Hi Dean, welcome to the MAGMA fan club. This live album is a real masterpiece. Christian Vander is a great drummer and a driving force for Magma. The lyrics are in Kobaïan,the language they created, not French.
Just to clear up about the lead vocals. It's Vander himself singing while there's no drumming (or barely), and later in the song it's Klaus Blasquiz, the band's main vocalist, and Stella Vander singing. Note also that this is an early, unfinished version of the piece, which in its complete form appears on "Retrospektiw I" from 1980, and later found a home as part of the "Emehntehtt-Re" suite, released in 2009.
I saw them live with Porcupine Tree opening for them. A truly transcendental experience, Magma is bar none the best band I've ever seen live. Highest recommendation!
At last someone tackles Magma's best album. If you loved Hhaï, and if you have the courage, make a reaction on Kohntark from the same album ( and you must have listened to it I hope ). 30 years later, I still cannot figure how they made such an incredible piece of music.
on this track : Christian Vander - drums Klaus Blasquiz - vocal Stella Vander - vocal Gabriel Federow - guitar Bernard Paganotti - bass Didier Lockwood - violin Benoît Widemann - keyboards I saw Magma 6 or 7 times maybe more. In 1977 in Marseille, it was the best thing I saw in my life. At the end of the show, nobody leave the theatre, we were all glued on the seats by the explosion of énergie we have taken in the face ! half an hour later, most of us were still here...incredible
Oh my GOD! The intro vocals blew me away! What a piece! Excellent work on bass and the high-hat *chef's kiss* BEAUTIFUL!!! 😘 Cannot believe that was LIVE!!! WOW! Also, love the hair in the thumbnail, Dean. You're really onto something there! 😍
first time hearing this band. I really loved how that intro keyboard melody was slowly revealed to be a triplet pattern over the actual 3/4 (or 6/8) feel. love it when that happens 🤟
Hello , Christian Vander had a vision when he founded Magma in the late 1960's. However, to express all this, he found the French language insufficient and developed the artificial language Kobaia, which also exists in written form. It is worthwhile if you deal with the complete work. Magma will infect you and won't let go... Thomas from Hamburg
O Magma é um ponto fora da curva não somente no rock, mas como na música! Ver está banda ao vivo é um experiência sensorial fora do comum, um misto de espanto, energia, e expectativa que prende o espectador a escutar musicas de até 48 minutos. É incrível!!
Dean, Christian Vander (the drummer) studied under Elvin Jones. jones was the drummer for John Coltrane during his Love Supreme period. Vander is up there with the best.
How interesting! I always thought about his style of playing sort of reminded me of Elvin Jones, but I didn't know Vander had actually been his student. Very cool, thanks for mentioning.
Welcome to Kobaïa. Phil Collins??? Forget about Phil Collins. I mean, I'm fond of early Genesis, they can put tears in my eyes. But this is a completely different league. Bill Bruford said about Vander "Oh god! What a monster!". No one can compete with Vander in his heyday. Not even Cobham or whoever. No one, except Vander's masters, Elvin Jones and maybe Tony Williams. Believe me. This man is a complete alien. Anyway, the heart of Magma has never been the drums. It's the singing, the piano, and sometimes bass. If you're wondering why you never heard about Magma before, well... Magma is not entertainment music. It's spiritual music, so far away from everyday expectations, so heavy, so rich, so mad, so powerful that's it's unbearable for most people out there. Magma doesn't go to you. You go to Magma or you stay at the door if you're too frightened. Magma is more dangerous than anyone else. If you really want to understand why I say this, try this, in one shot, alone, at high volume : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-23k0pCLLmuE.html
exactly, why did we not hear this earlier in our lives. as a young kid in the south/midwest US I was subjected to 38 Special "Caught Up in You" over and over, forced me to turn the radio off. Since then discovered much music with the help of friends from other places.
Funny how he reacts to Vander drumming and his 4\4 over 6/8 ….crazy…. I was in the audience every night - it started at 12 PM…until…..i don’t remember. And the beginnings of the late Didier Lockwood on violin
_Je les ai vu au théâtre de Chaillot à Paris en 1975 en répétition puis le concert le soir. Et je peux dire que on ne sort pas indem tellement Magma et d'une puissance magique. Et Christian Vander le batteur compositeur viens vraiment d'une autre planète. Je l'écoute encore avec émotion. Ta vidéo est très sympa.🙏 _saw them at the Chaillot theater in Paris in 1975 in rehearsal then the concert in the evening. And I can say that we do not come out unscathed so much Magma and magical power. And Christian Vander, the drummer-composer, really comes from another planet. I still listen to it with emotion. Your video is very nice.🙏
Aha.....Didier Lockwood was a French jazz violinist. He played in the progressive rock/jazz fusion band Magma in the 1970s, and was known for his use of electric amplification and his experimentation with different sounds on the electric violin. Wikipedia
I saw them live just once ,last year in Paris. It was a mind blowing, emotional , spiritual experience. I came in hoping they would play my latest favorite, Theusz Hamtaahk, but they ended up playing Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré in its entirety. Hhai is part of the track Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré II, and was I think better than this version. I loved that Christian Vander said to his guitar and bass players before the band started Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré " On va faire des heureux ce soir" , we will make people happy tonight . He was absolutely right :)
_Le bassiste Bernard Pananotti est un très grand jazzman. Le violoniste Didier lockwood était un fabuleux violoniste. Ces 2 là ont apporté beaucoup d'armonies dans Magma. Avec Vander le clavier superbe et les chants c'était sublime.... Et j'ai eu la chance de les voir à ce concert de1975....... _Bassist Bernard Pananotti is a great jazzman. The violinist Didier Lockwood was a fabulous violinist. These 2 brought a lot of harmonies to Magma. With Vander the superb keyboard and the vocals it was sublime.... And I had the chance to see them at this concert in 1975....
Not French. Kobaïan. An language completely invented by Christian Vander. Their discography is ALL concept based, around a science fiction concept of people who escaped a dying Earth to colonize another planet, and their struggles to deal with later immigrants from dying Earth. I had heard the band name but was completely unfamiliar with them, but saw them headline NearFest in 2007, and my mind was blown, my gob was smacked. Truly astonishing performance, and I am now of course a lifelong fan.
Magma is a strange band. That song you just reviewed is decades old, but it got a proper studio recording in 2009, if you liked the 1975 version, I strongly suggest you listen to the modern studio version, much better in my opinion. It's on the album called "Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré", Hhaï is on the second track. You can listen here : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bW4B6-A8Wcw.html
