Atüh! Atüh! 20h50; a late start for Les Voix de Magma. In a packed hall, underneath the town hall at Bobigny on the northern outskirts of Paris. The familiar detachment of "Les Voix" materialized with Alex and Jean-Christophe wearing Magma shirts with the red emblem and Benedicte in a black gown on the upper right tier. Julie, Isabelle, Stella (wearing the red belt and pixie boots she wore on the flight deck of the Bataclan) and Addie on the upper left of the stage. Simon assailed us with part of 'Ëmëhntëht-Rê' on the Yamaha grand piano aided by Jean-François on electronics and Pierre-Michel on Rhodes and DX7. Then Simon replaced Jean-François on the electronics consoles and Christian entered stage left. Taking over the pianists role, Fleet Admiral Vander sang 'I must return'... it's funny how a song can grow on you when you see it performed often enough, I always have considered 'Merci' an inconsequential album but the songs are more satisfying en concert.
Two thirds of Les Voix left the stage, leaving only Philippe on double bass, Christian on Yamaha piano and Simon on Rhodes. Stella (as ever the Siren) skipped over the web of electrical leads to the centre of the platform behind the still silent drums, for 'C'est pour nous'. Eventually, the others came back on to the stage while Christian attended to some urgent matter in the wings. They performed the instrumental overture to 'Zëss', with Pierre-Michel operating the DX7 with his right hand and Rhodes with his left. Then Zebëhn Strain de Geustaah returned to the centre of the stage and sang the Kobaïan version.
'Ronde de nuit' followed with just Stella, Julie, Isabelle and Alex chanting the refrain and Christian, Simon and Pierre-Michel on keyboards. In some ways, this is the crystallized essence of Les Voix de Magma, the purity of vocals and piano. But the still immature work for Glockenspiel / Electronics / Choir, 'Tous Ensemble' brought the first half to a less than perfect conclusion.
Then the sombre, throbbing (reminiscent of Peter Frohmader's Nekropolis period) began. The electronics tore at the walls and Christian perched himself at last on the drum stool. The next fifteen minutes were an intense sirocco of percussion as the trilogy of "Le temps de la Haine" unfolded. Transporting the hall exactly twenty years into the past, to the time of the quintessential Magma European tour; Strasbourg, Bremen, Hamburg, Brussels, London.... Supreme again in all their majesty, we witness: Christian Vander's MAGMA (true it was "Les Voix", but let me assure you, for the second half of the show at least, this is MAGMA).
'Theusz Hamtaahk's initial percussive storm is always like a trance inducing opiate, your reviewer immediately forgets to take any more notes for the rest of the concert... fleeting images are recalled, but the effect is much like the arrival of the mothership in Spielberg's 'Close encounters of the third kind' - awesome. About half of the 'Wurdah Ïtah' album continues the temporal dislocation with Simon on piano and Christian forsaking the drums for the lead vocals. Then the gates of time are ripped apart by three quarters of 'Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh'. The vocal and keyboard lines on this current version are spellbinding; the drumming is as it always was, out of this world. Time passes and Ïtah has revolved through 30° before the Kobaïan's leave the arena.
1st lieutenant Stella then presents her crew to the people of Ïtah, who are still in a spiritual frenzy. Admiral Vander then leads the Kobaïan's in their final hymn, 'La Marche Celeste', before the beams of crimson light appear and the walls of the Salle Pablo Neruda dissolve, revealing the Seventh Records hypermarket. Suddenly the people of Ork are attacking, bodies scatter and Ehn Aïmaah gets struck down by the full force of the Kobaïan's super weapon, STÖAH.