FÉLICITÉ THÖSZ

It's rare for a band who has been performing for 40 years to be able to put an album which at once remains true to their preceding work and at the same time manages to sound fresh and new. This is what Magma have accomplished on Félicité Thösz; whilst the distinctive rhythms characteristic of zeuhl remain bubbling away under the surface here and there, the main focus of this album is on the vocal performances, which offer up one of the happiest atmospheres ever to grace a Magma album.

This is not a frivolous, giggly happiness so much as a sense of deep personal and spiritual accomplishment; this, and the mixture of male and female vocals and French and Kobaian lyrics, tend to make me think that this is not a Magma saga about peril or conflict between Earth and Kobaia (as in Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh), but is instead a celebration of some important achievement, perhaps a particular enlightenment attained by the human colonists on Kobaia or the attainment of peace between the two worlds or a romance between a man and a woman each from a different planet which eventually comes to a triumphant fruition or something like that. Either way, it's an intriguing piece, thoroughly road-tested and elegantly recorded, with a fairly restrained running time to boot. It's still distinctly zeuhl, but it might also be one of the most pleasant and approachable albums the band have ever recorded.