Artist: Magma
Label: Seventh Records
Released: 1992
Rating: 4.6/5
After a few years off and some experimenting with rather different music in The Offering, Christian Vander decided in the early nineties to bring Magma back to life. One of the first gigs was the so-called “Les Voix” in France, where the band shows up in a very different guise. Not only did Vander gather a completely new crew around him (apart from his wife Stella, every face is new), the sound itself has been radically transformed. This time Magma has an enormous number of musicians on board, at least by their standards – no fewer than eight vocalists (his wife plus daughter Julie), two keyboardists, one double bassist, and Vander himself as lead vocalist, pianist and drummer.
The experience with The Offering, where Vander mostly focused on developing his vocal abilities, obviously shifted the French gentleman’s view of music a bit. Vocal arrangements were always hugely important in Magma, but they’ve never been worked out as thoroughly as here. You can really tell that the other instruments are only of secondary importance.
It’s become something of a Magma tradition to play a few tracks live that were never released as studio recordings. On “Les Voix” that goes for three out of four songs, with only Wurdah Itah (officially a Vander solo project, mind you) already known. Of the other three compositions, only the first one (Emehnteht-Re) has a familiar name, having appeared as a bonus track on Live/Hhai. So Emehnteht-Re, Zess and Wurdah Itah are shortened versions, while C’est Pour Nous is a track Magma hardly ever played.
Some critics call this album simply acoustic Magma, but considering the electric pianos and synthesizers on it, that’s a bit off. True, some of the typical zeuhl elements, like the crushing bass and wild drums, are missing, and this version of the band is far easier to swallow for a wider circle of listeners, but the sound is still unmistakable. I couldn’t confuse it with any other band. The lavish vocal arrangements and choir singing make the music come out as polished as it gets and more accessible, there’s barely any drumming (only on Wurdah Itah, and even then very restrained), the double bass sounds really tame compared to an electric bass, and the keyboards sit more or less in the background (either doubling the melodies the vocalists sing, or holding long chords).
This time the lead vocal duties go to the big boss himself. His vocal style annoys a lot of people, but to me he’s one of the most versatile singers around. He can sing in a normal style, in an extremely high falsetto, he can launch into pure jazz scat, and he can also screech. It’s probably the screeching that often drives people away from Magma. I admit that even I’m not exactly a huge fan of that side of the band, but you have to take the music as a whole, so I see the screeching as part of the experiment and the story. On “Les Voix” Christian Vander several times takes on the role of some kind of priest (Zess), reciting a doctrine. If sermons in church sounded like this, I’d happily go to some “spiritual” education every now and then. Unlike a lot of priests, Vander sounds convincing, not phony. Kobaia really must be an inverted, positive mirror image of Earth if you can even trust the priests.
Les Voix may not contain some of the things that made Magma so specific and unique, but the beauty of this project isn’t overshadowed one bit because of that. The vocal melodies are among the loveliest in their catalog, and the choir singing is so wonderful it can move you to tears. Even though this release isn’t treated as an important one, I rank it among my favorites. I reckon Vander is at his best when he sets out to create lavish music with the human voice front and center. This time the solo duties are mostly his own, and he handles the spotlight with ease. Les Voix admittedly isn’t representative of this huge band, but it works pretty well for beginners, since it’s not as harsh and raw. The only thing that might bother people is Vander’s singing, which is first-rate in my book, though I get that many might find it annoying.
Lineup
Stella Vander – vocals
Addie Deat – vocals
Julie Vander – vocals
Benedicte Ragu – vocals
Isabelle Feuillebois – vocals
Jean Christophe Gamet – vocals
Alex Ferrand – vocals
Jean Francois Deat – vocals
Pierre Michel Sivadier – keyboards
Simon Goubert – piano, keyboards
Philippe Dardelle – double bass
Christian Vander – vocals, piano, drums
Production
Geraud Nimault
Track list
1. Emehnteht-Re (3:39)
2. C’Est Pour Nous (7:56)
3. Zess (extrait) (17:18)
4. Wurdah Itah C.Vander (15:46)
Album length: 44:39
