CV: When it comes to music, in France we intellectualise too much. One is sensitive to poetry and literature, but not to sound. I give this example: if you go to see the "Le Roi et l'Oiseau", a good film, good story, fine images... there is a gate which is two hundred metres high which when it closes itself, just goes clunk. The gate I see there does nothing for me, I want to hear, not to "imagine", the noise that it makes when it closes.
JMB: 'Retrospectïw' is sub-titled 'Volume III', why is that?
CV: There are many reasons. First, 'Volume III' clearly indicates that there remains 'Volumes I and II' to come, or perhaps they have already been. Tactically, I think that this is more effective. Moreover, it is 'Volume III' because it was recorded with the last group; it is therefore logical in a chronological sense. 'Volumes I and II' will represent 'Theusz Hamtaahk'; the series is then complete.
JMB: When will that be?
CV: It is. The last section has been mixed and the records cut, and it will be released in a few days: two sides 'Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh' and two sides 'Theusz Hamtaahk part 1'.
JMB: The actual group belongs to which "phase"?
CV: This is the beginning of the second. There are the Guillard Brothers on brass, Dominique Bertram on bass, Benoît Widemann and Guy Khalifa on keyboards, Jean-Luc Chevalier on guitar, Stella and Liza on vocals and Doudou Weiss is the second drummer.
JMB: And so, more from Klaus for the first the?
C.V. No. In fact, his presence has been doubtful for a long while already. He does not appear on 'Retrospektïw'.
SV: He had a heap of grievances and demands, which are not specifically definable.
CV: In fact, and since he has said this himself, I am able to repeat, he wanted to be THE singer in the front of the stage with the spotlight on him. I had nothing against that, but this was something that he wanted to assume and follow to the end. Because of his attitude it has brought a lot of complications to our work. And finally, I have to say that it was Klaus who said he did not want to be on the album sleeve.
SV: That said, he has changed his position since then: he sings on 'Volumes I and II' and he is featured on the credits.
JMB: What has happened since 'Attahk' from a business point of view?
SV: For the first the we are free. We have produced all of 'Retrospektïw' ourselves. That seemed to be the only solution; we had searched for a record company for one year. In vain....
JMB: How is that possible? Were you too greedy?
SV: No, not at all. We were touring the record companies with very modest demands at the the when they were looking for a group like TRUST or TÉLEPHONE. We went to see RCA and said to them: "We have finished every part of this project, we have mixed the tracks, we give it to you for you to distribute. We request nothing more from you". This is how we came to be signed for these three volumes.
JMB: What will happen after 'Retrospektïw'?
CV: We attack a new cycle. Phase 2, not only in a musical sense: we reform Uniwerïa Zekt, as a label and as a reinforcement of Magma.
JMB: That seems to imply that you will continue to take charge of the extra-musical problems?
CV: Yes, right down to the tiniest details.
SV: 'Retrospektïw' is only a trial shot in this field, a sort of apprenticeship: all this has been done very quickly.
JMB: Is it you Stella, who takes on that aspect of the work?
SV: Principally, as long as there is no one else to do it.
JMB: Did you wish to achieve this situation, or do you suffer from the burden of these things?
CV: Both. We say that we were wishing for this autonomy, but that it has made it challenging in rather negative circumstances and has thrown us in at the deep end.
JMB: And musically?
CV: Since 'Köhntarkösz' I had needed to reflect on a new music. The music of Magma is a music that needs a focus, it needs to search, to try, to transform. Each record has to be a contribution in an evolution. You work on some things for months, these you record afterwards; if they have been worth the sorrow and difficulty. Dozens of pieces by Magma have not been released.
JMB: Is the music in conception dependant on the group?
CV: Always. I say that there is a problem of recruitment in the sense that there are numerous qualities required to perform with Magma: It needs the sensitivity and the fingering of a classical musician, and on the other hand he needs to be able to play the blues, Rhythm 'n' Blues and to have made that synthesis already.
JMB: You seem very frustrated by present-day music?
CV: There is not the "Cry" in the bands of today. Alternatively, the vocal call is hidden down low. At twelve years old I was in there. This is why Coltrane has such an importance for me. Ray Charles also wanted to scream out loud, Hendrix too, but neither achieved that shout completely. Coltrane possessed that quality: Hendrix, Otis Redding all of it that you could want: The Cry… More a one-dimensional universe; all the cries. The proof is that the music of today (it does not matter specifically which), is just a blend of clichés, some of which are Coltrane's phrases. You know, I read an anecdote about Coltrane recently. He improvised on 'Impressions' in a club once, for two and a half hours, the blood vessels in his face were bursting; he was bleeding from the nose and from his mouth. For two and a half hours!
JMB: Yet, what is clearly more transparent in your music is the Slavonic influence. 'Mekanïk', for example, seems to come in a straight line from Stravinsky's 'Les Noces'. "to summon the spirit"
CV: There are two reasons for that: Firstly, you have to understand, to live Coltrane to the point of being able to summon the spirit, not the letter, takes years. This is a discipline that we shall apply little by little in Phase 2. And concerning 'Les Noces', I have to say that at the the of writing 'Mekanïk' I had not listened to it. It was Faton (Cahen) who lent me the record - but that was after I had already composed the piece. That said, folklore is folklore; this rhythm is essentially Slavonic, and in case anyone is unaware of it, I am not exactly French! The only cliché of everything I have composed, I say this because I am fundamentally honest, is a brief quotation at the introduction of 'Mekanïk Kommandöh' which is the introduction of a piece by Carl Orff, 'Triomphi di Aphrodite'.
JMB: In my review of 'Retrospektïw', I expressed some reservations about some of your compositions, on the melodic level in particular, which left me hungry, unsatisfied.
CV: But you noted that it was changing. Just as there are children who can speak before they learn to eat with a little spoon, for others it's the inverse. Me, I need to search for rhythmical plans to purify my work. Before, I was looking for a good melody and I did not always know what to follow it with to make a good hook.
JMB: The prime accomplishment in that field is 'Hhaï'.
CV: Yes, because the purely melodic aspect began to preoccupy me, then it became clear that it was secondary: 'Rïah Sahïltaahk' ('1001°C'), has four or five times the content of 'Hhaï'. But in fact, at seventeen years old you have a little baggage, which you spread out, you do not always serve the music. Afterwards, you learn to choose the cuts. You purify: some things which would have lasted twenty minutes you are able to prune to a seven minute piece with a very strong punch. That's a little like what I have done with 'Otis', a new piece dedicated to Otis Redding which is a result of ten years apprenticeship. Magma, for me, is an apprenticeship. Look at Coltrane, he was not really himself until he was thirty-three years old.