whose violin playing contributes so greatly to the profound originality of this magnificent double-album.

Not being a man who tended to sit on his laurels Christian VANDER decided, with KOHNTARKOSZ, recorded in 1974, to set off in a completely new musical direction, putting anyone who expected a simple encore to MEKANIK DESTRUKTIW KOMMANDOH straight onto the back foot.
Fortified by the success of the last album, the majority of musicians would be delighted to lay back into their own style and play safe. Not so for VANDER, who was driven to surpass himself, to bring to birth a new masterwork. Considered against the other albums, KOHNTARKOSZ (the composition) used a profoundly original approach
to lift the rhythmic pulse and float it above the music, so that instead of marking time it continually sits above the metre. The savage virtuoso drumming of the earlier albums is here replaced by a more restrained approach, in which every stick hit seems to weigh twenty tons by contrast. The result is a mysterious incandescent atmosphere which holds the listener in breathless thrall right up to the explosive finale.
If, when compared with M.D.K., the sound of the band has changed significantly, with the monster bass foundation laid down by Jannick TOP and the other-worldly keyboard playing come to the fore at the expense of the vocal work, the spirit of MAGMA nevertheless remains intact. This spirit is also found in ORK ALARM, TOP’s first composition for MAGMA, and the final piece, COLTRANE SUNDIA, a vibrant and heartfelt tribute to John COLTRANE, the inspiration for all this marvellous music.