MAGMA Announce Lavish 50th Anniversary Vinyl Box Set of “Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh”

 

 

MAGMA is making the world of progressive music a massive birthday present in celebration of their iconic third album in the shape of a lavish box set, which is limited to 2,000 copies. Entitled “Une histoire de Mekanïk – 50 Years of Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh”, the French avant-garde pioneers and inventors of zeuhl follow the trail of their classic full-length from the remastered original recording through decades of various incarnations on 7 vinyl LPs!

MAGMA comment: “With this box set, we want to take you all right into the heart of the composition of our most emblematic work, which allows you to follow its evolution throughout the 50 years of its existence”, mastermind Christan Vander explains. “When we performed ‘Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh’ for the first time, we did not imagine even in our wildest dreams that people would still want us to play this album more than 50 years later. This anniversary deserves to be celebrated, and this edition is a gift for us as well!”

Iconic French avant-garde rockers MAGMA have joined forces with Prophecy Productions to create a lavish boxed set under exclusive license from Seventh Records to celebrate the 50th anniversary entitled “Une histoire de Mekanïk – 50 Years of Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh” of their legendary milestone release and third studio album “Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh” (1973).

Apart from a number of special collectors’ items, this box set limited to 2,000 copies contains seven vinyl LPs ranging from the original album to live recordings and other rare materials related to “Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh” (henceforth abbreviated as “MDK” in this text), of which several were previously unreleased and/or appear on vinyl for the first time.

The albums are numbered in chronological order:

LP 1 “1972 – Paris ORTF”
This is definitely one of the first recorded live versions of “MDK”; and it might even be the first – if anybody could exactly remember this after 50 years. At that time, the masterpiece was still a work in progress.

LP 2 “1973 – Choeurs de la Storchhaus”
This studio recording can be regarded as a demo and it features the choir that played “MDK” live at the SIGMA festival in November 1972. It was first released on CD in 1989 and now appears for the first time on vinyl.

LP 3 “Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh” (original version)
Despite more than 30 published studio and live recordings, many consider this album to represent MAGMA’s ultimate masterpiece. At the time, Christian Vander had taken the artistic destiny of the French band fully into his hands. The most striking development was the massive impact of the vocalists and choir. This classic was carefully remastered for this edition.

LP 4 (Side 1) “1994 – Les voix de Magma”
This previously unreleased track was recorded live with the addition of a 60-piece choir.

LP 4 (Side 2) “1995 – Babyaga la sorcière”
This surprising adaptation of “MDK” was recorded at the Espace Lumière in Epinay-sur-Seine, France on October 15, 1995 during the second concert celebrating MAGMA’s 25th birthday. It features an impressive choir of children and an instrumental ensemble of teenagers. It was released on CD in 1996, but never before on vinyl.

LP 5 “2000 – Paris Trianon Theater”
This version was recorded in Paris at the Theatre du Trianon during MAGMA’s 30th anniversary celebration and was previously only released on CD as part of a box set in 2001.

LP 6 “2005 – Paris Le Triton”
During May 2005, MAGMA booked the club Le Triton in Paris, changed their programme each week, and brought illustrious past members back to the stage to perform with them. On this recording from May 21, Christian Vander was reunited with legendary bass player Jannick Top. Previously only appearing on DVD, this is the first audio only release of this remarkable event.

LP 7 “2021 – Opéra de Rennes”
This previously unreleased version captures the new MAGMA line-up, which is more vibrant than ever!

For connoisseurs of avant-garde rock, MAGMA needs no introduction. The visionary French band that was founded in Paris by self-educated drummer and percussionist Christian Vander are towering giants within and beyond their genre.

Although MAGMA have been variously filed under avant-garde rock, progressive rock, jazz rock, and other equally fitting terms, the band has also created a sub-genre of their own, which is dubbed zeuhl or zeuhl rock. This term has also been adapted by other bands inspired by the style particularly in France and Japan but also elsewhere.

Christian Vander has created his own lyrical cosmos for MAGMA, in which humanity has destroyed earth and fled to a planet called Kobaïa that has remained at the center of his musical works. With his disturbing vision of humanity’s ecological and spiritual development, Vander was far ahead of his times and quite prophetic.

Most MAGMA lyrics are sung in the fictional language Kobaïan, which was invented by Vander and mainly uses phonetic traits of Germanic and Slavonic languages to enhance the musical expression of the band.

With “Une histoire de Mekanïk – 50 Years of Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh”, MAGMA celebrate their classic album's 50th anniversary by giving themselves and their dedicated following a beautiful present in the shape of a lavish limited box set that follows the massive trail of their iconic third full-length from the original through decades of various incarnations. Zeuhl forever! 

                          

For more information:
magmamusic.org
www.facebook.com/zeuhlwortzmekanik
www.instagram.com/magma.officiel

To pre-order:
http://lnk.spkr.media/magma-50

 

 

French Music Legends Magma Release Very First Video “Hakëhn Deïs”

 In their career spanning over 50 years, Magma had never produced a music video. At the request and with the support of Adami, a French organization who promote, career development and the promotion of performers, Magma has finally done it with “Hakëhn Deïs” directed by Nino Le Chenadec. Artificial Intelligence blends in with the subtle choreography created by two magnificent dancers of the Paris Opera, Loup Marcault-Derouard and Ida Viikinkoski’.

Magma’s new critically acclaimed album “Kartëhl” is now available on all Digital Platforms and on Apple Music in a Dolby Atmos Version!

Magma’s “Kartëhl” is available on CD and 3-sided DBL vinyl LP

To Purchase: CD / Vinyl
For More Information: magmamusic.org / Seventh Records

MAGMA “BBC 1974 LONDON” 2 LP Red Vinyl Limited Edition Numbered Gatefold 180g Audiophile Now Available For Pre-Order

This high quality recording carried out on March 14th, 1974 in the London BBC studios, is here carefully remastered for a vinyl release. This double LP includes two Magmaian masterpieces in unique versions, performed by the group that was at the origin of their creation. If the completed versions played by the MAGMA of 75-76 are most familiar to us, those offered us here present a major interest on several levels: their structure first of all, which at that time was not yet finalized, and comprised sequences which were subsequently either re-arranged, thereafter in a different way, or deleted: THEUSZ HAMTAAHK whose pseudo-slowness of tempo is matched only by the contained violence that inhabits it, and KÖHNTARKÖSZ where the magic of the keyboards brings to this work an alternative just as bewitching as the one engendered at the Taverne de l'Olympia the following year, by the divine soaring of Didier LOCKWOOD’s violin.

 Available November 26 For RSD BLACK FRIDAY

Pre-order

French Music Legends Magma To Release New Album “Zëss” On Limited Edition Gold Colored Vinyl

Magma's critically acclaimed newest album Zëss is a 38-minute musical work by Christian Vander. Composed in 1970, Zëss had long been plagued by its incompleteness, its recording was deferred for years. Four decades after its first draft, the work has finally been recorded in an orchestral version that gives it both its true dreamlike dimension and its transcending power. The first public performance took place in Bourges in 1979. It is the last piece in a series of unfinished compositions from the 1970s. During the last 15 years, they finished and released all these different pieces. Zëss is described as a work that touches the philosophical domain by its treatment of the idea of nothingness and its evocation of the theme of time.

Magma turned fifty this year, catapulting into the very exclusive circle of bands who for five decades have never laid down their instruments, nor turned down their volume! The oldest French band still in existence has always played at full sail, never yielding to the siren song of passing trends. The fiercely original music has tirelessly adhered to the highest artistic standards while still reaching a wide audience of all ages.

Zëss is available for pre-order as a limited edition of 1500 numbered copies on gold colored vinyl. The package includes a 4-page booklet. The vinyl edition will be released on September 20, 2019.

Zess   Magma's official website: https://www.magmamusic.org/en/home/     To pre-order: 
smarturl.it/MagmaZessVinyl
https://www.seventhrecords.com/en/magma-19/zess-1289.html 

French Music Legends Magma to Release New Album “Zëss” June 28th!

Much to the excitement of Magma fans worldwide, the legendary French ensemble will be releasing a new album titled “Zëss” on June 28, 2019! The CD is now available for pre-order and features a 40-page deluxe CD book which includes all the lyrics to the album.

“Zëss”—the name itself is sharp as a blade, slender as a cut, sudden like a darting meteor, fast as it is acute. While the inspiration that permeates “Zëss” comes from time immemorial, a first draft emerged in 1977. After being gradually completed, the piece debuted in concert in the spring of 1979. It became a staple of Magma’s repertoire until it was set aside in 1983.

The music itself seems born out of the night in order to transfigure it. The first chords ring out in the dim dawn, then rise and cast their great shadows against the day. Already their orb suggests the oval shape of an ancient stadium set in the cosmic darkness. It is an immense celestial arena, an agora where all the voices of the universe resonate. Everyone has assembled for a last celebration, a gathering of the innumerable into a single point where everything comes together for the Day of Oblivion.

“Zëss” had long been plagued by its incompleteness and its recording was deferred for years. Four decades after its first draft, the work has finally been recorded in an orchestral version that gives it both its true dreamlike dimension and its transcending power. For “Zëss” is above all the visionary reflection of an immemorial dream haunting the most obscure part of our souls.

“Zëss” treads a line between a vital overflowing and the edges of the unlivable. It is an incandescent and heady oratorio where consciousness questions its other side in a measureless journey. “Zëss” indicates the ultimate reversal out of which bursts a beyond of music that only music can reach. Magma's whole story condensed…

PRE ORDER NOW - AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE ON JUNE 28th - AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY AT SEVENTH RECORDS ON JUNE 14th - 40 PAGES DELUXE CD BOOK - INCLUDES ALL LYRICS