LES VOIX DE MAGMA

GROUPS & ORCHESTRAS

Sono Magazine - August 1992

A creation for choir and orchestra based around some of the themes from the repertoire of Magma, Offering and unreleased compositions.

Christian Vander has been composing for more than twenty years now. Throughout Magma, Offering, or the solo album from 1989 'To Love'. One constant appears: The Voice, the prime instrument, and his private vehicle of lyrical emotion.  From the version of 'Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh' performed with a choir at the Sygma (Bordeaux) in 1973, to the vocal arrangements of 'Swans and Crows' in the present repertoire of Offering, via the songs 'To Love' and 'The night we died', this predominance is evident. The principal purpose of the 'Voices of Magma' creation is two-fold. On one hand, is the urge to push forward the predominantly 'choral' aspect of Christian Vander's work through a selection of his compositions which fit a musical formula (Magma, Offering) yet to an extent calling on unreleased material, and with the specific aim of Christian Vander to re-orchestrate these themes for a choir of eleven singers / musicians.

On the other hand, it provides a glimpse for the public, in just one concert, of the various directions adopted by Christian Vander in the course of different eras and musical formats (Magma in their big formation, Magma the quartet, Offering and the solo experience).

Seventh Records, producer and publisher of the whole Magma catalogue (reissued on CD since 1989) as well as the recent works of Christian Vander, releases a live digital recording on CD in the autumn of 1992. As a sequel to the two presentations for the festivals Jazz au Coeur d'Orb and Jazz en Baie which enjoyed the exclusivity of this creation in the summer of 1992, this show was suggested to various European organisers for the month of September and some of them quickly took options for the 1992/1993 season.

For this creation, Christian Vander surrounded himself with musicians who took part in the Magma adventure, certain musicians from the current Offering band, and with musicians who took part in the exceptional reformation of Magma in the autumn of 1990.

"Les Voix" Concert 1992 Douarnenez (AKT I)

Frédéric Soupa (Batteur Magazine 3-93)

Apart from the reissue on CD of almost all the Magma back catalogue, and their various offshoots, nothing new (actually by Magma) has seen the light of day since the 'Merci' album was recorded in 1984.

Focused on equally passionate musical projects, like Offering, his own jazz trio, or the album by Stella Vander, Christian Vander seemed to have almost buried the realms of Kobaïa to the great consternation of his fans. Very happily, that was not true, as this recent album recorded last summer at the Jazz en Bale festival in Douarnenez testifies. It is not a case of a new Magma in gestation, but rather a retrospective view of the epic created by the rearrangement of part of the repertoire. At the core of the plan is one constant: the omnipresence and singular character of the use of the Voice in Magma for the last twenty years.

So Christian Vander has purified the instrumentation (piano, keyboards, double bass, and rare interventions of drums - which sadly, hardly figure on the album) at the expense of the acoustics of the Voice. The result is gripping, airy and profound. This incantatory chorale imposes an escalating series of "standards" by Magma ('Ëmëhntëht-Rê', 'C'est pour nous', an extract from 'Zëss' and of 'Wurdah Ïtah') in versions which are both powerful and pure gospel. My only regret? The fact that 'Mekanïk' was not included on the CD and the duration (45 min) is a little short. A record to be played over and over, all the same!

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