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

Wurdah Itah was originally released as a Vander solo album but it has since gained its place amongst the real Magma albums, and rightfully so. However, the number of ratings on PA suggests that not all Magma fans have discovered this album yet. So here's a little teaser!

Wurdah Itah forms the second part of trilogy of which the MDK album from 1973 is the conclusion. The opening part is Theusz Hamtaahk, a piece which has never seen a regular studio release but which is featured on a couple of live albums of which the BBC London 1974 is most familiar to me. Needless to say, it's brilliant as well.

Christian Vander gathered a couple of Magma friends and his wife Stella Vander around him to record this album. With the ever impressive Jannick Top on bass and Vander on drums and piano, the instrumentation is as sparse as you will ever find on a Magma album. But by stripping down the excessive arrangements of MDK, the pure power of Magma's music really comes to the fore here. The music is slightly similar to MDK, but it sounds more energetic and focused. The muddled production and unbalanced mix that spoilt some of the MDK experience for me, are completely dealt with here.

This album is sequenced into 11 tracks, but it actually contains 2 continuous pieces of 19.30 minutes each, both of them heavy with gruff bass, piano, forceful drumming and a small choir consisting of mr & mrs Vander and Klaus Blasquiz. The rhythms are wild and disconcerting, the piano and vocals are dark and intense and the composition is simply brilliant. For me, Wurdah Itah is one of the few examples where rock music (RIO) manages to mould influences from Stravinsky and Bartok to something that reaches comparable artistic heights. It's never an obvious copy of the master, the addition of jazz influences and the extraordinary vocals make it entirely unique.

This album renders the essence of Magma's lyrical, rhythmical and vocal side. Together with Köhntarkösz, which presents a more rocking sound with less vocals and an even darker atmosphere, it is the essential Magma studio pick for me.