The Legends of Magma

Well, it’s time for me now to say few things about my old friends, Magma. Who are they? It has never been easy for anybody to write about Magma since 35 years. I saw them 3 or 4 times in the early 70’s - I even promoted one of their concerts in 1973 - but still it is difficult for me to translate in words what is the music of that group. If I say Kobaian-rock, you won’t understand. Jazz-rock or rock-jazz, perhaps, with a huge John Coltrane influence mixed with an Igor Stravinsky inspiration. Some people said that Magma were the godfather of post-rock… Who knows? They start playing in 1969.

On stage, they are all dressed in black wearing a gold medal (see the picture of the DVD). In the middle of the stage, Christian Vander, the leader of Magma, stands behind his drums. He is for me one of the most important drummers of all time. When they sing, it is simple because it’s in "kobaïen", some kind of a mystique language mixing Latin, German or Russian… that nobody understand. But it’s a language from the heart, a powerful instrument for Magma.

So what about now? May 2005 Magma took over Paris venue The Triton for 4 weeks with an ambitious, over the top project – a retrospective of 35 years of Magma music showcasing some of the best known pieces from the years 1970 to the present. These 4 sell out weeks were, without any shadow of doubt, a major success which more than paid back the enormous amount of effort needed to get these 8 hours of music into full focus.

This is the first of a series of 4 DVDs which capture these unforgettable moments for posterity, where the joy of playing this outstanding music is only equalled by the rapturous response of the audience. His name: Mythes et légendes - 35 years of Music - Vol. 1 (July 2006).

Few examples of Magma’s music:
Magma - Ima Suri Dondai .mp3
Magma - Zess (stream) .mp3
Magma - Kohntarkosz .mp3
Magma - KA.1. mp3
Magma - KA.2 .mp3

Web : seventhrecords.com
Myspace : myspace.com/magmaofficial