MAGMA is the French band with possibly the biggest impact on Anglo-American music of the modern era; a band that invented a new language for their vocals and created a whole new musical genre of its own. This genre is called “Zeuhl” (meaning “heavenly” in the language of Kobaïan) and to this day there have been numerous bands that are being attributed to this specific genre. In October MAGMA will be playing several concerts in Germany (for more European dates please see the bands’ website -LINK)
The style MAGMA has been creating since 1969 often is described as a branch of progressive rock. But the rhythmically intricate fusion music of the Frenchmen incorporates elements of Jazz (like sort of a John Coltrane or Sun Ra), of classical music (Carl Orff, Igor Strawinski) as well as eastern European folklore (like i.e. in MAGMA’s nearly sacred choral singing). The unique compositions by mastermind Christian Vander are completed with futuristic to philosophical contents.
The lyrics’ main themes deal with the imaginary planet Kobaïa, the immigrants from earth and extra-terrestrial rescuers of the world. Besides Science Fiction fans a lot of MAGMA’s followers do like the harder rock stuff. Maybe that is because Motörhead, Mötley Crüe or Queensrÿche loved the “umlauts” of the Kobaïanic language which is based on German and Slavic so much. Or it is because the genre Zeuhl has always been enriched with heavier and metallic ingredients especially by Japanese bands.
In their home country Christian and Stella Vander’s band has always sold well but today they are being celebrated by an audience in the United States and South America, in Japan and China as well – which is substantially younger these days.
The following MAGMA products are available:
– Zühn Wöhl Unsai – Live 1974