THE CLASS OF '76

In which we take a brief look at some of the Magma school of music, it will have to be very brief in most cases, because nothing was ever written about these groups in the UK and I have not seen much in the French Press either.

Next issue I hope to have a feature on ESKATON KOMANDKESTRA CARMINA A five-piece line-up, originating from Chaumont with quite an original formation - drums, bass and three saxes. No known recordings but they were hoping to record an album for Giorgio Gomelsky's Utopia label. Little known about them except that they toured as a Magma support group for four dates late in 1976. The drummer, Manuel Denizet, left the group at the end of 1977 along with one of the saxophonists - Phillippe Gisselman to join Yochk'o Seffer's NEFFESH MUSIC. Gisselman then joined SERGE BRINGOLF's STRAVE and worked with Seffer on John Greaves album 'Accident' in 1982.

MASAL MASAL were another five-piece group from Lyon who started in 1973, their 1976 line-up was two saxes, drums, keyboards and bass. Their founder, the drummer Jean-Paul Prat, with the help of a lot of guest musicians made an excellent album in 1984 called 'Masal' which featured two of the finest pieces of Zeuhl music I have ever heard. He alternates some strong, powerful sequences with some serene, soothing passages building into sumptuous orchestral movements. Overall the album is like a beautiful but forceful version of WEIDORJE with an enormous brass ensemble and a lot of blissful guitar work. In fact it's such a masterpiece that it seems strange that no one has re-released it. However, Jean-Paul Prat is now totally devoted to a religious way of life and wants to forget everything about his previous musical career. Obviously Musea cannot reissue the album without his permission, so unfortunately this gem will soon be lost forever.

POTEMKINE - Astounding jazz-rock combo performing in the same spirit as Magma circa 1971, i.e. the most detectible influence on their music was Magma's second album: '1001 Centigrades'. Originally a five-piece, from Toulouse, their core formation was a classic quartet of guitar (Charles Goubin), bass (Dominique "DouDou" Dubuisson), drums (Phillipe Goubin) and piano (Michael Goubin), but with the rare addition, at the time, of a violinist (Xavier Vidal). Many thought that they were in a similar vein to the English jazz-rock groups such as BRAND X and the HATFIELD's, but there was also a slight influence of ZAO. Altogether this melange of styles produced an exquisite and inventive music, full of nuance and subtle twists. They recorded a single ('Rictus' / 'Mystère') in 1974 and three albums. Of these my personal recommendation for reissue would be for their highly charged debut 'Triton' - icy blasts of new music. The original quartet toured extensively in '76 and '77, briefly becoming a septet, which soon split up. Some joined VERTO, NOUVELLE LUNE and IGUANA. They planned to reform in March 1977 to record the 'Foetus' album with a classical choir on the backing tracks. The eventual recording of 'Foetus' was somewhat different to the original plans and does indeed remind me of the Canterbury bands. The final album 'Nicolas II' (1978) was less accessible, with a warm melodic jazz-rock influence. Potemkine opened the "Rock d'Ici" festival in 1978 at L'Olympia, Paris with a brilliantly inspired set. But even though they had a distribution deal with EMI for Belgium, a major contract for the rest of Europe eluded them. In November '78 the quartet toured Belgium, Germany and Holland.

XALPH In 1976 Christian Vander was very impressed by Xalph, enough to have them as support act for part of the winter Magma tour (Festival Utopia). The group came from Bordeaux and intended to produce their first LP on the Utopia label - they had a lot of original ideas and produced some fine music with a strong identity, but for some unaccountable reason their hopes were dashed. They had been expected to rise to the same level of esteem in European Music as Magma... Of course they were strongly influenced by the best of Vander's work and also by Mid-70's WEATHER REPORT, and were quite a success in the Bordeaux region but being so far away from Paris eventually led to their disbanding. No recordings were officially released until Musea put one track from a 1980 session on their 'Enneade' sampler album. Their original leader and sole composer was Jean-Pierre d'Aran who played electric guitar, sax, soprano sax and bass clarinet (phew!). The group's sound however was a collective affair, all the musicians playing an important part in the process. There was a slight predominance towards the keyboards of Serge Korjanevski who later took over control of the group before leaving to join UPPSALA. Another strong element in their music was the dual guitars of Francis Ferrere and Patrick Briand. A demo tape from the late seventies line-up exists (with Jean-Pierre Alcauve on bass and Xavier Jouvelet, drums) but not much else. Claire Laborde, the vocalist, later joined Magma briefly in 1980.