THE MAGUS

A provocative, appealing epic

Even though I've written a few reviews here I still get intimidated at the thought of writing about albums under the Zeuhl tag, feeling generally inadequate in my knowledge. And despite my unease Universal Totem Orchestra (UTO) made the excursion from my usual musical digs effortless and enjoyable. This Black Widow Records release is truly an epic clocking in at 80 minutes, a double album in the vinyl days. The band describes their new work as "the new Opera of Universal Totem Orchestra. It's a jazz/rock symphonic composition which concludes a Trilogy (hidden Opera, Rituale Alieno, The Magus) dedicated to the Human Alienation; from the most esoteric state to the most psychal complex one, crossing extreme forms of analysis and autoanalysis." The band was formed in 1998 by Uto Golin and Dauno Buttiglione, the latter who left the group in 2005. Back are Ana Torres Fraile and Antonio Fedeli, and new members include Yanik Andreatta (bass), Fabrizio Mattuzzi (keys), and Danielle Valli (guitar.) Describing the UTO sound on this album is challenging but the bands that came to my mind while listening include Discus, Little Tragedies, Cafeine, Deus Ex Machina, NIL, and Lost World. Long explorations of a generally medium-heavy fusion are sifted with various keys/e-piano textures, and intricate, dynamic vocals parts and arrangements. Following are some specific impressions of the six long pieces.

"De Astrologia" (19:32) They waste no time getting ambitious opening with a nearly 20 minute piece of controlled tension. The opening section involves chanted vocal repetitions and repeating riffs before exploding into an occasion solo. Slowly it evolves into a dramatic call to arms musically, rolling and marching, almost evoking the visual of warriors marching across the plains to battle. Doubtful the band was aiming for this but since I do not understand Italian lyrics, I am left describing what the music alone "feels" like. The latter part maintains the heavy grooving bass undercurrent but the mood lightens some as the march breaks, the vocals become more free-spirited, and the piano becomes playful. Enter a laid-back horn solo to complete the shift with a reprise of the tension at the very end to complete the circle.

"Coerenza Della Percentuali" (17:30) Crazy-wild opening with a frantic and heavy 90s Crimson sound in the guitar. Blistering angular-rock splashing in occasional pools of quiet shimmering keyboards. In the middle, during the calming exchange between the male and female vocal, it becomes clear that Fraile is the secret weapon of the UTO. This woman is an exceptional vocal talent, utterly amazing. She is one of the best vocalists on today's stage and the band has the skills in arrangement to use her to maximum effect: soft and serene or heavy and powerful, chants, solos, duets with male or choir vocals, wordless, and formal operatic---she puts it all over the top. Again the track ends as it began with plucked strings (or simulated ones, not sure which).

"Les Plantes Magiques" (7:35) In one of the album's most beautiful moments the guitars and drums take a break. A gorgeous and contemplative rolling piano intro highlights the beautiful wordless vocals of Fraile. It is a peaceful respite from the modern, sounding warmer and traditional. But it doesn't last. After the halfway point you can feel the tension building again in the vocal and encroaching strings. Soon the drums are rolling ominous underneath but it never gets overly heavy, only dramatic, yet with delicate vocal interplay between solo female and choired male vocal. Very, very nice ending here.

"Ato Piradime" (15:50) The opening sounds almost Celtic-New Age with serene vocals over soft, spacious synths. But quickly it shifts to the edgy guitar riffs alternating mid-paced fusion with sax, keys, and guitar leads. Golin and Andreatta show some nice tight work here in the rhythm section and I like Mattuzzi's choice of key sounds in any particular moment, not always what you'd expect. The middle third of the track is a slower paced, almost soft dream-jazz with hypnotic vocals and sax, sad and somehow hopeful at once. At times it reminded me of Joni Mitchell's "Paprika Plains" from the Don Juan album. The final third of the track returns to a steady paced fusion with some adventurous shredding reminiscent of Indonesian avant-jazzsters Discus. A soaring, uplifting vocal with harmonizing electric lead finishes.

"Mors, Ultima Linea Rerum" (6:05) A quirky woodwinds opening shifts to laid-back trade-offs of sax and electric lead guitar. Later it moves to some ripping rock/fusion grooves battling a somewhat "droning" keyboard sound to good effect.

"Vento Madre" (13:23) The fourth long piece on the album covers little new ground but by this point you're either frustrated or completely fixated and deliriously happy. Notable again is the discipline and forcefulness of the guitar/bass/drums as they mercilessly dig in. Ana lays a repeating wordless vocal melody over the muscle and harmonizes nicely with the male vocals. It breaks 4 minutes in with e-piano leading to extended jamming over a literally galloping bass! The ending reprises the tight, driving beginning and then moves to a controlled, succinct ending. This track will benefit from a significant punch in your volume if you can manage it---turn it up!

Potential criticisms here involve the album's length which may be off-putting to casual fans and I admit at times I felt some trimming could have been used. On the contrary fans will be pleased that the band took full advantage of time to explore to their hearts content, but this question may determine how successful the work is to the individual. For me personally "The Magus" is not a masterpiece but deserving of the fourth star on the basis of the incredible work in making the vocal arrangements so interesting and so unique. Recommended to fans of unusual fusion packing surprises but appreciative of long-winded efforts. "The Magus" is a great achievement for something our bio describes as a "side project" and many full time bands should be so lucky as to deliver a work of this magnitude, despite my minor complaints. Black Widow offers it up in a handsome tri-fold digi-pak with a very nice lyric booklet containing full-color photos, though sadly, no English translations. Another title to add to the list for those guys who keep saying progressive music is dead. UTO begs to differ! 8/10

This album has the word epic written all over it. 80 minutes of music spread over only 6 songs that constantly evolves and changes.I'm usually the first one to complain about an album that is 70 minutes long or more, but not this time.For some reason it seems like the perfect length as it allows the band to take these songs to many different places and back again.And for me the listener lets just say the trip has been so rewarding that i keep jumping back on the ride, because not only do i look forward to experiencing those things i love about the album,but i know i will hear new things that i've missed before. This is often dark with that zeuhlish rhythm,plus male and female vocals that are simply wonderful.Songs go from patoral to intense,jazzy to heavy all at the drop of the hat.The piano is prominant,and i really like the angular guitar melodies. "De Astrologia" is the longest track at 19 1/2 minutes.It's experimental intro gives way to a MAGMA-like vocal section. MAGMA fans have to hear this! Both male and female vocals with a rhythm that stutters. It stops before 3 1/2 minutes as an energetic guitar solo takes over with synths.They're back 4 minutes in! A change 4 1/2 minutes in as piano arrives.Male and female vocals are back 6 minutes in.Zeuhl rhythm takes over with piano as guitar lights it up.Great sound! Horns come in around 8 minutes.An intense,uptempo soundscape comes in before 12 minutes.It settles down before 14 1/2 minutes as piano and chunky bass takes over.Female vocals join in.Nice guitar 16 minutes in.Sax follows as bass continues to throb.Guitar is back in place of sax.Piano and some huge bass lines follow.More guitar 18 1/2 minutes in.It gets intense one more time to end it. "Coerenza Delle Percentuali" features a nice aggressive sound as the guitar and piano are played at a fast pace.Spoken words after 2 1/2 minutes signal a more zeuhl-like sound to follow of angular guitar and a heavy beat.Dual vocals before 4 minutes with background synths. Riffs come in followed by a spacey vibe 7 minutes.Female vocals are back 9 minutes in and they get operatic after 11 minutes.The sound changes 12 1/2 minutes in as drums pound and guitar becomes prominant.The guitar really lets loose at times.Dual vocals 14 minutes in.Guitar lights it up 15 1/2 minutes in. "Les Plantes Magiques" opens with some beautiful piano as female vocals come in.Violin 2 minutes in.Sax follows.The tempo picks up before 5 minutes as the male choir jumps in.This one is very classical sounding and my least favourite. "Ato Piradime" opens with an IONA-like soundscape.Spacey with female vocals.It kicks into gear 1 1/2 minutes in with some great angular guitar.Sax takes over briefly and trades off with the intense soundscape a couple of times.Male vocals 3 1/2 minutes in.Bass,piano and drums lead the way,although sax and angular guitar come and go.One of my favourite sections on the whole album appears 5 1/2 minutes in.It calms right down and piano plays a relaxing melody.Sax eventually joins in and is replaced by those gorgeous female vocals.Sax is back and background synths.Nice.Vocals are back.It all changes 10 minutes in as a powerful zeuhl rhythm takes over.Angular guitar 11 minutes in.He just shreds until the song is almost over.Female vocals are back with sax 15 minutes in.Amazing tune. "Mors,Ultima Linea Rerum" opens with pulsating sounds.They are blown away by a heavy soundscape.A calm with sax follows.It kicks back in around 3 minutes.Haha this is great! Piano is prominant as guitar tears it up 4 1/2 minutes in to the end.Intense. "Vento Madre" opens with female and male vocals as a solid zeuhl soundscape of drums,bass and guitar supports them.Great sound.A calm with piano after 4 minutes.Sax 6 minutes in.Some excellent guitar a minute later as piano and drums continue.Male and female vocals return 8 1/2 minutes in.The heavy zeuhl rhythm is back 10 minutes in.Vocals follow.Incredible! This gets really intense before it ends. 2008 has turned out to be an amazing year for zeuhl with this album and Jannick Top's Infernal Machina.Add to those ONE SHOT's "Dark Shot" and i'm in heaven.

I actually liked UTO's first work more, because in this release they have lost some of their weirdness; wait, it's still a very good album, but maybe it is a bit less naive than the previous.

although this could be seen as an evolution, a maturation, when listening to The Magus I miss some of the abrupt changes you had in Rituale Alieno; it more suits the symphonic progressive genre rather than Zeuhl.

Anyway, this record is slowly growing in me and I feel like it will hopefully be the first of a serie of new, more standard albums by UTO.

I honestly had no hope for a second release by UTO anymore, since the first was really corageous, and UTO was a side project, after all, so listening to a new one by them was a very good surprise.

RT's offshoot's Universal Totem Orchestra's sole album was starting to become a distant memory, and I had stopped hoping for a second tome of the offshoot cute and oddball adventures. And out of the blue, The Magus came almost unannounced (not even a couple of month's notice) halfway in 2008 and as soon as I heard the album was released I rushed out to, order it and now a short year later, the review comes. With a fairly different line-up - only the drummer Golin and the superb mistress of ceremony Torres-Fraile remain although saxman Fedeli and ex-bassist Buttiglione are present on both - but released on the same Black Widow label with the same striking artwork artiste, (this time forgetting skeletal fixation, but slightly more occult hence the title) on one of the best-looking digipak I've set my eyes upon. In terms of music formats, the tendency towards longer tracks is increased as all but two tracks are above 13 minutes (as opposed to two of them in RA) but I'm not sure this is a good thing. Indeed some song section appears to be standing on their own, and one looks up to see the tracks are not incrementing, so I'd say some collages should've been more careful.

Was this going to be something a bit similar as the incredible Rituale Alieno or was it going to be something totally different, venturing from its fire-bearer the way the latter has ventured away from the normal Zeuhl conventional boundaries. In a way The Magus is a bit of both, staying fairly similar to Rituale Alieno, but also foraying a bit farther out than you'd have expected them to, even after digesting RA. In other words, past the initial surprise, the traits that made RA so special, have probably been pushed a few yards ahead, and what was refreshingly unexpected has now becoming slightly over-exaggerated routine twists. Don't let this last remark deter you, though: The Magus is the proud son of Rituale Alieno and there is absolutely nowhere where it doesn't deserve your full attention, despite some more synthetic music than you're normally accustomed to in Zeuhl. The superbly juicy choir vocals of the first album are still in service, but again the Gregorian choirs are also leaving much room for gothic operatic vocals

With the effect of surprise gone (with the debut album), UTO had a very hard task to tackle with this second album, and I must reckon that they partly succeeded to make you forget of RA at places. It's fairly hard to say which album is objectively better , but one thing is sure, UTO is a stunning Zeuhl group, probably the most original, not afraid to foray in other genres than just jazz-rock. Much worth the detour. Rounded up to the upper fourth star

Whenever I am asked to explain the essence of "Zeuhl", I always revert to that one word that seems to define this odd prog sub-genre, OBSESSIVE! I remember hearing Magma the first time back in 1973 and being puzzled, befuddled and, upon regaining my balance, ultimately dazzled! We all heard the somewhat corny "it sounds like Carmina Burana with manic drums, harsh guitars and electric pianos" shtick and there is some truth to it. Stunning also to hear that Latin (French, Italian) blood seems to marshal Teutonic operatics better than say Germanic or Saxon musical breeds. Perhaps one needs a little Machiavelli to better understand the abstract absurdities of such "demonic" music.

I was totally blown away by UTO's previous Rituale Alieno and reviewed it glowingly, still believing it to be among the best ever prog albums of the new era. I am relieved also to be among a convoy of respected PA reviewers (sinkadotentree, finnforest and incredibly, sean trane of all people!) who concur and attest to this band's genius, so when I saw the unimpeachable ratings for this masterful follow up, I had to go out and get a facsimile. First the artwork and packaging are positively sumptuous, as befitting the grand heavy-jazz-opera that exudes from the grooves. There have been some personnel changes but the crew is still directed by (no big guess!) drummer extraordinaire Uto Golin, saxman Antonio Fedeli and the marvelous voice of Ana Torres Fraile (who wins the most beautiful woman in prog award, both hands and feet down by a galactic mile! WOW!). The whopping opener "De Astrologia" is a simmering 19 minute + that manages luminously to encompass the intricacies of this band's craft, within the first seconds " La Signora" is machine-gunned with phosphoric euphoria , in an OBSESSIVE barrage that pounds unforgivingly into submission, swift tempo changes loaded with hyper-complex exaltations, the drums, guitar and bass uniting in a mean bulldozer advance, with Ana wailing hysterically in the foreground, the piano (yeah, I know!) growling menacingly and the delirious Daniele Valle guitar blitzing like a krieg. The jazzy mid-section proposes some deep piano meandering within the overt opera context , some harsh Holdsworthian blasts accentuate the volcanic brew, constantly by the seat of the pants, along the ledge, teetering on the brink (call it what you will!) of some unrepentant frenzy. Mindblastingly great music, this is! Imagine a ruthless cross between Magma's Köhntarkösz and Soft Machine's Bundles, you get the playfully insane idea! The monstrous bass guitar is another key figure in zeuhl (have you heard the Magma/Weidorje boys?) and here it is competently handled by young newcomer Yanick Andreatta with scintillating ease, roaming, brooding, grooving, swooning and pulsating with intricate assurance. Fedeli's warm sax adds a sexy romantic contrasts that never appears on the Magma menu so it is quite refreshing, while Fabrizio Mattuzzi (another kid) sprinkles some fascinating jazz piano flourishes. Gosh, I am exhausted already, after only one track! So what do UTO propose? Another monolith 17 minute hyper velocity job, that finds Mach 2 levels right off the bat, lifting off the tarmac at heart stopping speed , with a slew of G pressures to boot (play this while on the highway and get arrested for speeding). "Coerenza delle Percentuali" is a severely dissonant flight, gruesomely concentrated and seriously compulsive, demanding great effort from the listener in trying to follow the path. When the fluid guitar rides the mellotron clouds openly inviting the rage to chase, you suddenly enter the calm eye of the storm (swirling synthesizer fluffs, delicate Syd Barrett-ish Eastern guitar picks and Ana intoning an almost operatic lullaby/aria), wondering where in heaven or hell am I? Disorienting to say the least and well within avant-garde opera stylistics! The last third leaps back into the fulminating fire with more reckless abandon, the instrumentalists raging anxiously as they smilingly plummet into a groove illuminated corridor that leads into some unfathomable musical vortex. Stunning, really! A reprieve, you dare ask? "Les Plantes Magiques" revolves around a subtle piano rambling full of ornate elegance and the swooning French vocals courtesy of the ravishing Signorina Fraile. This is a hot duet that I find irresistible in its simple sophistication, a welcome saxophone making a mournful entrance as if to add some romantic insight into the proceedings and really a chance to catch once breath. Spellbinding, original and soothing until halfway in, when the massed male vocals duel with Ana's wailings and the ultra-classical arrangements thrust into the fray. The colossal 15 minute "Ato Paradime" reverts to the brooding jazz-infested mania but with a softer touch as the sax seems to lead the way, the others gladly following into an organized breezy jam-fest where Valle's guitar gets to stretch out and refute his "unknown" status and moniker. The electric piano then decides to take over, laying down the basic foundation and applying some echoing timbres to the dolefully expressive sax and the woeful aria now sung in Spanish by the irresistible Miss Fraile (anytime, anywhere, cara mia!). I am hooked big time (or is it love?), what a listening experience this is! In fine UTO tradition, the dense riff-laden vehemence returns to take this one to bed, more neurotic guitar and infatuated drumming coalescing in gleeful menace. "Mors, Ultima Linea Rerum" finds the musical volcano erupting again, a sweet saxophone blurt only temporarily acquiring the serenity , as the tortured guitar ceremoniously twirls phrasing wisps into the sky. This is a strange brew of contrasting moods and styles, probably the most incoherent of all the tracks here, demanding the most effort and understanding. The finale is "Vento Madre", a 13 minute slice of psychiatrically disordered music that culminates all the intrinsic elements that make UTO so original and appealing. It also features a sprawling guitar solo that flirts cattily with greatness, swift and seductive.

Obsessive, demented, fixated, somewhat unhinged yet bizarrely also ultra -controlled, "The Magus" is a combination of musical heaven and hell, of right and wrong and of good and evil. Certainly not for the faint of heart, the pop-queen or even the prog newbie, the dominating UTO requests and failing that, demands servitude and respect. This is an incomprehensibly perfect disc. Right behind and in full support of my PA cronies. 5 Gallactic Carvings