Article!
Last year I wrote a short article I intended to submit to Borderlands, the spec-fic zine run by several SwanCon folks. Topically, it was something of a 50/50 split of music and spec-fic, but I hoped it would lean close enough towards the latter to be considered. Unfortunately I missed the deadline for the last ever issue, so I thought I'd publish it here for all to see. Hope you enjoy it!
Zeuhl de da Emgalai
by Tom Eitelhuber.
The Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie is a French work which revolves around an extraterrestrial race of beings known as the Kobaïans, inhabitants of the planet of Kobaïa. Its background story details that in the distant future Earth enters a major ecological decline which threatens to destroy the planet, leading to a considerable exodus of humans who eventually settle on and colonise a then-uninhabited area of Kobaïa. The central conflict of the trilogy arises when the Kobaïan ancestors and the human refugees finally encounter one another.
If you're wondering why you haven't seen The Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie sitting on shelves at your local bookshop, it's because it isn't actually a series of books. It is, in fact, a series of three albums released by the French progressive-rock group Magma, led by their founder, drummer, songwriter and co-vocalist Christian Vander. Oddly, the albums were released in reverse order. The third (and most widely known) part, Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh, was released by Magma in 1973, with second part Wurdah Itah and first part Theusz Hamtaahk being released in 1974 and 1981 respectively (although a live BBC recording of Theusz Hamtaahk showed up in bootleg versions as early as 1974). It's somewhat unclear whether this was intended, with each successive release acting as it's predecessor's prequel, or if there were other factors involved that prevented the band releasing them in sequential order. The fact that Wurdah Itah was released officially as a Christian Vander solo album, and was supposedly rushed out early to serve as a soundtrack for a film version of Tristan and Isolde, makes matters even more confusing.
The Kobaïan concept runs through a lot of Magma's body of work, including albums which predate the Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie, but it is undoubtedly Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh for which they are best known. The group’s third album overall, and their first on new French label Vertigo, MDK (as it is generally abbreviated) was released one year after another milestone in musical science fiction - David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The album's narrative tells of a visit to the human colonies by the Kobaïan herald and prophet Nebehr Güdahtt, who warns that if the humans wish to survive and cohabit on Kobaïa, they must learn to sing the "Zeuhl Wortz", the traditional and sacred Kobaïan songs of praise, in worship of Kreuhn Kohrmahn, who exists as a kind of deity/supreme-being for the Kobaïan race. Many of the colonists choose not to believe Güdahtt, and take up marches of protest against Kohrmahn, and as Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh progresses, the story unfolds of how some of the humans gradually begin to defect to the side of the Kobaïans.
Christian Vander himself is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating and enigmatic figures in the history of modern music. Born in 1948 in Val-de-Marne, France, to parents active in the musical community, he grew up heavily influenced by classical music and many of the key jazz musicians of the 50s and 60s, particularly the late-era music of John Coltrane. He began playing drums from an early age, and they remained his instrument of choice throughout his musical career. He claims the inspiration behind the entire Kobaïan concept came to him through unsettling dreams of Earth's supposedly inevitable path towards spiritual and ecological decline. These visions formed the basis for the group's first two albums, Magma [Kobaïa] and 1001° Centigrades, which detailed the initial abandonment of Earth and an attempt by the Kobaïans to save the now-doomed planet, events which finally set the scene for The Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie. Some of Magma's subsequent albums have continued the story with future installments, with others flashing back to tales of ancient Kobaïa, long before the Earth conflict.
Most amazing of all, however, is that none of the music sung by Vander and his co-vocalists is done so in French, or English, or any other human language. Supposedly Vander decided that his native language would not mesh well with the music he had in mind, due largely to French's irregularity of consonant sounds to align properly with the percussive elements of the songs. To bypass this problem he created - to exactly what extent remains unknown - the Kobaïan language itself, which sounds like some previously-undiscovered patois of the Slavic/Germanic languages, and one which lends itself well to the sense of gravitas central to Magma's work. Virtually all of the vocals on Magma's albums are delivered via this constructed language, giving them a truly extraterrestrial feel that remains unmatched to this day. Numerous fans have tried their hand at compiling Kobaïan-to-English dictionaries, many of which can be found easily on the internet. I’ve even encountered a blog that’s written entirely in Kobaïan. For the curious and impatient, though, here are the translations of a couple of the album titles seen so far in this article, as well as a few other single-word selections:
Theusz Hamtaahk - "Time of Hatred"
Wurdah Itah - "Dead Earth"
Drest - "Explosion"
Glao - "Blood"
Zanka - "Sun"
Gorkeulhzenht - "Convulsions"
Undazir - "Vision"
Dun - "Heart"
Magma's music itself is a gloriously creative offshoot of progressive-rock - one which takes on dominant aspects of jazz, funk, tribal percussion, electronic music, chanting, choral singing, classical and symphonic-rock. The debut and second albums leant primarily in a jazz/funk direction that was more immediately comparable to other artists of the time, but with Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh the vocal and percussive elements became the most prominent aspects of their sound. This was the shift in tone which well and truly established Magma's trademark motif of intense, cyclical polyrhythms, feverish Kobaïan chanting that carried strongly religious undertones and elevating song-structures that would frequently erupt into bombastic crescendos. It’s an exotic, otherworldly combination which has more than once seen them pegged by critics as a kind of "extraterrestrial Carmina Burana". Vander decided to label his group’s rather unique sound with the word "Zeuhl", the Kobaïan term for "celestial music" (so now you know what one quarter of the title of this article means). As a genre-label the term stuck, perhaps a little surprisingly, as bands rarely get to come up with their own genre names - the music press usually get that privilege. As singular god-heads of their genre Magma have wielded near-complete influence over the small pocket of contemporary Zeuhl bands that've sprung up in their wake. Many of these second-wave bands are also based in France, with some even being made up of ex-members of Magma, although Zeuhl bands have also shown up in Hungary, Italy, USA, UK and Sweden, as well as a significant and sustained Japanese Zeuhl movement beginning in the early 90s.
Magma have featured something of a revolving-door line-up, with Vander and his wife Stella being the only permanent members out of around 25 people who've played for the band at one point or another. The only other "core" member was the exceptionally versatile vocalist Klaus Blasquiz, who played with the group from 1969-78 and provided crucial contributions to their best-known work. Despite the inconsistency and instability of such a roster (or perhaps due to it), Vander has kept Magma active to this day, with about a dozen more albums having been released in the 35 years since Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh, including a 3-disc CD/DVD live re-recording of the entire Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie in 2001, as well as solo work and the Zeuhl-related side project Offering. Their releases are generally pretty tricky to track down, but Vander has made a consistent effort to keep all major Magma material in print and as widely and easily available to the group's devoted fan base as possible.
Without hyperbole, I can honestly say that Magma are one of the most interesting and engrossing musical groups I've ever encountered, a hugely talented, one-of-a-kind collective, helmed by one of modern music's truest visionaries, and they appeal to me as much as a fan of speculative fiction as they do as a music enthusiast. With their dense created mythology being only selectively publicly detailed, they possess an enigmatic quality that both encourages and rewards fans who delve deeply into their work to uncover the oft-cryptic concepts and narratives behind the songs. This isn't always an easy task, as specific information and analysis regarding Magma's work can be somewhat hard to come by, and what does exist is generally limited to relatively brief synopses like this one. The information is out there, though, scattered as it may be. If you found this article interesting then I urge you to track down a copy of Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh and have a listen. Perhaps you too will find yourself irresistibly drawn into the weird and wonderful world of Magma.
Zeuhl de da Emgalai
by Tom Eitelhuber.
The Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie is a French work which revolves around an extraterrestrial race of beings known as the Kobaïans, inhabitants of the planet of Kobaïa. Its background story details that in the distant future Earth enters a major ecological decline which threatens to destroy the planet, leading to a considerable exodus of humans who eventually settle on and colonise a then-uninhabited area of Kobaïa. The central conflict of the trilogy arises when the Kobaïan ancestors and the human refugees finally encounter one another.
If you're wondering why you haven't seen The Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie sitting on shelves at your local bookshop, it's because it isn't actually a series of books. It is, in fact, a series of three albums released by the French progressive-rock group Magma, led by their founder, drummer, songwriter and co-vocalist Christian Vander. Oddly, the albums were released in reverse order. The third (and most widely known) part, Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh, was released by Magma in 1973, with second part Wurdah Itah and first part Theusz Hamtaahk being released in 1974 and 1981 respectively (although a live BBC recording of Theusz Hamtaahk showed up in bootleg versions as early as 1974). It's somewhat unclear whether this was intended, with each successive release acting as it's predecessor's prequel, or if there were other factors involved that prevented the band releasing them in sequential order. The fact that Wurdah Itah was released officially as a Christian Vander solo album, and was supposedly rushed out early to serve as a soundtrack for a film version of Tristan and Isolde, makes matters even more confusing.
The Kobaïan concept runs through a lot of Magma's body of work, including albums which predate the Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie, but it is undoubtedly Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh for which they are best known. The group’s third album overall, and their first on new French label Vertigo, MDK (as it is generally abbreviated) was released one year after another milestone in musical science fiction - David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The album's narrative tells of a visit to the human colonies by the Kobaïan herald and prophet Nebehr Güdahtt, who warns that if the humans wish to survive and cohabit on Kobaïa, they must learn to sing the "Zeuhl Wortz", the traditional and sacred Kobaïan songs of praise, in worship of Kreuhn Kohrmahn, who exists as a kind of deity/supreme-being for the Kobaïan race. Many of the colonists choose not to believe Güdahtt, and take up marches of protest against Kohrmahn, and as Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh progresses, the story unfolds of how some of the humans gradually begin to defect to the side of the Kobaïans.
Christian Vander himself is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating and enigmatic figures in the history of modern music. Born in 1948 in Val-de-Marne, France, to parents active in the musical community, he grew up heavily influenced by classical music and many of the key jazz musicians of the 50s and 60s, particularly the late-era music of John Coltrane. He began playing drums from an early age, and they remained his instrument of choice throughout his musical career. He claims the inspiration behind the entire Kobaïan concept came to him through unsettling dreams of Earth's supposedly inevitable path towards spiritual and ecological decline. These visions formed the basis for the group's first two albums, Magma [Kobaïa] and 1001° Centigrades, which detailed the initial abandonment of Earth and an attempt by the Kobaïans to save the now-doomed planet, events which finally set the scene for The Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie. Some of Magma's subsequent albums have continued the story with future installments, with others flashing back to tales of ancient Kobaïa, long before the Earth conflict.
Most amazing of all, however, is that none of the music sung by Vander and his co-vocalists is done so in French, or English, or any other human language. Supposedly Vander decided that his native language would not mesh well with the music he had in mind, due largely to French's irregularity of consonant sounds to align properly with the percussive elements of the songs. To bypass this problem he created - to exactly what extent remains unknown - the Kobaïan language itself, which sounds like some previously-undiscovered patois of the Slavic/Germanic languages, and one which lends itself well to the sense of gravitas central to Magma's work. Virtually all of the vocals on Magma's albums are delivered via this constructed language, giving them a truly extraterrestrial feel that remains unmatched to this day. Numerous fans have tried their hand at compiling Kobaïan-to-English dictionaries, many of which can be found easily on the internet. I’ve even encountered a blog that’s written entirely in Kobaïan. For the curious and impatient, though, here are the translations of a couple of the album titles seen so far in this article, as well as a few other single-word selections:
Theusz Hamtaahk - "Time of Hatred"
Wurdah Itah - "Dead Earth"
Drest - "Explosion"
Glao - "Blood"
Zanka - "Sun"
Gorkeulhzenht - "Convulsions"
Undazir - "Vision"
Dun - "Heart"
Magma's music itself is a gloriously creative offshoot of progressive-rock - one which takes on dominant aspects of jazz, funk, tribal percussion, electronic music, chanting, choral singing, classical and symphonic-rock. The debut and second albums leant primarily in a jazz/funk direction that was more immediately comparable to other artists of the time, but with Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh the vocal and percussive elements became the most prominent aspects of their sound. This was the shift in tone which well and truly established Magma's trademark motif of intense, cyclical polyrhythms, feverish Kobaïan chanting that carried strongly religious undertones and elevating song-structures that would frequently erupt into bombastic crescendos. It’s an exotic, otherworldly combination which has more than once seen them pegged by critics as a kind of "extraterrestrial Carmina Burana". Vander decided to label his group’s rather unique sound with the word "Zeuhl", the Kobaïan term for "celestial music" (so now you know what one quarter of the title of this article means). As a genre-label the term stuck, perhaps a little surprisingly, as bands rarely get to come up with their own genre names - the music press usually get that privilege. As singular god-heads of their genre Magma have wielded near-complete influence over the small pocket of contemporary Zeuhl bands that've sprung up in their wake. Many of these second-wave bands are also based in France, with some even being made up of ex-members of Magma, although Zeuhl bands have also shown up in Hungary, Italy, USA, UK and Sweden, as well as a significant and sustained Japanese Zeuhl movement beginning in the early 90s.
Magma have featured something of a revolving-door line-up, with Vander and his wife Stella being the only permanent members out of around 25 people who've played for the band at one point or another. The only other "core" member was the exceptionally versatile vocalist Klaus Blasquiz, who played with the group from 1969-78 and provided crucial contributions to their best-known work. Despite the inconsistency and instability of such a roster (or perhaps due to it), Vander has kept Magma active to this day, with about a dozen more albums having been released in the 35 years since Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh, including a 3-disc CD/DVD live re-recording of the entire Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie in 2001, as well as solo work and the Zeuhl-related side project Offering. Their releases are generally pretty tricky to track down, but Vander has made a consistent effort to keep all major Magma material in print and as widely and easily available to the group's devoted fan base as possible.
Without hyperbole, I can honestly say that Magma are one of the most interesting and engrossing musical groups I've ever encountered, a hugely talented, one-of-a-kind collective, helmed by one of modern music's truest visionaries, and they appeal to me as much as a fan of speculative fiction as they do as a music enthusiast. With their dense created mythology being only selectively publicly detailed, they possess an enigmatic quality that both encourages and rewards fans who delve deeply into their work to uncover the oft-cryptic concepts and narratives behind the songs. This isn't always an easy task, as specific information and analysis regarding Magma's work can be somewhat hard to come by, and what does exist is generally limited to relatively brief synopses like this one. The information is out there, though, scattered as it may be. If you found this article interesting then I urge you to track down a copy of Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh and have a listen. Perhaps you too will find yourself irresistibly drawn into the weird and wonderful world of Magma.