VORTEX

VORTEX were a Zeuhl octet from Lyon, there were at least two other groups by the same name, one was a late 80's French thrash band and another was an industrial trio from New York led by Ralph Blauvelt. I vaguely recall a Dutch band too. Formed in 1975 by Jacques and Jean-Pierre Vivante, originally choosing the name URANTIA, the French Vortex were a formidable group cut off from all classification. Their first release in June 1975, 'Vortex' (JBP 463) was an excellent original progressive rock album (with Bartokian influences perhaps) The album is quite short, but contains some very interesting tracks, in particular 'Haroun Thasckouack' and 'Délicieuse créature' which have an addictive tendency. The line-up was a quintet with François Gerald (drums), Gerard Jolivet (sax) and Jeff Trouillet (flute and percussion). For the first two years, they produced a very complex and elaborate music, highly constructed where the arrangements held predominance. Meanwhile their stage performances were augmented by the presence of Yves Claire on flute and Yves Bourget on vocals.

In 1977 the formation was like two big bands; the main section with Jacques Guillot (saxes) and Gerard Jolivet (soprano sax, the rarely used bass sax and principally bass clarinet); then there was the percussion section - drummer Jean-Michel Belaich with Alain Chaleard and Maurice Sonjon who used a formidable array of xylophone, vibraphone, bells and other percussives; between the two, Jacques and Jean-Pierre Vivante held respectively bass and keyboard roles and were responsible for the musical conception and the orchestral direction. That summer Christian Boissel who doubled on oboe, English horn and electronic keyboards joined them.

Vortex's second album, recorded and mixed in 77/78 was assuredly Zeuhl influenced, yet in concert they presented a pastiche of many styles. In May 1979 they toured France extensively (Lyon, Troyes, Auxerre, Dijon, Vaulx-en-Velin...) to promote their new album 'Les Cycles de Thanatos' (FLVM 3008). The music was no less original just because it revealed references to the whole contemporary repertoire, from Stravinsky's 'Symphonies for wind instruments' and Debussy's 'The death of Saint-Sebastien' to McLaughlin's 'My Goal's Beyond' via Ravel, Messaien (whom J.P. Vivante quotes awkwardly for 15 seconds out of the 25 minutes of 'Cycles'), Varese, Robert Fripp (as in a few bars of 'Prolégomènes'), Soft Machine, Caravan, even Zappa.

With the exception of 'God is Good For You, John', dedicated to John McLaughlin - a piece in the spirit of the first Mahavishnu Orchestra album (first side of 'My Goal's Beyond'), the album presented the serious aspect of Vortex (the others, on which their concerts placed greater accent, were the satirical side, the jazzy/funky facets, and the theatrical - even spectacular when the group were joined by actors and dancers on special occasions). Two fascinating pieces remain: 'Prolégomènes' and 'Cycles de Thanatos', which both show the exceptional qualities of composition and orchestration of the Vivante brothers. 'Cycles', as the title indicates, is a recurrent theme, structured in a spiral manner; the theme is exposed in the first bars by the woodwinds, varied and enriched, either as the orchestration fills out and emphasises each instrument in turn (the woods, the horns, the percussion, the keyboards...) or in the composition itself - harmony, rhythm, timbre. The piece develops in a slow, sombre and irresistible progression, it swells up to a paroxysm: 'Thanatos' - death.

Likewise for 'Prolégomènes' (first acquaintances in the scientific field) which also fits its title well, the composers progressively integrate their many "references", in a luminous synthesis of ALL western music from the last fifty years: there are the higgledy-piggledy writing techniques ranging from Glenn Miller arrangements to the fury of Robert Fripp's '21st Century Schizoid Man' or to Stravinsky. It is an accomplished art to develop this musically with a sense of structural unity which is absolutely foreign to the anecdotism of rock and which straightaway hauls up the Vivante brothers to the level of the best composers of their generation. 'Prolégomènes' and 'Cycles de Thanatos' are on a par with 'Lizard' or 'Köhntarkösz'; they just needed more of the flamboyance (or the power) of 'Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh' for the music of Vortex to reach its zenith.

At the International festival of Lyon, for their two concerts on the 26th and 28th of June 1979 at the l'Odéon de Fourvière, Vortex had the splendid idea of inviting the musicians of Art Zoyd. Together they played 'Les Cycles de Thanatos' (with AZ's string section) and Art Zoyd used the occasion to present (with members of Vortex), their 'Musique pour l'Odyssée'.

On the 22nd of October 1979, they opened a festival of new music entitled "Ecoute" in Paris. They played a variety of instruments and produced a music that was rich in sound colours, but a little too linear and flat to retain the audience's attention. UNIVERS ZERO, ART ZOYD and XALPH followed them that evening. Like Xalph, they had not found their own level at that time, the incongruity of their live presentation showed that whilst 'Cycles' exhibited a methodical construction on the same level as WEIDORJE and Art Zoyd, in concert they still had outrageous jazz-rock influences to shed, and needed to learn more about dynamics and to further strengthen the compositions.

By February 1980 the group were enriched by a guitarist, Bernard Monerri, and a second keyboard player, Michel Tardieu, who both came from that other classic Lyonnais group: TERPANDRE. The newcomers joined the brothers Vivante (still on bass and keyboards), with percussionists Vincent Daune and Bruno Heitz as well as Jacques Guillot and Gerard Jolivet (winds). In March that year they made a final tour of twenty concerts in the south and the east of France, climaxing on the 28th at the Bourse du Travail in Lyon. They then planned to stop and record their third album, which was to be called 'Greatest Hits', a title that showed they certainly had a sense of humour! After that they intended to tour central and west France. The grand scheme was to release the third album on their own. "Vortex Diffusion" label after that, and then tour Germany. Vincent Daune had also worked with Terpandre in the spring of 1978, temporarily replacing their drummer. Two years later he was able to help Terpandre get their album released on Vortex's label.

The third album sadly was never released, but when these plans were revealed, the Vivante brothers spoke briefly about the changes in style envisaged for 'Greatest Hits'. After the very recurrent and slightly static writing of 'Cycles', Vortex intended to place the accent on the rhythmic impact, perhaps to the detriment of the extreme subtlety of timbres, but with a more balanced feel than the first two releases. The strength of the guitar and the new drummer added new blood to Vivante's music. In particular the mellotronist Michel Tardieu composed two superb tracks for the projected album. But 1980 was the time of New Wave and progressive music, particularly the inventive variety, was rapidly becoming unfashionable and hence unmarketable. Vortex was finally disbanded later that year. One can only hope that the tapes of the "third" album still lie in some vault in Lyon, waiting for people like Musea to blow the dust off them. 'Les Cycles de Thanatos' surely deserves a reissue, and perhaps the other albums could at least provide bonus material.

In May 1980 a new band emerged on the French rock scene, going by the name of THANATOS. I can only guess that there may have been some relationship to Vortex, possibly the last line-up without the Vivante brothers? I have not been able to trace any information about Thanatos (the group) except that they played gigs in St. Hilaire on 31-05-80 and Chateauroux on 07-01-81. In October 1986, ANAMORPHOSE the jazz fission group (with pronounced Zeuhl tendencies which they blended with Zappa influences) from Annecy, recorded a live album, side one of which exhibits many similarities to the music of Vortex.