Kobaia

Description

PREMIUM REISSUE, FAITHFUL TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION - NEW MASTERING - DOUBLE VINYL + GATEFOLD If there is one band that embodies a certain French rock free from any Anglo-Saxon influence, it is Magma. Created at the very beginning of 1969 by Christian Vander, drummer/percussionist and stepson of jazz composer and pianist Maurice Vander, Magma innovated and unsettled from its very first album, this double LP simply titled Magma or "Kobaïa," after the title of the first track. Thanks to his stepfather, Christian was exposed to exceptional jazz musicians from an early age. From the mid-1960s, he absorbed the soul music of the time (Otis Redding in particular) and the free jazz of John Coltrane, his absolute hero, as well as "modern" composers such as Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók or their "heirs" like Frank Zappa. He also gathered the most adventurous musicians from the Parisian rock and jazz scene and, combined with the use of an imaginary language, Kobaïan, gave birth to an unprecedented result, even for an era of upheaval. The music of the first Magma, which follows a narrative, is certainly jarring, full of outbursts, but it does not seek rupture at all costs, and one finds here a soulful coloration, thanks to the presence of brass instruments, and numerous almost "Shadok-like" sonic punctuations that counterbalance a reputation for imperturbable seriousness, accentuated it is true by the authoritative singing of Klaus Blasquiz. More than five decades after its release, this Magma retains all the appeal of the surprise and innovation that its mastermind had crafted. A monument, the first one.