Zukunft - June 6 1993 Paris - Available on DIME

Zukunft
Théâtre Clavel
Paris, France
06-06-93 (June 6th, 1993)


Tracks
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1. Kohntarkosz
2. De Futura
3. KMX BXII
4. MDK


Musicians
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Luke Vejux - vocals
Julie Vander - vocals
Isabelle ??? - vocals (this is not Isabelle Feuillebois)
Philippe Bussonet - bass
Vincent Dupuy - Fender piano and moog
James MacGaw - guitar (and twin keyboards at one point)
Marc Delouya - drums
Rene Garber - sax (special guest)




This is the first time that this recording has been circulated on the Internet.

Mr. Barfix, who is on DIME as DeFuturist, asked me to seed this concert for him. Zukunft was a band who performed covers of Magma. For historical perspective, I have enclosed part of an email that Mr. Barfix sent to me, as well as a review from the Ork Alarm website.


Mr. Barfix sent me the following email along with the recording.

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This is the first time you will see this concert on the Web, i have the only existing tape (i think) of this... and you are the first person I share with ;-)

At this period i was a "groupie" (huge fan) of XAAL and I was very close with them... I took bass courses with Nicolas Neimer (the bassist) and I played in 1995 with Jad Ayache (the guitarist). He played keyboards on our Mekanik...

for your memory, some links :

http://advitamweb.free.fr/Histoire.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66DOTeVnHBU&feature=player_profilepage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4FWNH7ySdk&feature=related

so, as usual, I was at this concert with them and I gave a 100 mins tape to the brother-in-law of Patrick Boileau (the drummer). He was managing the soundboard of the show and he recorded to me this first part of XAAL concert : Zukunft.

This tape was sleeping at my home since this time...and a few weeks ago, a friend of my friend Yann encoded the tape for me :-) so cool !!!!

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The review below of the Zukunft set was taken from the Ork Alarm website:
http://www.orkalarm.co.uk/orkalarm15/15_zukunft.htm

The recording that Mr. Barfix gave us is from the 2nd night (June 6), where Zukunft was "less nervous", but did not play Om Zanka.

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ZUKUNFT
Théâtre Clavel - Paris (05-06-93)

During the half-hour interval after Xaal's set, the crowd sprawled out into the sunshine to cool down; it was that hot inside the theatre. I popped backstage to meet René Garber and Stella Vander.

Soon the crowd swarmed back into the still steaming auditorium for the ZUKUNFT show. Their set started with 'Köhntarkösz' a full thirty-five minute version. The new additions to the group were Luke Vejux the male vocalist in a red T-shirt who left out some of the vocal parts when he seemed to forget the lyrics and Julie Vander (Aïna Kobaïa) who was quite low in the mix, making it difficult to hear everything she sang clearly. The core musicians of Zukunft were: Philippe Bussonet on bass, Vincent Dupuy on Fender piano and moog, James McGaw on guitar (and twin keyboards at one point) and naturally their leader is still Marc Delouya on red Gretsch drums.

I felt that Luke was struggling a bit and it probably was not helped by some of the audience who sang along - noticeably filling in all the original parts that Luke missed. Apart from that, Zukunft have improved with a great leap since I saw them in March 1991. The performance was competent, although lacking a lot of the zest that a real Magma show would have. Overall this was more than an adequate alternative.

The vocalists left the floor, (there is no stage as such at the Théâtre Clavel) and the instrumentalists stormed through a cracking version of 'De Futura' with some titanic bass playing from Bussonet - shut your eyes and it becomes a real Magma concert from the seventies in parts. At the start the bass seemed a little slow and stilted but gradually the keyboard parts enhanced the interpretation and Philippe's bass took on a growling omnipresence. After ten minutes, McGaw stopped playing guitar and played the synth siren section. They followed this with 'KMX - B XII' with Zukunft still a quartet. When the vocalists came back at the end of this instrumental diversion, there were three of them. A redhead called Isabelle had joined them.

After a wavering start the opus 'Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh' was reasonably successful, perhaps not quite as tight as it should have been, and hampered by the lacklustre acoustics of the theatre. There was no P.A. system to speak of, just the main amplifiers and monitors. I guess that with a reasonable amount of rehearsal, particularly on the first ten minutes, and in a decent acoustic environment they will steadily improve. Still it is always an impressive song to hear live. Of course one great advantage of this line-up's version of 'MDK' is the presence of electric bass, played in Jannick Top's style. In the third quarter of the piece, the special quest came forward from the audience and plugged in his Yamaha WX7 electric sax - it was Stöht Wurdah Melekaahm Stündëhr!

René jammed along, trading riffs with McGaw and filling out the sound very well. But it seemed as if he was not a real part of the group as yet. For an encore the group returned with Stündëhr on WX7 sax again to play a terrific 'Om Zanka'. Looking back now, I think 'Köhntarkösz' was the best part of their show, because it is one piece I had not seen live for almost twenty years. That, for me, is the principal justification for a cover's band. I want more!

There is of course an obvious danger for a cover's band such as Zukunft: How can you observe their performances without at least sub-consciously comparing them to the originals? And with such unique original musicians as Jannick Top and Christian Vander there is no chance that any imitators can match their skills. Klaus Blasquiz's vocals with Magma are also impossible to recreate totally successfully. From that point of view a Magma cover's band has an insurmountable battle. When they play pieces that Magma can no longer perform, such as 'De Futura' and to an extent 'Köhntarkösz', they succeed because many of the audience have never had a chance to see this material in concert. But with 'Mekanïk' which is still being played by Magma and LES VOIX DE MAGMA, the comparisons are unavoidable.

I accept that it is totally unfair to compare any group's live performance with the studio albums. But I feel that ZUKUNFT should concentrate on the material that Magma are unlikely to perform again, or develop their own material. Their musicianship is proven, and they are certainly entertaining - but the survival of a cover's band, playing material of limited appeal is unlikely. Having said that - you should still go to see them, because opportunities to see MAGMA themselves perform are very rare and, for us Zeuhl fans at least, these classic works deserved to be heard live.

Théâtre Clavel - Paris 06-06-93

The following evening, Xaal had started their show quite late in the afternoon, therefore Zukunft's set started later than planned. Because of this they had to drop 'Om Zanka' from their set, but otherwise the 6th of June show was almost the same as above. Many of the problems with the acoustics had been sorted out and the vocalists were more confident and less nervous. An even more enjoyable show, except for the lack of the great rendition of 'Om Zanka' - speaking to René Garber before the show he had confirmed that this would be played. It's just a shame that the the ran out and presumably someone else required the hall later that night.