MAGMA [AKA: KOBAÏA]

My first purchase of Magma was Kohntarkosz. I had heard speaking about them and the album was just released to the stores. I have to admit that I took a while to get into Magma. It wouldn't have happened if I had started from Kobaia.

The first two tracks are free-jazz with a touch of early 70s progressive. Enjoyable also by who is not in Zehul (Neither Magma were into Zehul at that time as this word has been invented by them).

Without leaving the cold jazz land, the following two tracks, already contain seeds of what will come later. A bit more experimental, with passages through various genres, but still accessible even if not easy.

Sckxyss is a jazz-rock fusion. This kind of piano playing can be heard today even on new age jazzy albums (not the singing, of course).

Aura starts with a classical intro of flute, but of course the other instruments and the vocals follow a different path. A link with classical music persists until the first half of the track, then it goes back to orchestral free-jazz.

Same story for Thaud Zaia. Another flute intro (a fantastic one) then piano and bass and again voice and sax. This is my favourite track. Somebody can think I'm mad, but I see a touch of Canterbury,too. At least there's aconnection between this jazz and the early works by Soft Machine.

Acoustic guitar and keyboards open "Nau Ektila". the proggiest track of the album which confirms, I think, the link with Canterbury sub-genre.

As counterpart, Stoah is probably the first track that can be defined Zehul, at least in the beginning, with strange voices crying uncomprehensible things. Not that the rest of the song is easier. It's grotesque and dramatic at the same time, with a remind to modern Russian composers like Stravinskij.

The closing track has a lot of different elements inside. I could define it as "eclectic" but it's not a challenging one.

This is the most accessible album by Magma. A perfect starting point for the Zeuhl sub- genre. Highly recommended.