OSIRIS

The second Zao album was recorded without the distinctive vocals of Mauricia Platon and marks the band's shift from Zeuhl with a touch of jazz fusion to jazz fusion with a touch of Zeuhl. The net effect is a fine album that is both more accessible than their debut but also less distinctive, often sounding like generic European jazz rock that could have emanated from any number of fusion bands.

Aside from a shift to mainly instrumental pieces, the music generally settled into a comfortable groove where Fender Rhodes, bass and drums laid down a solid backing for the sax and violin to solo over, as opposed to the complex interplay of vocal, violin and sax on Z=7L. As the sax was in the hands of Yoch'ko Seffer this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and Jean-Yves Rigaud was no slouch on the electric violin, so there are some stunning moments here and there. The rhythm section is occasionally bolstered with additional percussion and there are some Zeuhl influenced wordless vocals from Seffer and bassist Joel Dugrenot on a couple of tracks including the opening Shardaz. The stand out is Isis, which opens with some lovely ethnic percussion and flute before a smoky midtempo minor key groove kicks in and Seffer's gypsy soul shines through his solo, followed by Rigaud playing his electric violin through a variety of effects pedal before the whole thing ends as it began after almost 10 minutes. The CD reissue contains another extended work out in Montreal, which features some complex congas alongside the bass and drums and is almost the equal of Isis.

3.5 stars for the original version, with an extra half star for the reissue with Montreal. As other reviewers have pointed out, this is closer to Weather Report than Magma, but when the ethnic influences are added to the jazz fusion it turns into a potent brew indeed. Fusion fans will love it, Zeuhl heads may be a little disappointed.

On ZAO's second album they have lost the stunning vocals of Mauricia Platon who has left,leaving the vocal duties to Dugrenot (bass player) who sang the low notes, and Seffer who would sing the high notes. There would be two guest percussionists in their lineup as well, and Seffer would not be playing clarinet on this one, only sax. As their liner notes state, they did not wish to have "Osiris" released on a major label and so turned to a new label called "Disjuncta" which had been created by Richard Pinhas of HELDON fame. He was a friend of Cahen and a cousin of MAGMA's singer Stella Vander. Thanks to Pinhas' hard work "Osiris" outsold their debut "Z=7L". One year later the label went bankrupt unfortunately and "Osiris" was deleted. Thankyou "Musea" for reissueing this amazing recording.

"Shardaz" opens with drums and sax as vocal melodies come in. Violin after a minute as the tempo picks up. The vocal melodies are prominant much like what you would hear on some MAGMA records. Piano before 3 minutes, and the bass is nice and heavy that follows. "Isis" is pastoral for 1 1/2 minutes until we get some guitar melodies that come and go as warm sax melodies play on. The drums and sound are building, and the tempo picks up 6 minutes in. Great sound ! Violin arrives a minute later. A calm takes over (that reminds me of the intro) for the final minute of the song. What a ride that was. "Reinna" features drums, bass, piano and sax while Zeuhl-like vocals arrive a minute in causing the instrumental work to take a back seat temporarily. Some great drumming and sax work follows. Piano and violin join in and we are cooking now ! Percussion too as this is quite jazzy.

"Yog" features deep vocals and piano that are contrasted with instrumental outbreaks. I love this stuff ! This is such a beautiful passage.The song takes off after 2 minutes with sax and vocal melodies taking center stage. It calms down 5 minutes in and check out the drumming after 6 minutes ! Vocal melodies end the song. "La Rhune" is a very good song with bass, percussion, drums and piano leading off before sax comes in followed by violin after 3 minutes. The bonus track is a live song that Seffer and Cahen recorded with members from Quebec artist Robert Charlebois' band who showed a great deal of interest in ZAO, and actually recorded three tracks with Seffer and Cahen in 1973. This one is called "Montreal" and it's truly an amazing live Zeuhl song at almost 12 minutes. Guest female vocals along with relentless bass and drums. Seffer especially stands out with his sax work. Cahen is incredible on the keys as well.

This is not as challenging as their debut was, but it's not inferior either. These guys (Cahen & Seffer) were a big part of MAGMA's early sound and also composed a lot of their music then as well. "Osiris" is a feast that is as satisfying for me as their debut. 5 stars.

Choosing a career in Zeuhl isn't the path of least resistance. Not only will every note you play be compared to Magma, it will most likely also be dwarfed by the output of that one true great Zeuhl band. And, given Magma has about 200 fans, there's little perspective you'll ever be staging a live show for more then 30 dedicated Zeuhl heads.

In case your bandname is Zao, you might even be discarded for being too much jazz fusion and too less Zeuhl. Compared to Magma (here we go) the jazz influence is decisively stronger and the album fits better alongside Magma's first two albums 1001° then say MDK or Köhntarkösz. Zao employs two singers that add a Zeuhl flavour to the album. The music is slightly droning and rhythmically repetitive. Also that is fittingly Zeuhl.

The quality of the material however goes up and down. The opener is rather disappointing, a lifeless rhythm, weak riffs and little or no melodic development. On the better pieces such as Isis and Yog, the musicians show their skills in arranging and playing together. These songs are focused and well balanced, but still nothing happens that really kicks this album in action for me. The CD re-issue adds a Live Montreal tracks that shows the band in full Jazz-Fusion mood. One of the better tracks here.

A decent Zeuhl/Jazz Fusion album, but nothing exceptional for me.

Zao may have been one of the first Zeuhl bands to spring up in the wake of Magma's inauguration of the style - founded, as it was, with Magma refugees - but you'd be forgiven for considering Osiris it a retreat from the Zeuhl style rather than a willing embrace of it. Veering back towards jazz fusion, the group aim not for the murky, fast-paced, volcanic fusion of Magma's early days but a more sedate and laid back variety of jazz-rock, of the sort propagated by Weather Report at around the same time. To my ears, the main Zeuhl influence is in the percussion, which at points locks itself into a hypnotic groove of the sort Magma would make use of - but it's never quite so heavy or martial as Magma gets, nor does it sustain itself for as long. A pleasant enough album, but not exactly a cornerstone of the genre.

After Yochk'o "Jeff" Seffer (saxophone, clarinet) and François "Faton" Cahen (pianos) decided to leave Magma after the first couple of albums unsatisfied with where Christian Vander was steering the band into a new musical genre called zeuhl, the two formed ZAO as the first Magma offshoot and released five albums throughout the 1970s which while retaining the zeuhl characteristics of its parent band in the beginning, slowly but surely whittled away the Magma influences until it became a standard jazz fusion band a few albums later.

The band released its debut on Richard Pinha's startup Disjuncta label in 1973 and delivered a mix of Magma influenced zeuhl with a lighter breezier blend of jazz fusion more like The Weather Report. The band followed with its second album OSIRIS which surprisingly sold well but ended up out of print soon enough due to the Disjuncta label quickly going out of business. Between the debut release "Z=7L" and OSIRIS, there was a substantial lineup change, a trait that would dominate the band's existence throughout the 1970s. At this stage vocalist Mauricia Platon left the band and was not replaced by another vocalist but rather the vocal duties were picked up by Seffer and bassist Joel "DUD" Dugrenot.

While the rest of the band remained stable the addition of two extra percussionists added a bit more variation in the drumming department. Despite the changes, the second album sort of continues where the debut left off with a lighter delivery of jazz fusion mixed with occasional zeuhl elements most notably in the bass grooves, percussive hypnotism and occasional vocals reminiscing the days of Magma's earliest albums however the band was far from as adventurous or outrageous as the first two Magma albums and rather played it safe with an easier listening watered down version often sounding more like some of Soft Machines post "Third" releases rather than anything out of the zeuhl playbook.

While the bubbling bass thumping maintains a zeuhl flavor to the mix, the incessant saxophone solos and busy tribal drumming take this into a world of its own making which unfortunately doesn't come off nearly as original as what Magma was cranking out at the same time or even what the band presented on its debut album. With five tracks that feature two lengthy eight minute plus extravaganzas, the emphasis is on jazz improvisations rather than the hypnotic zeuhl effect that features vocal workouts and repetitive variations. The album comes off as a bit uneven because it can't decide if it wants to retain its zeuhl inspired origins or completely abandon them altogether for a dip into the English Canterbury Scene.

ZAO was never known as one of the exciting bands to fall off the Magma tree and although i found the debut had an interesting charm in how it was the first band to reinvent the world of zeuhl into something that would catch on with other acts to follow, this second offering that was the first to slowly shed the zeuhl influences and steer the band into a completely zeuhl-free form of jazz fusion just isn't as interesting and in many ways sounds rather generic when compared to other similar fusion bands that were around at the same time. A nice pleasant listening experience for sure but in the end not something that beckons return visits and considering it still features just enough zeuhl characteristics to squeak into that category, sounds a bit disappointing if you're expecting a greater emphasis on those attributes.