LES VOIX (AKT I)

Mark Paytress - Record Collector 2-93

More firmly linked with the high art aesthetic are Magma, the Franco-German (oh really? - ed) collection of musicians led by percussionist Christian Vander and his wife Stella. Their heyday probably occured over here in the "Kraut Rock" mini-boom of the early 70's, although they did receive some welcome publicity a few years back when snooker ace Steve Davis confessed he was a fan, brought them over for a couple of gigs, and elevated his credibility in the process.

The group always saw itself in the modernist operatic field, as much as it ever imagined it was playing rock music, which is probably why they've not enjoyed the reputationof their more accessible contemporaries, Can and Faust. And this concert from earlier this yeardoes nothing to alter that. The vocal arrangements are still strong, ranging from near-sublime moments of choral music that sounds like it's coming from the other side of the clouds, to some rather awful, sub-Cleo Laine jazz-scat pyrotechnicsthat threaten to reduce the majesty of the music to a joke. Probably for diehards only ... but those heavenly vocal moments really have to be heard to be believed. Vaughan Williams would have been proud to have had them in his 'Sinfonia Antarctica'

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