ZËSS - LE JOUR DU NÉANT

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.