Zeuhl and related
The release of this great jazz/rock/Zeuhl album on CD is a cause of great joy for me personally. This is one of the albums I've long waited to appear on CD and also one of the ones that I most wanted Soleil Zeuhl to tackle. This is a nonet of vibes, trumpet, saxes, trombone, violin, flute, bass, drums and female vocals. Originally a double lp set that was recorded in 1980, this has obvious influences from Magma, especially circa 1001 Centigrades, Tony Williams, Soft Machine and European jazz/rock. Serge....
Antoine Arnera - Piano, electronics, voice, composition
Boris Cassone - Bass, mellotron, voice
Jessica Martin Maresco - Voice
Guilhem Meier - Drums, amplified percussion, voice, composition
Marie Nachury - Voice
Grégoire Ternois - Marimba, toms, dun dun bells, gong
Mihaï Trestian - Cimbalom
Anne Quillier - moog, rhodes, voice
Well, all you need to do is to scroll to the video at the end of all this and you will know very, very quickly whether or no
One of the greatest, most idiosyncratic & original bands ever. This is rightly considered a avant/prog classic and features a great lineup of the band (Christian, Stella, Klaus, Bernard Paganotti, Didier Lockwood, Benoit Widemann, Jean-Pol Aseline, Gabriel Federow).
This is probably their most accessible work, as it is their most 'fusion sounding work' with extremely strong soloing from violinist Didier Lockwood, but it in no way compromises their vision.
And what a great live recording!...
For 40 years, although this has been listed as a 'solo' release by Magma's founder, this is, for all intents & purposes, the fourth Magma album, having been released between M.D.K. and Kohntarkhoz.
Now, for this snazzy vinyl reissue, it's been rightfully renamed as being by MAGMA, and more importantly, features a clear photo from the film that this was a soundtrack of (sort of - long story), and you can see for yourself how much the costumes predate GWAR by 15 years!
Stripped down to...