ALTAÏS

A 12' EP is not enough to give an impression of a band.

It is obvious that Altais has been listening a lot to Magma. Their music is a lighter, a less complicated version of Magma. The music is also pretty much leaning towards spaced out jazz at the same time as it is well within the tried and tested Zeuhl formula. Strange male vocals, operatic female vocals, galloping piano, well articulated bass lines and some good keys. All boxes has been ticked.

The quality is good throughout and I will probably include this EP in my rotation next time I connect the turntable to the USB port again. I have heard worse and I have heard better Zeuhl. It is well worth checking out, though.

3 stars

'Altaïs' - Altaïs (6/10)

The world of Zeuhl music is full of obscure one-off acts that seem to have disappeared as quickly as they introduced themselves. Altaïs is a virtually unknown act even within the avant- garde niche community, and for good reason; they only ever released one EP before vanishing. Having now been released almost three decades ago, its a good bet that we will never hear anything more from this band than the sixteen minutes of music here, but for what it is, 'Altaïs' is a very good snippet of Zeuhl music. Featuring a style that falls between better known acts Magma and Shub-Niggurath, Altaïs build off of the innovation of greater acts, and create something both whimsical and terrifying.

This album opens up the way it ends; with spacey ambiance and the ethereal wail of Sandrine Fougere, who sounds eerily similar to Shub Niggurath's Ann Stewart. Her operatic soprano shares the sound with a less melodic male accompaniment that sounds much more within the Zeuhl canon. Phillippe Goudier barks and howls as Altaïs hits their musical stride, that being a dense jazz fusion observation. The pianos and rumbling bass both lead the band. Throughout the music of Altaïs, there seems to be a constant conflict between the light- hearted, whimsical sounds of Magma, and the horror-inducing style of Shub-Niggurath. In the end, the latter appears to win this contest, and perhaps a little too well. While Altaïs make a very intriguing effort here, their sound is far too close to that of Shub-Niggurath, be it their plodding rhythms, operatic soprano voice, and general atmosphere of creepiness.

Altaïs is not an essential act in Zeuhl, nor are they a particularly astounding obscure gem, as some may hope. What they are though, is an interesting supplement to the Zeuhl that you may have already heard, an apocalyptic jazz-fusion combo that excites, but alas, has been done better before.

Oh..I wish this would have been a whole album. Altais is an extremely obscure band from france who managed to release only this very short EP in 1986, not much is known about the band, and when I say not much I mean nothing. They are actually a brief glance at the world of Zehul, this EP contains only three songs clocking at 14 minutes, and if that's not enough, the last track is 2 minutes of atmospheric keyboards, which can be regarded as a filler. So basically we are looking at two songs, the only reason I'm reviewing this is because I really like those songs.

Altais plays a heavy type of Zehul, very dark and creepy. Aside from the inevitable Magma influences, the closest comparison I can make is Shub Niggurath which surprisingly released their debut album in that same year. It's not as slow going as Shub, but that very low thundering and deep bass along with the frightening atmosphere is very much alike. The keyboards are used mainly for essential atmosphere but there is some modest playing too. Vocals are in gibberish or is it Altaisish? Whatever it is they are very good, and when I say good I mean it suits the music perfectly, Philippe Goudier's vocals are deep and growly (not growls like in metal) more like a pissed madman, I think their vocals are one of their best aspects.

Actually for a very small band that only played a brief visit and came up with only two actual songs, this is very good and mature, I believe if they had a chance to continue, this would make one hell of an album. The music is not focusing on one particular idea, it changes from one part to the other pretty quickly and very easily too. "Altais" is the first song, it starts with a mysterious mood, wind noises and a typical Zehulic female vocals in the background, which makes you wonder where would this go? then they hit you with a relentless bass as vocals are mumbling over it. It then stops and the tension immediately rises as it gets even more creepier, the bass continues to growl as Ziltoid The Omniscient hops for a visit and asks for another cup of coffee using the local idiom, only this time he is really pissed. Then comes the mantra chanting turn using all the vocals they can think of, along with some cool breaks, this is excellent as the rhythm gets more intense until it explodes. "Promenade" is a song that shows their sympathy for percussions and all kinds of noises. It's a little more complex, great rhythm from the beginning with a slow piano lead and cool percussion noises, I love it. The piano keeps on going like it's looking for something as the bass helps him out only this time it sounds like a sedated beast. After a quick piano interlude It continues the same path only now it's more intense with all kinds of noises, elephants and birds too. Very good stuff.

This very small snippet of Zehul is a very good addition only if you would like to complete your Zehul collection, but not essential in any way. The first song appeared on a Musea compilation of Zehul called "Enneade". I'll definitely keep listening to it whenever I have a spare ten minutes. 3.5 stars.

ALTAÏS - EP from 1986

It never ceases to amaze me how many French bands followed in the footsteps of the legendary Magma and jumped onto the zeuhl bandwagon only to exist for a mere blip on the timeline and fall into obscurity. Many of these bands either released a single album and some didn't even get the chance to release anything at all. While the 70s saw its fair share of zeuhl bands emerging, the 80s generated a darker, more angular group of artists who took the music into more experimental realms.

ALTAÏS from the Normandy region of France was one of many such bands that haunted the French underground. This band that consisted of Sandrine Fougere (vocals), Philippe Goudier (vocals, percussion), Patrick Joliot (drums, percussion), Isabelle Nuffer (vocals, piano, synthesizer), Michelle Puttland (synthesizer) and Jean-Marie Sadot (bass) never released a complete album but did manage to squeak out one amazing 3-track vinyl EP that appeared in 1986.

This band was existed on the darker side of the zeuhl spectrum and although those instantly recognizable Magma inspired bass grooves and zeuhl bombast is immediately apparent, this band like many others of the era crafted more haunting atmospheres in a manner that was probably best represented by the phenomenal releases of Shub-Niggurath which crafted a style of eerie atmospheric zeuhl which was the antithesis of 80s commercial music.

With only three tracks this EP barely gets fired up before its over but it definitely ranks high on my list of zeuhl creations due to the eerie haunting mood of the mere 14 minutes of playing time. Opening with the spectral vocal works of Sandrine Fougere, the opening title track (yep, "Altaïs" by ALTAÏS on the EP titled ALTAÏS!) generates a beefy bass groove but never loses that ethereal otherworldly effect. The longest track on board this one adds a few curve balls including a Halloween ball type of vocal interaction while fortifying the heft with that martial rhythmic drive.

"Promenade" sort of connects with the opening track but offers a more avant-prog approach in the Henry Cow sense of angular instrumental workouts without any vocals at all. Hypnotic grooves are embellished by creepy tones and timbres with rather frightening scales-in-opposiiton on various instruments. The closing "Gravitation Zero" is a short 2-minute space drift with chanted drones and nebulous progressive electronic sounds out of the Klaus Schulze playbook. Many vocalists join in and create a very creepy conclusion to a dark forbidding three-song run. This last piece would certainly make an excellent horror flick soundtrack sequence.

Practically lost in the vaults for decades, this tiny artifact was rescued by the admirable Zeuhl Soleil label which released the split album "Archives - Concerts été 1983 / Altaïs" in 2015 which featured five live tracks from the band Apsara along with the three tracks from ALTAÏS. I absolutely love this short little musical freakery! This is my kind of creepy dark eerie dread music and i really, really wish that ALTAÏS could've at least released a full album's worth but that was not meant to be and what we are left with is this tiny remnant of the 1980s French underground that can only hint of what could've been. Excellent stuff here!

Another obscure one-off Zeuhl act available through the positive side of online streaming. Pretty dark and abstract but retaining the bass-heavy and slightly theme of a lot of 80s Zeuhl. The title track manages to be both groovy and spooky at the same time, mainly with the help of the growly gibberish vocals. I am a little put off by the more upbeat groove around about the 5 minute mark, where the more tuneful vocals seem to be saying something that sounds too much like "Bring Us Seven Sandwich". Its all I can hear now... Sounds less like that as it speeds up to the end of the track.

Track two, promenade, is a complex-timed piano and percussion piece, in a spacey jazz style, while Gravitation Zero is a couple of minutes of chamber choir chanting which fades to nothing.

Would have been interesting to see where they took their sound if they'd stuck around!