Session 1 -
Magma
Reminder
- this will happen at 7:30 tonight in the third floor atrium of E14. The band that I picked for our first
showing is unique and captivating (photos from the first time I saw them are
posted at http://web.media.mit.edu/~joep/Magma79/ ). I look
forward to seeing the musically-adventurous (or just
plain curious) among us there - it will be lots of fun.
A
reminder that we'll be featuring video selections showing the legendary French
band Magma in concert this Wednesday night at 7:30 on the big video wall in our
3'rd floor atrium.
Magma
released their first record in 1970, and are still
going strong. The band is centered
around their visionary drummer/composer Christian
Vander, who consistently attracts phenomenal musicians to dedicate themselves
to playing his demanding music - the band has included many of the best jazz
musicians in France. Vander's
music is influenced perhaps equally by the classical composer Carl Orff, jazz
pioneer John Coltrane, American gospel and spiritual music, and perhaps
classical minimalism. Magma play
music with enormous dynamics, building from quiet and hauntingly beautiful
passages to incredibly intense moments that push these tremendously talented
musicians to a phenomenal edge - indeed, they end each epic piece drenched in
sweat, as they pour so much into their performance. Vander has made up his own language for his vocalists to
perform with (there are generally 4-8 of them on stage) called "Kobian" (he also gives the musicians Kobian names).
All of his pieces hail from a strange and wacky science fiction scenario
he devised that tells the stories of our descendants from the earth-settled
planet "Kobia" (the people who stayed on
Earth are doomed because of their hedonistic and unenlightened lives, etc. -
yes, it has that 60's feel).
Vander is a captivating presence onstage, as he clearly immerses himself
completely in the music and the story when he performs.
Magma
have had a strong influence on many other musicians across several generations
and genres (from jazz to metal and punk rock, for example) - there are probably
well over a hundred bands around the world playing music in the Magma style,
called "Zeuhl" music. I've seen Magma myself in both the US
and Europe probably about 5 times in the last few decades, and every concert
has been incredible - a musical experience that stays with you for months.
Rather
than just play a DVD straight through on Wednesday, I plan on shuttling across
a few of their releases to provide an introduction to their music. We'll start
with their two best-known epic pieces - first M‘kan•k
D‘strukt•ẁ Kšmmandšh
from their May 2000 30'th anniversary concert at the Triannon in Paris, then Kšhntarkšsz
from the 4-week stint they did at Le Triton in Paris in June 2005 (I was at the
last gig of this series - it was amazing). We'll follow that with shorter pieces, Lihns,
Hha• and Zombies, all from the same gig, and close
with †rgon Gorgo and Retrovision from the Bobino show
in May of 1981 (if people stay on for it, perhaps we'll also show Z‘ss). The Bobino performance features a much younger version of the
band dressed up in SciFi costumes looking like
something out of the "Fifth Element" and trying to be more popular
(even a little disco-like in that strange French way), but they manage to shine
through the goofiness with amazing playing. Both Bobino and Le Triton shows
feature Benoit Wiedemann, one of the best-known
French "fusion" style synthesizer players.
OK
- lots for us to enjoy here on Weds night. As the libretto is not in English, French, or any
terrestrial language, you may want to dig behind the Kobian
to see what the band will be singing about. There's a ton of stuff on the web - one can start with
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koba%C3%AFan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekan%C3%AFk_Destrukt%C3%AFw_Kommand%C3%B6h
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6hntark%C3%B6sz
Next
Weds will feature Japan's primary answer to Magma - Koenjihakkei...
===================================================
Joe
Paradiso (Spring 2011)