EIDER STELLAIRE I

"Eider Stellaire I" was my first non-Magma Zeuhl experience, taking place in 1989 at around 5u30 in the morning at a student's party, at a moment where the DJ thought the "Tetra" and "Nihil" tracks from this album would be an effective way to get everybody leaving the party. Well it didn't work for yours truly, that's exactly when I got to dance and there's no stopping me once I get started.

At first I thought this music was Magma, something from an album of the "Udu Wudu"/"Attahk" period. Of course I was slightly drunk at the time so I didn't notice the instrumentation has more prominent guitars and much less vocals then anything from Magma. Having delved a bit further into Zeuhl, the closes comparison would be Eskatron's debut, but with classic electric Rhodes piano instead or Eskatron's keyboards.

In agreement with previous reviews I can confirm that there's not much new about this album compared to previous Zeuhl offerings. So you get prominent drum rhythms, sometimes heavily marching, sometimes slightly funky; they blend in perfectly with the persistently drilling fretless bass guitar loops. Jazzy keyboards and melodic touches from the guitars and wordless vocals complete the sound. The vocals consist of two harmonic female voices only, and similarly to Eskatron, they are much scarcer and less intrusive then Magma.

Despite a lack in innovation I can't ignore the quality that reaches my Zeuhl-sensitive ears in each of the 5 tracks, and while not as defining as "MDK" or "Köhntarkösz", I'd still place this one right next to Eskatron's and Weidorje's brilliant debuts. 4.5 stars