CHRISTIAN VANDER: TRISTAN ET ISEULT [AKA: ẀURDAH ÏTAH] (OST)

In theory a Christian Vander solo project to provide a soundtrack for an Arthurian-themed art movie, Wurdah Itah was in fact the second part of the Theusz Hamtaahk trilogy that also includes Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh. Because of the limitations of the budget provided to record the soundtrack, the album was recorded with a stripped-down Magma lineup - Vander on drums and piano, Jannick Top on bass and Klaus Blasquiz on percussion. Most importantly, though, is that three of the four performers contribute to the vocals, and against the scaled-back instrumental backdrop Wurdah Itah does a wonderful job of demonstrating the power of the human voice as an instrument and its importance to Magma's music. The advantage of singing all the songs on Kobaian, after all, is that this frees the listener from trying to listen to the words - because they won't understand them - and lets them just sit back and appreciate the sound created by them. A wonderful, delicate counterpoint to the apocalyptic fury of MDK, Wurdah Itah is yet another Magma achievement, made all the better by the unusual approach taken with the instrumentation on this album.