Magma - Reading Festival - August 25, 1973

A never-before-seen photo of Magma at the Reading Festival. Thanks to my friend Olivier for this.

 

On DIME - TROC - Unreleased Track from 1973

The Kohntarkosz Blog (http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com) is happy to bring you, for the first time ever :

The French Gentleman Tapes - Volume 9

Troc
1973

01 Trick

aud > reel-to-reel (1st gen, mono) > wav > flac

Magmasystems Notes:

Troc was a French band that was active around 1972/3. it is notable for being the band that Jannick Top was in before he joined Magma.

The lineup for this unreleased track is unknown. But, the standard lineup for Troc during this time was the following :
André Ceccarelli (d)
Alex Ligertwood (v)
Jannick Top (b)
Henri Giordano (k)
Jacky Giraudo (g)

Update from user dukecobham on DIME:

This song is "Happiness Is Just Around The Bend" that Alex also sang with Brian Auger's Oblivion Express on the "Live Oblivion" LP from 1975.  The song was originally on the "Closer To It" LP from 1973 (which Alex did not sing on) and was also on the The Main Ingredient LP "Euphrates River" from 1974.

On DIME - Magma - Sanary, France - 1973-07-27

The Kohntarkosz Blog (http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com) is happy to bring you, for the first time ever :

The French Gentleman Tapes - Volume 2

MAGMA

SANARY, France
Cité de la Jeunesse
27 jul 1973

01 Kohntarkosz (Gamma Anteria) (30:15)
02 Sowiloi (Soi Soi) (14:33)
03 KMX BXII (8:53)
04 Stundehr Korusz (7:18)
05 Ptah (19:02)
06 Intro (3:00)
07 Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh (34:25)

Total : 1h57

Christian Vander : dr, v
Klaus Blasquiz : v
Jannick Top : b
Claude Olmos : g
René Garber : cl. contrebasse, v
Michel Graillier : k
Gérard Bikialo : k

aud > reel-to-reel (1st gen, mono) > wav > flac

Magmasystems Notes:

This is the first time that these recordings have been released. The original reels came from "A French Gentleman" who stumbled upon the various Magma blogs and who, as it turned out, had seen Magma several times in the 1970's. The gentleman not only had some assorted photographs, but had recorded various concerts. These tapes made their way to a well known DIME contributor who wishes to remain anonymous at this time. This person spent quite a bit of time digitizing the music and trying to clean up the sound. Some of these efforts were successful, some were not so ... as will be apparent in some later releases. I have dubbed these recordings "The French Gentlemen Tapes", and after about two years, I have been given permission to share these through time. Much thanks go to the Gentleman, as well as Trahnsferheur.

About this recording:

This recording is for die-hard collectors only. There are many, many drop-outs, bleed-throughs, and overall poor sound. However, if you are a fan and a follower of Magma's most formative years, the period from 1973-1974, then this recording is necessary. Collectors of Magma will realize that they played three days before in Marseilles, and that concert was released on DIME several years ago. This was a period of the group where they were trying to make sense of a melange of tunes that included Kohntarkosz, KA, and Om Zanka. Musically, this recording is extremely similar to the Marseilles recording. However, we have something new here .... a 7 minute contrabass clarinet solo from Rene Garber.

Also, bear in mind that, around this time, Magma made a trip to New York City for a few days to play at the Newport Jazz Festival and at the Hippopotamus club. Wouldn't it be amazing if these concerts ever showed up on DIME. Anything is possible.

Covers for the KA Rehearsals (Thanks Planer)

Now on DIME - Magma - The KA Rehearsals - 1973

Magma
Rehearsals for KA (Kohntarkosz Anteria)
1973

Lineage: reel > ? > wav > flac

Brought to you by the Kohntarkosz Blog (http://kohntarkosz.blogspot.com)

This is the very first time that these rehearsals are being released to the general public. Certainly, it is the very first time that they are appearing on DIME.

These rehearsals have been a "public secret" among many die-hard Magma collectors in France for several years. However, in the past year, they have become more widely disseminated to the point where I have been offered these recordings by 3 seperate people on the UZMK-Magma chatroom on Soulseek. So, I figured that it was about time that these recordings were shared on a more "global" basis through DIME.

Magma fans who are specialists of the 1973-74 period (in my opinion, the best formation of the group) have tracked the evolution of the melange known as Kohntarkosz Anteria, first through the famous concert at Pont de Ce in May 1973 (originally recorded by Jacques "MagmaFan" Guiton - http://magma.fan.free.fr/intro_UK.html), then through the incredible concert in Marseilles on July 24, 1973, the famous gig at the Marquee on December 5, 1973, and finally culmitating in my Desert Island Disk, Magma BBC 1974. Each of these gigs shows KA and Kohntarkosz in a state of transition, and shows how Christian Vander constantly tinkered with the music.

Tracks 1-7 are with JP Lambert on bass
Tracks 8-17 are with Jannick Top on bass

When Top's first bass notes are played on track 8, you can immediately tell the difference between
him and Lambert. You knew at that point that Top was going to be something special for Magma.

I hope that with this release, others will decide to share their rare Magma recordings. There is an amazing
concert from Toulouse 1972 (in excellent sound quality) that an extremely small contingent of fans are
keeping to themselves. This concert features a 14 minute version of Dotz Hundin - this is the piece that
Magma sings in a church in the movie Moi Y En A Vouloir Des Sous. Rumor has it that Stella Vander is
considering releasing Toulouse 1972 along with Gibus 1974 on a future AKT release. If you want to see this
music see the light of day, then please write to Seventh Records and make your wishes known. Otherwise, I am afraid that this important music will never see the light of day,

As always, comments are welcome either here or on my Kohntarkosz blog. Unfortunately, many people grab but few bother to comment. If you don't feel comfortable writing in English, then use Google Translator, or write in your own language and we will use Google Translator.

Enjoy. This is a treat for Magma fans.

Magma - Central Park, New York - 1973

This is a photo that was just posted on the Z&B blog by "Le Grand Scanner", Bruno. This photo is from a book called "Rock'n'Roll - Les 100 Premières Fois" by Laurent Quint, and originally comes from the archives of Michael Ochs.

Most probably, this was a promo photo that was used to promote their concert at Carnegie Hall in July, 1973.

Magma - 1973 - Sous Chapiteau

Our good friend, Robert Guillerault from the Magma Web Pressbook, was recently the recipient of some amazing photos from a gentleman named Jean Jacques Le Moëllic. These rare photos are from 1973, and show the best Magma line-up, the one featuring Top, Olmos, Bikialo, and Grallier.

Robert says that Sous Chapiteau is near Pantin, which is a suburb of Paris. He thinks that this might have been the December 2nd gig, but he is not sure. More information would be welcome.

If it is the show from December 2, 1973, then here is the info that Ork Alarm has on the show:

Théâtre du Présent, Porte de la Villette, Paris (16h matinee - 21h second show)
C & S Vander, Blasquiz, Garber, Olmos, Graillier, Top, Bikialo
If we recall correctly the following morsels were thrust upon us: Köhntarkösz, Theusz Hamtaahk, Ptäh, MDK, Om Zanka, Soï-Soï and Gamma Anterïa.

When you see photos like these, it gives you hope that people still have Magma rarities stored in their shoeboxes.

Magma - Cagnes Sur Mer - September 1973

We share our archives freely with the Zeuhl and Beyond blog and with the Magma Web PressBook. When I saw this on the Z&B blog this morning, I knew that I had to poach this and put it here. Thanks to our friend Rodolphe, the photographer.

Best No. 56, March 1973 - Interview with Klaus

Our good friend Rodolphe just posted the scans of this interview on the Zeuhl and Beyond blog. Here is the approximate English translation, as performed by Babelfish. These translations are usually not accurate, but you can get the gist of what Klaus is saying.



Discussion with Klaus BLASQUIZ,
by Christian LEBRUN

Klaus, it is not a singer, it is a cathedral ?. Thus, in the preceding interview, Christian Decamps qualified Klaus Blasquiz, singer of Magma. Klaus Blasquiz has, indeed, an impressive vocal power and uses it with a great originality. With the beater, Christian Vander, it belongs to Magma since the creation of this French group if discussed. Generally, very the strong personality of Christian Vander contributed to relegate to the second plan the character of Klaus Blasquiz. II was thus only time to give him the word, more especially as after deep changes Magma seems today decided to set out again of more beautiful.

Christian Lebrun: II a question has there which is essential: for this summer, since the festival of Châteauvallon, one has little heard of Magma; where is exactly Magma?

Klaus Blasquiz: The second formula of Magma is extinct in September. One dissolved the Magma group, and at the same moment one reformed the group. I.e. makes some there no was dissolution, but there were nevertheless deep changes. II a new formula of Magma has there, already on the level of the instruments. Second formula, he remains Christian Vander, Jean-Luc Manderlier and me. We are now seven: a battery, low, a guitar, a pianist, an organist and two singers. There is a new phenomenon, it is that several musicians play several instruments. A singer plays of the saxes, me I play of the glockenspiel and of the alto saxophone, the organist plays of the alto saxophone, the pianist plays of the alto saxophone, everyone sings.

CL: Which were the principal reasons for the dissolution of the second formula of Magma?

KB: The principal reason is a problem of spirit. II had there people in Magma who did not have the spirit of Magma, and we are happy - them as much as us - to be to us separate; while being happy to have made the experiment of Magma.

CL: Which is this spirit of Magma?

KB: It is a compound: it there with the musical spirit. For the musical spirit, there were problems. François Cahen (the pianist) liked to play the music of Magma but did not take there the maximum pleasure which a musician can test. Francis Moze (the bass player) took really the pleasure, but it had a need for freedom; that it was another problem of spirit, the problem of the spirit of group. II had there another problem, that of the spirit of work: Francis Moze is estimated free to choose its way of working, whereas we, one estimated that it was necessary that it works on certain plans.

CL: Shouldn't the material problems either have arranged the things?

KB: It is well-known that in France the music is a thing of plane tenth. Front, there are the beaujolais wine, steak fried, Camembert cheese, etc Même the song is not really with a choice place. One is under discussion permanent with people who make classical music, and it is a true disaster in France. One can say that it is the country where there are the most drunkards and the country where there is less music. It is a disaster. It is what that the material is very expensive, because people do not make a musical material where hardly start to make ? of it In addition, how to live without money? How want you to repeat for three months by paying drafts every month because you are obliged to pay a truck, etc At the beginning, one had a providential help of an American, and then this debt of twelve million was deferred on Philips which us made the advance of it. And then once one has the material it is necessary to be able to renew it. Now one will sign at A. &. Mr. in the United States, one perhaps will have possibilities of arrangements; the only solution is to find subterfuges, to make use of the name of Magma to have money ?

CL: Which is the assessment of the rounds of Magma the last year?

KB: People come to the concerts from Magma, everyone can note it, people start to be accustomed to the music of Magma. One played in places in France where there had never been nothing. It was the first time that it occurred something there. It is nevertheless serious to note. The result of the round is very positive; but, on another side, one can realize that it would be necessary to make three times more. In France to obtain 10, it is necessary to make 300. II certain countries have there where you make 10 and you obtain 300. On another side, as for Gong, one cannot remain about it there. If one does not go to the United States or to England, one will turn in round.

CL: On is the properly musical level, how directed the new formula of Magma?

KB: The musicians of the new formula have the general spirit of Magma, then the music will be whole, if ever the music of Magma were not whole front; it is the continuity of the music of Magma, it is the evolution of the spirit. There are two things: it there with the music of group, i.e. the pieces composed by the musicians, and then there is Mekanïk Kommandöh ", with the chorus-singers. One is repeating both.

CL: Let us speak a little about the past, if you want. How did you contact Christian Vander and Magma?

KB: I belonged to a group of blues. Then, for six months, I vegetated after having left it. I then wanted to make a group with Claude Engel. II said to me: I am repeating with a group, thus come to a repetition. It was at Pathé Marconi, with the Bridge of Sevres, and I fell on Vander. I had already met it in a studio die repetition and, obviously, I had fallen like a fly, as all people can do it by seeing Christian, especially that in more it was with lamentable musicians, it was a true disaster, and I saw only him, I heard only him. Good, the chance makes me come with Claude Engel and I re-examine it. Unfortunately there was a singer, it was Zabu. II Laurent Thibault with low had there, Claude Engel with the guitar, Rene Garber with the sax, there was Guy Rene, a saxophonist trumpet player who plays with Hallyday, there was an American pianist. II did without the small changes and, at the end of one month, I found myself singer. Laurent Thibaut found producer bass player, and then the group started. One repeated in various places, in particular in a villa with Saint-Rémy Chevreuse. One worked for nine months the first thirty-three double turns. It was at the end of 1969. Thereafter that was elutriated, one found Teddy Lasry, Richard Rault, François Cahen, Francis Moze and then there was Paco which, was to him also at the origin of the group.

CL: How did you react to this new music? In particular with the fact of singing in kobaïen?

KB: II had there for everyone, even for Christian, a total break with all that could have been made before on the pop music plan. It was a radical change. In the beginning, one had very to make; there was the group to create, the music to be created, the disc to be worked, the formula to be created. There were very varied problems, and gestation was a little slow and a little difficult. I had the feeling to return in a dream. I knew what was Christian, I knew what it had in the belly; I had seen it at his place playing of the piano ? When you see Christian playing of the battery or singing while playing of the piano, if you do not include/understand, you never include/understand anything; there is such a current of energy which passes that you can that to be turned over, in a direction or another ? I worked with the kobaïen with him in the beginning, and thus I did not have of evil to adapt me. The kobaïen, at the beginning, they was onomatopoeias, three or four words of onomatopoeias, and then one said oneself: one will make the complete language, one will make the dictionary as long as one is there. That was done progressively. For one year one has worked really above.

CL: Had you posed yourselves the problem to know so yes or not you must sing in French?

KB: The problem was posed, although right from the start it had been decided to sing in kobaïen. And then, to a given moment, one said: hold, it would be funny to make French things. But one returned from there to the reasoning which one had held with the beginning: there does not have problem, the music kobaïenne is not made for French, it is made only for the kobaïen. Possibly, one thought of doing that or in German, or Russian, or Slavic. But, at this moment, why not in English? The language kobaïenne is sometimes hard, sometimes very dry, sometimes very round, very poetic, very Slavic. It was thought that there was no problem on the level of comprehension. People could include/understand, listen to the words very well, even without including/understanding the real, word for word direction. And then, it is not known as that is not done a day.

CL: But isn't it one of the reasons for which some qualified Magma of hermetic?

KB: Hermetic? I am afflicted, on people who listen to pop music, it has of them there really only ten percent which include/understand really English. Personally that makes me a little laugh. There are even people who write on the music and who do not speak English.

CL: Do you remember what ace felt with the first concert of Magma, into 70, with the Theatre of the Music?

KB: I was really with the Skies, and I believe that I was not only. There are many people who had a fantastic surprise. We one was really with the roof of happiness. One was not afraid. One was so sure us, one had prepared our blow so much. One arrived really extremely of that, you see, and there was such an electricity between us and people, it was really fantastic. II had there world, people expected something. And then there was a contact. The groups which passed before us made rock' frankly roll, and there was such a difference of universe between what they heard before and when one arrived ? That did besides on a disproportionate scale compared to the time, that was not passed by again before six months. Maintaining that passes by again itself, one feels that people obtain what they awaited from Magma. They await Magma this species of revival, of new musical birth. II birth did not have there still. Because one says in vain, the rock' roll in the Sixties, did not have birth, that there always was of the continuations. True birth of the music, it did not have there since 1910, since Stravinsky.

CL: For Europe? ?

KB: For Europe. In only one fairy-like bubble, I put Bartok, Stravinsky and Ravel, Debussy. I still do not speak about the contemporaries, because there is a new music which was created, but there is not a new musical ethics. If you prefer, people are not integrated yet as one is integrated into the music of Stravinsky. Or as people were integrated into the music of Made green at the time; all the Italians sang Verdi ? All the Hungarians sang Bartok, Bartok which used Hungarian country topics, and everyone could feel the musical obviousness of Bartok. For us, I think that it is a little the same phenomenon, it would be necessary that people feel the musical obviousness of Magma in Europe. One is currently in a musical bath which does not correspond to us, it is cool water or too hot water, we would need water at our temperature. Water too cold it is Alice Cooper, water too hot it is Stockhausen. It is too. The origin of the music of Stravinsky it is the feeling of the music in Europe. I estimate me that the Russian music, it is the European music. Y does not have other music. II there with the Latin music, remained at a nonadvanced popular stage; there is a Celtic music, which is very beautiful, good, there is somebody who is occupied it is Alan Stivell and it is very well for the principle; but, the gasoline of the music it is the Slavic music, there is only this feeling and when you hear it that pulsates at least as much as the African music.

CL: But finally, by certain sides, and even if that attenuates you continue all the same a tradition resulting from the jazz, blues, rock'n'roll!

KB: II has things there to draw from all. The current musical expression can be done only by listening to all. Even if one does not listen one hears, one bathes inside. One can take the good things of all. There is of Africa in Magma, there is more Africa than of England. II has there of the Afro-American. It is always the folklore, the music first, and Magma wants to be to be a new music first. One would like to be the folk music of Europe. The music is a physiological function, whether it is made it or that it is listened to, like eating, sleeping, to see, breathe, speak. You must do it, if you do not have do not do it you have problems, you have a blocking. Then, there is a rejection of that on another thing: there the plonk has, with puffs out there, the family, certain forms of political militancy. I could note that people, of agreement or not with us and who were militant policies for whom one played, do not like the music, they cannot feel it because they are blocked.

CL: On this subject, you had problems in Bordeaux I believe.

KB: Yes. There was a group of drunkards quia started to re-sift the old saying Magma fascist", they are assembled on scene with kils of red out of plastic and they said to us: drink. One did not want to drink, one was there to make music, one was not content that they stop us. They were not emptied. They understood that one did not deal with them, that one continued, they are descended. And then, i1 had there the Communist League which was there and which took its party to make a event as they say. The event was to prevent us from expressing us. Magma fachos, Magma fachos, one could not play any more. They were fifty and there were seven thousand people.

CL: Which is fascistic Magma the origin of this saying which continues the group since its beginnings?

KB: Until now one did not fight against that. One was what one was. Now, one will fight against that. Because if people do not include/understand what one is one will be obliged to specify it. People do not include/understand anything. Initially, they do not have any direction of humour. For example, they cannot understand that Christian makes a speech. The speech of the first thirty-three double turns, if that resembles Hitler, me I am cleaned! A small man who makes a speech violate that can be only Hitler. It is not Mussolini or another, it is Hitler! Because the large high-speed motorboat, in this moment it is Hitler. You have only to look at the covers of Historia, Thing, etc, Hitler it is the taboo it is the first box which one leaves his brain ? and then a speech that ever saw ? Bon, here are reasons of the misunderstandings at the beginning. Then, then, as we one had fun of that, one does not have of it magnifying glass one to shout Heil Hitler, one had died of laughing to see the connery of people; but one did not think nevertheless that would go up to that point, one did not think that people would come to the concerts to prevent us from playing because supposedly one is fascists. Eh Ben, my old man, one had right there!

CL: On the same topic, there is a reproach that one makes you, and who is less formal and deeper: that to want to restore a European music, vis-a-vis the current preponderance of the musics at base Afro-American, to remind memories of the Wagner style, etc

KB: Yes, but Wagner it is the gasoline of our music. I have stronger feelings with Wagner, Berlioz and all the German opera that with Joe Cocker. However, I like Ray Charles ? Y' does not have a problem one likes the music Afro-American, one played about it, one likes that. But it is not for that one must make our torch of it. II has obvious traces in Magma of them there. But one is neither African nor American. One is it a little now by culture, but one is not it by major feeling, when you go to the United States, you include/understand immediately how you are you. You understand that you have ten percent of what they feel. I would like to see somebody here praising myself to feel it as much as people who like Tamla Motown in the United States. One wants to make music which corresponds to people. People do not live the life of this music. They are not in a black ghetto, they do not live in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco. The music, that has a social origin. One cannot make music Afro-American in France by really feeling it. One does not want to prevent people from playing of the music Afro-American, but one wants to show them that they will never manage to be exploited there completely, to be discovered there.

CL: But since the beginnings of the rock'n'roll in Europe, one arrives now at two or three generations accustomed to this sound. You do not think that there can be habituation with long?

KB: Not, they are not accustomed with the sound. You have only to listen to the groups when they play, they play French, and that feels. On the other hand, which is important, since two or three generations, it is that people learn how to play of an instrument, which is important it is the phenomenon of group.

CL: What brought mainly Giorgio Gomelsky to you?

KB: Giorgio Gomelsky, it is the mythical being which everyone hopes for. One awaited Giorgio Gomelsky. It is François Cahen, the pianist, who knew that Giorgio was in Paris. One made a concert for a.J.S. with Reciprocity and one asked him to come. It was just at the time of the second album. The first words which he said it is: Listen, the guys the music of Magma they are fabulous, but you are the kings of the idiots ? because with the music whom you have, for the musicians whom you have, it is necessary absolutely that you do something to make known to you. One made at the time only one concert per month. II made work coppers which played with partitions. II made them work so that they learn all by C ? ur. Giorgio was the first to be really dealt with the production of Magma. And i1 created this famous circuit of Houses of Young people which has enabled to us to really be able to play in front of people. Front, one played very very little in province. This year, one did an utmost of concerts. One is one of the groups to have made the most concerts in France, with the most success. There were the price of the Academy of the disc. And one in spoken forever. Nobody in the press gives an account of the concerts. If people want to know Magma, it is necessary especially that they come to see us on scene. It is very important.

December 1973 - Best No. 65 - Review of MDK

Magma is really something else. It is difficult to be precise because Magma abolishes all our habits: more labels, more comparisons possible. The music of Vander and his fellow night explodes fiercely in its originality. Another thing ... It seems to come of elsewhere, but we can not reach whether the choirs and the songs from beyond the world from a cold and distant planet or if they awaken in us, deep within us themselves, the echoes of who knows what eternal rites. Finally, it fails to grasp the art of Magma by images. The impressions that we offer are so foreign to our imagination in the cloistered habits, our poor words heavy with reality that only images can try to echo these strange harmonies. Magma is not to judge, criticize, is impossible at best can evoke, from afar, as a galactic explorer trying to describe the radio beautiful dreams of a new universe. More importantly, we must enter the temple and forced to live music that was the sacred place of worship millennium.

What more precisely, however, that "Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh? A work, if not a masterpiece, surprise at a time in its history. Several times already we had heard in concert this impressive series, and each time she seemed different, she lived and she still lives, to change. Sometimes the horns in the ascendant, sometimes the flute Lasry. Here, the work has reached a lyrical flourish. Yes, lyrical, like an opera, the first lyrical rock truly deserve the name. The voice of Vander, Blasquiz, and gorgeous choruses to perform on their own space on this disc. Rhythms dry, often quaternary responses, a complex lyrical composition entirely due to Vander takes you far from the magic of these songs, incantations that extend the optical side 1 of "1001 ° centigrade, that is say they still reinforce the novelty of Magma and is one of the most current rock pioneers. As for music, she fiercely chanting the chorus: low buzzing, relentless drums, brass swirling. It is worth noting the excellent performance of Claude Olmos whose undulating guitar gives the whole dimension unreal. It's really fantastic.

Magma, once again, opened in our sphere of boredom and smoke, the breach of the dream. So that is a great disc to rhyme almost nothing compared to what it offers beyond. The work ...

March 31 1973 - Poitiers

A few clippings from the newspaper Centre Press announcing the Magma gig at the Palais des Sports in Poitiers. This was one of the first gigs for Jannick Top in Magma. There seems to be a lot of confusion around these early dates, and correlating various recordings with the dates.

There does not seem to be a recording from this date. French fans ... please check your shoeboxes!

On DIME - Troc, September 8, 1973

-TROC-

LA COURNEUVE, France
Fête de l'Humanité
08 sep 1973

01 Intro (2:08)
02 Kali Lo (5:28)
03 Truth Vérité (9:04)
04 Stick Time (7:56)
05 Did you ever (6:15)

Total : 31'

Alex Ligertwood : voc
André Ceccarelli : dr
Francis Moze : b
Jacky Giraudo : g
Henri Giordano : k

aud > reel-to-reel (mono, 1st gen) > wav > flac
[This tape is damaged, hence the frequent dropouts and speed fluctuations].
Uploaded by Uncle Meat, 2009

Rock et Folk No. 78 - July 1973

Rock'n'roll in Phrance
MAGMA

R & F: Above all, let us liquidate this history of fascistic Magma, I suppose that weighs you a little.
Klaus: It is a myth which was diffused starting from pewters: on the one hand coming musicians who jalousaient us because we work. It was a vague noise, at the beginning, which was propagated of word of mount, and some critical, by ignorance or stupidity, hastened to transmit.

R & F: But was that concretized how for the public?
Klaus: The misunderstanding started before the first disc. At the time, Philippe Paringaux had come to the one from our repetitions and had made a formidable, marvellous article for us. But he said in a passage: “Christian Vander rises and makes a speech which could recall…” ; as of this moment, people came to see us on scene only because of this sentence a little ambiguity. They thought: “Hold, it will make the speech in Hitler”. At the beginning, that amused us and we outraged the thing much: what could appear equivocal a time became clear. People badly included/understood this sentence of Paringaux: they have their small racks, then they draw the rack “Hitler”. They came to see us at the end in the concerts: “It is true that you are Nazis?” We, one marrait ourselves like the insane ones, but in fact we were taken with our own play: certain journalists started to spread themselves: “Fascistic, pretentious Magma”, without us ever to have seen nor heard. It is there that the first furious interventions took place to prevent our concerts.
Christian: We never stopped a concert because of them.

R& F: You always scorned to explain you on these circumstances. Nothing was regulated, on the contrary!
Christian: We do not have to explain us with people who come especially for exhiber and who have in any event never anything to answer us. If they are really too weak not to realize that Magma was the first to create a circuit in concerts apart from the system, a circuit with 7 F the place where the musicians come in residence, everywhere, which they cops will spend in Olympia between three rows wisely their tickets. There, they will see what is really Fascism. Now, I would like that one speaks any more this business because that has nothing to do with Magma, really nothing.

R & F: How do you locate the music of Magma compared to the jazz and to the rock'n'roll?
Klaus: It is very difficult to define it in these terms. If one must be something, it is an rock group, surely not a jazz band!

R & F: However, Vander is “a seasoned veteran of the jazz”, even if the jazzmen fulminate because of its treason.
Christian: Because I play the pop one, I play binary. The musicians of jazz are turned sour because they feel forsaken; hardly one or two clubs survived Paris, and those which trail there do not vary: it does not occur anything any more in jazz. They see that those that they adored more it there has four years, when I was going to make ox with the Cat Which precisely Fishes where me was called the twister (I was rather proud) because of my binary play, these play binary! They cannot understand that the music widens blow very, they are believed betrayed when Miles Davis, the standard jazzman, gives up the ternary one (shabada, pulsation jâse) with the profit of rhythmic nearer to the rock'n'roll, whereas they came just, after thirty years of effort, to put itself at the ternary one! Free, bebop, all that are schools, vaults, a very restrictive and contained corporatism. Then, which one does is not at all jazz.
Klaus: Me, I found a formula for Magma: front, we were a group of advanced rock'n'roll with skilful musicians who played of the advanced rock'n'roll. Now, we will make a spiritual music. If you want, it is a little the practice of the “advanced” rock'n'roll which carried out us there, but it is the spirit of the musicians which changed in contact with the music.

R & F: Therefore, they are these three years in ceaseless concerts which led you to understand that the music of Magma had changed, or at least, that it had been specified much in your projects.
Klaus: II progression without jolt of the music had there, but I insist: it is before all the spirit which evolved/moved; we want to make a music with “pure” people. Beefheart chose men who were close to him but which had never played only one note. We, we seek musicians who exceeded any technical concern.
Christian: How the new bass player, Jannick Signal, an initiate, wise!

R & F: Does that mean that the musicians of before did not seek to exceed the performance?
Klaus: Yes, I believe, but not absolutely. It was rather their direction which had nothing to do with the spirituality of Magma.
Christian: Moreover, if you want, we come all from very different cultural horizons, and it is precisely this ethnic diversification which created the force of this music. For example I am with the German three-quarter, a Polish quarter and Gipsy. Klaus, is to him Basque with hundred percent. That also avoids us falling into a poor parochialism: French music, rough red wine, erection of the statue of Guy fried Luxes and steak.

R & F: Then, where is the music of Magma now? For eighteen months the public has especially attended the gestation of “Mekanïk Kommandöh”.
Christian: One can distinguish three phases in the music from Magma: discs, “Mekanïk Kommandöh”, and afterwards. On scene, from now on, it is after “Mekanïk”, to put people in a position to receive the new music, which the third phase will begin. It will be based on hypnotism.
Klaus: Absolutely. The first time that we played “Mekanïk Kommandöh” was the revolving one towards this spiritual music about which we speak. Impossible to further go if one had not included/understood, felt…

R & F: Felt up to which point?
Klaus: So much so that people leave while crying, as that arrived to Belgium, with only the piano and the voices, so much so that they are not able any more to be rehabilitated with reality, than they are said: “One cannot live any more like that, it is necessary all to change”.

R & F: In this case, two possibilities contradictory: the music of Magma wants to be a drug, or a more or less clear call to the revolution.
Klaus: Yes, with a kind of interior revolution. The music of Magma, it is the discovery of the man. It is a music of change. If the music of our time is sincere, it becomes timeless. Bach and Beethoven one does that of their time, one can listen to them now very well.
Christian: We would have many things to say on the spirituality of the music.

R & F: While speaking about Magma, one can really say YOU?
Christian: Yes. Now there is spiritual communion. Direction of our music changed forever: front, we sought already a climate of hypnosis, but we were not, me especially, enough strong spiritually to reach it; i.e. to try to reach an image to be it perfect which governs us, which governs the universe and its inhabitants. This image we let us call it KREUHN-KOHRMAHN.

Remarks collected by MIDDLE-CLASS François DUCRAY and Guillaume.
Rock'n'roll & Folk n° 78 - July 1973

Review of Magma at the Hippopotamus Club, New York July 1973

I captured this image from an old auction on EBay. Sam Sutherland was a staff writer for Billboard magazine. This is the only evidence that I have ever seen that Magma played at the Hippopotamus Club in New York in 1973.

Basically, Mr. Sutherland did not like Magma too much. He thought that they were a bit pretentious.

Rare Poster - Magma Poitiers March 31, 1973

Thanks to Franck for a photo of this rare and important poster. This was a festival in Poitiers, France on March 31st, 1973. This date was not mentioned in the "Magma On Tour" section of the Ork Alarm website, but it does show up in Aymeric Leroy's list of Gong gigs.

One week before, Magma played a festival in Clermont Ferrand, and luckily, an audience recording of that concert exists.

Best Magazine 1973 - The Superb Return of Magma

Best Magazine March 1973 - Interview with Klaus Blasquiz

MAGMA - Chatellerault, France - January 31, 1973

The things that keep coming out of people's vaults are absolutely incredible. The Magma Web Press Book just posted a series of 11 photos of Magma playing at the Salle de la Plaine d'Ozon in Chatellerault on January 31, 1973. The photos were taken by Alex Sergent.

According to Ork Alarm, the lineup was C & S Vander, Blasquiz, Garber, Lambert, Manderlier, Bikialo.

Magma - Marquee, London December 5, 1973

Sometimes, a piece of memorabilia comes your way which just totally blows your mind. People who know me know that my introduction to Magma came from Steve Lake's review of the concert that Magma performed at The Marquee in London on December 5th, 1973. Thanks to Steve Davis, we now have another memory of that concert.

Stundehr - Mulhouse, Nov 24, 1973

Photo from our friend, Guy Mas. He remembers that Top was reading sheet music during this concert.