Les Voix de Magma

SALLE JULES VERNE

DOUARNENEZ 02-08-92 (Jim Ross and Peter Hill)

Voices of Magma live in Douarnenez on the western coast of Brittany.... I must return indeed. The tickets were 110FF in advance, 120FF at the door. The venue turned out to be a sort of school gymnasium. The advance publicity had said that the band was an eleven-piece ensemble of two pianos, two synths, double bass, drums and a choir. It also claimed that the show would include 'Mekanïk' and 'Les Cygnes et les Corbeaux'. Before the show, Bernard Paganotti was spotted in the 600 strong audience and François Cahen too. Christian Vander's new line-up, LES VOIX DE MAGMA were scheduled to be onstage at 21h00 as the support act for Antoine ILLOUZ who sounded similar to Miles Davis. Most people were not expecting a long show, since their heroes were technically the support act, but they were very surprised indeed by the eventual outcome. They were richly rewarded with an amazing concert lasting two and a half hours.

The band came onstage at 21h30. The actual set list included 'Zëss' (a totally Kobaïan version), 'Wurdah Ïtah', 'Mekanïk', 'C'est pour nous', 'Ronde de Nuit' (from Stella's solo album), 'I Must Return (Windows)', Christian's marvellous ode 'To Love'... pause for breath - The new song - 'Tous Ensemble', and another new piece for the encore. So, not much of the old OFFERING material, and plenty of the classic early MAGMA to whet your appetites for the next tour. The lucky people who were there all say that it was great, "like the original MAGMA of 70-72 era". "Overall the gig was Intense, Magic". The good news for those of you who missed it, is that a live CD taken from show was planned for release in October.

The line-up included Simon Goubert on vocals and piano, someone else on electronic keyboards, double bass supplied by Philippe Dardelle, Christian Vander was head chorister, played grand piano, and drums. It was as we expected, mainly choral stuff with more vocals by Alex Ferrand (no Sax this time) and Jean-Christophe Garnet (the bushy haired vocalist from DON'T DIE who spoilt 'Mekanïk' for some last year) : altogether there were four male singers and five female vocalists (Stella, Julie, Isabelle Feuillebois, Addie Deat) - quite a choir!

From the beach at Douarnenez you can see the island used in Yvan Lagrange's film and aptly, Voices of Magma played a hell of a lot of the 'Tristan et Yseult' album (apparently all of it bar one song) with Christian on drums, it was a shame that Jannick Top was not playing with them. The new piece was quite strange, similar to the better pieces on Stella's solo album. "Sort of like Philip Glass", toy keyboards with vocals, structured around a repetitive keyboard motif. The encore might fit in with Christian's project to record traditional piano music with a children's choir.

Many of the audience left at 00h30 and did not catch the next act, which apparently featured Francois Laizeau on drums. After the show Francis Linon (the switch doctor) rushed the digital tapes backstage for Christian and Co to scrutinize them for use on the album. And Georges Besnier was literally besieged at the Seventh Records stand as usual. From all accounts it would seem that MAGMA are reborn at last after what has been for many a dull patch in the last couple of years, don't miss the next tour if at all possible.

DOUARNENEZ CD?

One week after the Douarnenez concert, Francis Linon and Christian Vander discussed the possibility of combining the DAT mixer recordings from the Paris concerts in October, with the Douarnenez tapes from August, to present an even better album. Francis was also keen to encourage Christian to release a live album by ALIEN (Christian's Jazz combo from the early to mid-eighties), and also a CD set taken from the MAGMA concerts at the Bobino, Paris from May 1981. Whether or not these projects will reach fruition only time will tell. But Christian was keen to get the Douarnenez tapes released before "les pirates" beat him to it.