17-02-95 Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
03-03-95 Théâtre Gabrielle Dorziat, Place Mendes France, 51200 Epernay
11-03-95 Musique de Nuit, La Médoquine, Talence-Bordeaux.
27-03-95 to 15-04-95 Espace Kiron, 75011 Paris.
From Magma, the mythical group of the Seventies, in '82 was born Offering:
a more acoustic formation composed of ten singer musicians where keyboards and
voices hold a preponderant place. As in Magma, one finds there the unclassifiable
music and magic composed by Christian Vander.
Fascinating blends of African music, classical, jazz and rhythm 'n' blues, Offering
contain both the symphony and the requiem, the big band and Stravinsky, Bach
and John Coltrane. But it is above all the music of Vander, a music of passion,
faith and poetical madness.
A singular Creator devoted body and soul to the music of John Coltrane, a mythical
drummer but above all a unique composer, for 25 years Christian Vander has pursued,
on the edge of fashion, his utopia and his quest for the absolute truth.
First of all, sincere apologies to readers of the first print batch of issue #23... We were told that one of the Jazz 'Velanet Festival organizers had heard that the OFFERING concert on the 11th of November 1994 was deferred until spring 1995. This was later proven to be untrue, the promoters put this down to 'a bad joke' - unfortunately some readers subsequently cancelled their trips to Lavelanet and evidently missed an excellent gig. Everyone involved in this sorry episode is mortified by this error...
Claude Salmeri, Jannick Top and Eric Seva have apparently formed a new group dubbed STS. They gave some incredible demonstrations of their music on the Pearl stand at a music business exhibition in Paris last October. If this was not a one-off event, we all hope they manage to arrange some concerts soon.
Now we have some more bad news - this time it comes direct from Georges Besnier of Seventh Records - Christian Vander's winter solstice residency in Paris had to be delayed until April 1995. Christian had planned to present his new work 'A Tous les Enfants' with a show specifically geared towards a young audience. The music is for voices, keyboards and double bass (with no loud instruments) and an integral part of the performance will be a magician. However due to some unspecified problems with the magical elements of this set, the shows have all been postponed. Current plans are for a residency at the Espace Kiron, between the 27th of March and 15th April 1995, the exact dates have now been confirmed but always check with the Vander Hotline before travelling. On some of those days there will be matinée performances at 16h30 and evening concerts will start at 20h30. The good news is that Christian's new album 'A Tous Les Enfants' was released on the l2th December, and it was presented in Paris on the l5th December, see concert review on page 15.
Now a really spectacular 'scoop' - Francis Linon told our intrepid reporter at Lavelanet that FUSION will reform for just one concert in 1995. Yes that's right; Benoît Widemann, Christian Vander, Didier Lockwood and ... Jannick Top together again in Talence-Bordeaux on Saturday the 11th March 1995. Patrick Duval who has contacted Benoît, Christian and Didier is organizing the concert and they have all agreed to play. A variation of this story, from Georges Besnier (Seventh) is that the gig is to celebrate the 15th anniversary of JMS Records (who released 'Fusion' on LP with different sleeves in 1981 and 1982 and eventually as a CD in April 1991) and that Christian was the first to sign the contract. Talence is a suburb, less than 5km from the main railway station in Bordeaux itself. Further information from Francis Linon (Cyborg) suggests that it is possible that FUSION could play a few more concerts in France. However, Jean-Marie Salhani (JMS Records) has said he is worried that Jannick may not be available due to his other commitments. Book your place now!
'La Légende du Golf Drouot - (1959-1981)' (Polygram 525-133-2) is a new triple CD box set celebrating the singers and groups who played at this important French club during its 22 year history. One of the sixty-six pieces included is 'Mekanïk Kommandöh' by MAGMA, this version is believed to have been taken from the Philips single release. A single CD version with the Magma track is also available (Polygram 525-136-2).
Antoine de Caunes, who is known in the UK for his deliberately crass TV shows such as 'Rapido' and 'Eurotrash', in France for the rock music programme 'Chorus' and the more sophisticated chat show format of 'Nulle par ailleurs', would like to make 'an evening of Christian Vander's music' for Canal+ TV. He would sincerely like to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Magma. However, we understand that neither Stella nor Christian are interested in a Magma reunion. Antoine de Caunes, is the author of the 1978 book 'Magma' (ISBN 2-226-00563-3) published by Editions Albin Michel. In the late 70's and early 80's Antoine presented Magma in concert on 'Chorus' on the Antenne 2 channel.
We hear that Harmonia Mundi are enthralled by Christian's latest album (reviews next issue.... if you write them in time) and want to do a special promotion for it... no further info as yet. We definitely got the impression that this means Harmonia Mundi (UK) will be pulling all the stops out for this one.
Muséa are working on the reissue of 'Ghilgoul' by NEFFESH MUSIC (i.e. Yochk'o Seffer) and thankfully they have finally got permission to release JEAN-PAUL PRAT's superb album 'Masal'. Their next Zeuhl releases will be 'Osiris' by ZAO and HONEYELK's fascinating Stoyz vi Dozévéloy'. Other Muséa projects for 1995 include the albums by ARACHNOÏD, FRANCOIS BRÉANT and RHESUS O.
There is a double CD bootleg of Magma called 'Brussels 74'. It is a limited edition of 300 copies on the Japanese Spiral label (Spiral 001-002), I don't know where you can get it in Europe. The sound quality of this one is no better than the audiotapes of this show, which are in general circulation. I would guess it was produced from a fourth generation copy of the original tape. I understand that there is another oriental version of the double CD available on the Yakuza label - presumably distributed by the Japanese Mafia. 'Crystal Infos' claims there is a bootleg of the BBC 14-3-74 session on the Akhenaton label - but I suspect this is a mistake.