ZËSS - LE JOUR DU NÉANT

It's been exactly 50 years, yes that's right, a whopping half of a century since the classically trained Christian Vander founded MAGMA which signified a vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future. The project that catapulted France headfirst into the progressive rock scene of the late 60s has become one of the most ambitious and enduring musical outfits in the entire world of progressive rock after having exposed an unsuspecting world to a completely new form of jazz-rock with classical underpinnings that narrates the tale of humans fleeing the dying Earth and relocating on a planet called Koba'a. With a self-constructed language and an entirely new musical paradigm tagged as zeuhl (Kobaïan for 'celestial'), Vander and an ever rotating cast of top dog musicians have left a legacy of excellent recordings that have only gained steam throughout the ensuing decades and left an indelible impression on the prog world. Here we are in 2019 and the Kobaïan Scene is still spreading its celestial joy.

While MAGMA's heyday may have been in the 70s, it's almost unbelievable how much new material is still trickling into the modern era that never found a proper recording during the time it was composed. This trend began all the way back in 2004 when archival material for 'K.A.' (abbreviation for 'Köhntarkösz Anteria') was finally completed to great critical acclaim and a de facto declaration of a triumphant return into the world of progressive rock as its popularity was finding a resurgence in the era of the internet savvy 21st century. While not as prolific as in the old days, MAGMA returned with more archival material on 2009's ''Ëmëhntëhtt-Rë' and then at long last released some totally fresh new material on 2012's 'Félicité Thösz.' While the ensuing years have found some interesting archival tidbits, both studio and live finding new life, a proper new album has been eagerly anticipated but all that waiting has finally come to an end. Lo and behold in the year 2019, MAGMA has finally released yet another slab of archival material that hadn't found its own closure in the form of ZËSS. LE JOUR DU NÉANT.

ZËSS translates to 'Master' in the fictitious Koba'an tongue and for the first time Vander utilizes his mother tongue French not only in the titular adornments but also in the poetic prose displayed throughout various segments of the album itself. LE JOUR DE NÉANT translates as 'The Day Of Nothing' which basically says that you are in for another nebulous and mysterious journey into the musical mind of one of prog's masters and that all you know for sure is that it will implement stentorian vocal choirs, magnanimous jazz-rock bombast and hypnotic bass fueled rhythms that ratchet up to climactic explosive rocket blasts of energy and then change around a few keys and scales and start the process over. While ZËSS does not disappoint in all these predictable expectations, this album is the most distinguished album in the band's entire canon, well at least since the funk fueled attempt at going mainstream on 1984's 'Merci.' MAGMA is back only this time not alone.

While ZËSS may be reaching back to the past to tie up loose ends, it clearly looks to the future and along for the ride comes the accompaniment of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, which allows ZËSS to stand out as the band's most orchestral and symphonic as it tackles the usual jazz-rock zeuhl only transmogrified into a modern form of third stream jazz. Z'SS not only sounds timeless but literally is so. While composed in the 70s it was never quite finished but debuted as part of a live set in Bourges in 1979. It has also appeared on live recordings such as the archival sounds heard on 'Bobino 1981' and 'Les Voix Concert 1992 Douarnenez' as well as having been performed live during the 1980s with Vander's side project Offering but these performances only found extracts but at long last ZËSS has found resolution and stands on its own two feet and finds MAGMA revealing new aspects of itself and finding the much deserved resolution for decades of uncertainty.

In addition to the orchestral parts which give MAGMA a completely new stylistic makeover, another unexpected development was the fact that Christian Vander took the spotlight as the lead vocalist for most of the album but also in the process passed the baton of percussionist to Swedish drummer Morgan 'gren of Kaipa and Karmakanic. Of all the previous incarnations of the greater MAGMA family, only Vander, singers Stella Vander, Isabelle Feuillebois, Hervé Aknin and bassist Philippe Bussonnet make an appearance and while the classical orchestral parts are ramped up, the jazz aspects have been practically annihilated without completely surrendering to the newcomer's somewhat restrained presence. ZËSS delivers the usual MAGMA goods of connecting several tracks together with a thread of musical continuity with each one generating distinct variations from the others. Sounding much like any old MAGMA album of yore, 'Ẁöhm Dëhm Zeuhl Stadium' delivers the familiar vocal performances that slowly summon the Koba'an spirit guides to lead the listener to the promised musical lands.

Continuing past the introductions of the familiar, the new MAGMA takes a left field turn into an unexpected lengthy journey into the slow but steady tension inducing cyclical loops of a staccato piano delivering a gentle yet firm tinkling while Vander tells a story in French and works his way up to nonsensical scatting of some sort. This is the first album that implements both French and Koba'an into the mix along with the nonsensical wordless utterances. While the orchestral elements announce their presence early on, they merely punctuate the down times between beats and the like and don't really take off until the thunderous climactic outbursts on the third track 'Dï Ẁööhr Spra?er' where they seem to gain an equal foothold and then finally usurp the rhythmic drive with intense melodic counterpoints that engage in progressive rock time signature gymnastics despite exhibiting the timbres of a classical symphony. After a great deal of symphonic wankery, the opening vocalists return with 'Zëss Mahntëhr Kantöhm' and the by now established rhythm flow and almost post-rock melodic repetition only highly adrenalized finds new variations to express the dynamics and melodic possibilities.

The album continues with an infinite variety of vocals, orchestral punctuations and ever changing time signatures however in the end ZËSS is really one very long track that only occasional deviates from the basic rhythmic groove that sustains itself for lengthy runs and when all is said and done, it sounds like that the excerpts of the original workings were merely padded out with a variety of tricks and trinkets without adding any substantial changes to the underpinnings of the composition, however MAGMA has always been about lengthy roundabout ways of milking rhythmic drives and letting the melodic melodramas spiral into uncharted territories and in that department ZËSS successfully follows the logical flow of the band's past trajectory. Upon conclusion, i doubt ZËSS will go down as MAGMA's crowning achievement but it is in no danger of tarnishing this mighty band's long lasting legacy either even if by chance this happens to be the end of the long and winding road for a 70 year old Christian Vander who may or may not have other life endeavors to tend to before his final exit to the great Koba'an Scene in the sky. While all that futuristic talk is uncertain, one that that is clear is that MAGMA have delivered yet another stellar slice of musical mojo into their fields of fecundity and for any of the true fans already indoctrinated into the fan club, ZËSS will not disappoint one little bit.

Not to be overly dramatic, but when I placed my order for this cd I actually had some hopes and fears in regards to this album. It had the potential to be the greatest post 70's MAGMA release, or to be a flop in the scope of their "Merci" album from 1984. All of these conflicting thoughts were based on the press releases I read, along with other sources. My hopes were based on the fact that this was supposed to be the final MAGMA album and as such it should have been beyond epic. This is MAGMA after all.

Now they clearly had a change of heart and released the much better "Kartehl" in 2022. "Zess" would have been a very disappointing way to end their careers. To quote Christian Vander "Zess is the story of the end of everything. The end of time and of everything that has ever existed. Absolute oblivion, like a dreamless night. It feels like nothing ever existed, nor will it ever exist again. All forms of consciousness have vanished." So yes this had the potential to be this dark and powerful apocalyptic recording with the focus on the instrumental. One hope right there.

Another hope was that "Zess" as a composition has been around since the 70's and for me that was hopeful. Yes it was never a completed piece, and created during the "Attahk" sessions. But played live often in it's various forms. So here Vander ties a bow on it and presents it to us in it's completed form. Starting in the spring of 1979 it became a staple of their live shows until they put it aside in 1983. They would return to it in 1992 but with an acoustic version, then again in 2005 with their 35th anniversary celebrations, and a full electric version at that time.

As far as the fears go, number one was reading that Christian was going to be the main singer and so brought in Morgan Agren to be the drummer here(there's drums on here?). Now I had no fear that Morgan was replacing Christian on the drums, my fear was that with Vander being the singer that he would dominate. And he does. This is "Merci" all over again where Vander decided to be the singer, giving up the drums, and the result was an album in 1984 that shouldn't even be part of their discography. "Merci" should have been part of Christian's side project OFFERING which I think he realised after the fact and why OFFERING was created 2 years after "Merci" was released. An outlet for those vocal dominated, soulish/jazzy tunes.

I also feared about the orchestra being involved. I do get it though because I do feel like "Zess"as a composition is lacking. An orchestra might cover this somewhat. It doesn't. It's one long 38 minute piece of music divided into seven parts. And this is vocal driven with sparse instrumentation save for the orchestra's involvement. I'm really disappointed with the music, but also I must admit that MAGMA has become somewhat of a comfort thing to me over the years. So just hearing this album all last week was nice, despite my fears being realized and my hopes crushed(haha).

The packaging could not be any better. A media book is like a mini book with lots of pictures and information. There's even some english for a change. I like how they show the instruments of all involved with their names attached to it. No pictures of the musicians or singers themselves. Kind of cool, even with the orchestra the picture is of all these chairs littered with violins etc. So the focus is on the instruments they play, not the person themselves. I like that.

This could have been something. Instead it's a vocal dominated record that sounds nothing like the end of the universe.