04-05-94 Théâtre Fémina, Bordeaux (21h, 120F)
Dave Kerman (from the American group U TOTEM, a true chamber-rock band who were influenced by Henry Cow's 'In praise of Learning') has accepted the role of drummer with Roger Trigaux's PRESENT C.O.D. PERFORMANCE. They have an album lined up for an American label (not Cuneiform, because apparently there was some contention about the lyrics on one number). Also scheduled are tours of the States and Europe. So the band is now a guitar duo (Roger and Reginald Trigaux) plus drums.
HAMTAÏ had to cancel their concert in Strasbourg at the end of February, but were hoping to re-schedule it for April or May. (Shades of their ancestor's misfortunes with concert cancellations here).
The ESKATON compact disc release of '4 Visions' which is due this summer on the APM label will also include the tracks from their single, 'Le Chant de La Terre' / 'If.
I hear there was a possibility of a gig by Les Voix de Magma on the west coast of France near the Spanish border this spring.
It is not confirmed yet, but Les Voix de Magma are trying to arrange a series of spectacular concerts with L'Ensemble Orchestral de l'Isère (a symphony orchestra) from March to June 1995. Stella says that one of the problems with this project is the amount / cost of rehearsals that would be required. If these events do reach fruition, a choir of 80 vocalists will back them! (The Choeur de Reims in the north, and the Choeur de La Vallée du Rhône elsewhere). The pieces performed are likely to be 'Les Cygnes et les Corbeaux' and 'Zëss'.
We are fairly reliably informed that the next AKT release will be 'Toulouse 1976'. Meanwhile another bootleg CD 'Mekanïk Zeuhl Wortz' (Kiss No. 39) which is the 2nd part of L'Opera, Reims 2-3-76 has just been released. Please remember the musicians get no money from bootleg sales, avoid Kiss 39, and buy AKT IV instead!
SHYLOCK - the King Crimsonesque progressive band will have both their albums released on two CD's by Musea with a total of eight bonus tracks. At the moment 'Gialorgues' and 'Ile de Fièvre' are only available on vinyl, being Musea reissues. Another long awaited CD reissue is the album by ARACHNOID (recorded in 1979), which will have five extra pieces when the Musea boffins have completed their work.
Francis Grosse and Bernard Gueffier have completed the third edition of their essential book on French Rock music (Progressive, New-Music, Fusion, Electronic, etc but thankfully ignoring the pop/variety albums). 'La Discographie du Rock Francais' was first published in 1984, then corrected and enlarged in 1986. Eight years later it has been updated with the addition of the French Hard Rock scene and Folk/Progressive acts, hundreds of album sleeves are pictured and every band has a complete description in French and English. Each group has their entire record (LP, 45, Maxi and CD) output listed with full reference data. This book is indispensable for any collector of French music.
Faton is playing live with Didier Lockwood again in the Cahen/Lockwood Quartet; they performed in Epernay on the same night as Les Voix de Magma were in Malakoff. Didier also has an eleven-piece Violin Orchestra who will release a CD on the JMS label in April. A rather similar news item is that Yochk'o Seffer has an eleven-piece saxophone ensemble by the name of FOREVER COLTRANE. Guess whose music they play... Forever Coltrane hope to record a CD at the end of May.
Rolf Spengler has been studying the LP by KHAN JAMAL called 'Give the vibes some' (Palm 010) which was recorded in Paris on the 28th of March 1974. This is the album that reportedly featured Christian Vander on drums on the first and third tracks, yet the sleeve credits one Hassan Rashid as the drummer. Rolf investigated this rare jazz record with a friend who is a professional musician and long time Magma fan too. Neither of them has ever heard of Hassan Rashid, which would seem incredible when you realise that the drumming on this album is of a very high technical level. Both our researchers recognised drum structures, which appear absolutely identical to the 1970's versions of 'Ptäh', which are typical of Christian Vander's work. "If you have tapes of these concerts, listen closely to some of Christian's drum solos, in particular from Brussels, Bremen or Hamburg 1974, but also later ones will do, maybe St. Malo 1978 or Draguignan 1983. The hi hat and drums a few minutes after the beginning of 'Pure Energy' on the Jamal LP are identical to parts of the solos mentioned above, especially the Bremen solo. OK the rest of this piece is not typical of Vander's playing. But listen to the power and speed of the drumming. '35,000 Feet Up' starts with a combination of cymbals and toms reminding one of Vander. So do the next cymbals passage, and the combination of cymbals and bass drum. The following section is something you can hear on the tape of 'Ptäh' from Hamburg 74. But then comes the most convincing part. Over the years Vander did that typical combination of two beats on the bass drum and two beats on the hi hat / snare. Listen to the above solos just before they culminate with Vander singing 'Weidoss', or something like that. It is 100% identical for several minutes, and I don't know any other drummer doing these figures." In conclusion, they had no doubt that the drumming really seems to be by none other than Theïus Bïngöh (i.e. Monsieur Vander). We believe that it is another part of the sessions, which were used without Vander's permission, on the other Palm releases ('Fiesta in Drums' and 'Ch. Vander et les 3 Jeffs'). The '3 Jeffs' album had a picture of Christian on the sleeve, this was covered up by an orange paper banner in an attempt to disassociate Vander from the album. To avoid further trouble, the record company presumably used a pseudonym.
Further to Klaus' comments this issue, in an interview in Batteur Mag (4-94), he concludes by saying that his future plans include joining a vocal group... but he told me today that it was not Les Voix de Magma.