The first 10 years of Magma were celebrated with the music written by Christian Vander on three memorable evenings in June 1980 at the Olympia theatre in Paris. This retrospective, reuniting most of the musicians who had performed in the group, was issued as two albums, Retrospektïẁ 1/2 (Double) and Retrospektïẁ 3 (Single). Issued first, Retrospektïẁ 3 comprises 3 titles, Retrovision, a long piece in the style of the album Attahk, in which the vocalists Stella Vander, Guy Khalifa and Maria Popkiewicz turn in a blazing performance over a driving rhythm section, followed by a supercharged version of Hhai, in which the trio Lockwood/Paganotti/Widemann works miracles. And finally La Dawotsin, where, in a more muted register, Christian Vander’s voice triumphs through its mastery and profound sensibility.

Zëss had long been plagued by its incompleteness and its recording was deferred for years. Four decades after its first draft, the work has finally been recorded in an orchestral version that gives it both its true dreamlike dimension and its transcending power. For Zëss is above all the visionary reflection of an immemorial dream haunting the most obscure part of our souls. Zëss treads a line between a vital overflowing and the edges of the unlivable. It is an incandescent and heady oratorio where consciousness questions its other side in a measureless journey. Zëss indicates the ultimate reversal out of which bursts a beyond of music that only music can reach. Magma’s whole story condensed…

This particular concert, recorded in Bourges in 1979, stands out as a moment of grace, partly due to its extreme tension and the risks taken collectively, which the audience still reminisces of to this day.

Potemkine's third and final album is their strongest, and is something of an overlooked classic of late 70s prog. Following Triton the band became a quartet again with Michel Goubin back on keyboards, and there had also been a period of intense gigging including opening for Magma on several occasions. All this made for a much tighter and more confident band than previously, both in terms of writing and playing.
The sound of Nicholas II takes the Zeuhl of Magma's Attahk and adds the jazz fusion of Mahavishnu Orchestra, Brand X and Billy Cobham circa Spectrum. The arrangements are dominated by the interplay of electric piano and guitar, with Charles Goubin turning in some excellent lead guitar work - he may not have been in quite the same league as John Mclaughlin or Alan Holdsworth, but he was no slouch either…

Reissue of an obscure underground French album from 1980. Noa features a histrionic female vocalist, piping the French language and enunciating syllables just like another instrument. The music of Noa is of the jazzy Zeuhl variety, with plenty of sax (some shrieking), soaring flute and the expected rhythms of the genre. Although the general mood of the album is Zeuhl-influenced (the dark vibe & the female voice that reminds Eskaton), the main influences claimed by the band are Henry Cow & Art Zoyd. The fact is that the use of the female voice has something to do with HC's Dagmar Krause era. Line-up includes guitar, bass, flute, sax, drums, percussions & female vocals. This album, sadly the sole recording of the band, is a real curiosity, a pretty experimental record that could have only come out in France during this period, at the turn of the 70s.

Ẁurdah Ïtah is a 1974 album by Magma/Christian Vander. The album was recorded by a core quartet of Magma members (only consisting of drums, bass, piano, and vocals). Initially released under Vander's name as a soundtrack studio album for Yvan Lagrange's 1972 avant-garde film Tristan et Iseult, it was re-released on Magma's label Seventh Records in 1989 with the Magma logo on its cover, and is generally regarded as a Magma album.

A French fusion super-group, formed in 1971 by two early members of Magma: François "Faton" Cahen and Jeff "Yochk'o" Seffer, and featuring many other talents of the 1970's prog and fusion fields. Zao took the Magma "Zeuhl" brand of fusion and jazzed it up a bit, adding folk elements of Seffer's cultural heritage, and lots of other unique touches. After Seffer left, the band became more jazz-rock. They have reformed at least twice since disbanding in the late 1970's.

Available Jan 25th, 2021, featuring bonus track of more than 15 minutes – the first studio recording of the song “Rétrovision”!

Fans of King Crimson, Univers Zero and Magma, pay attention: Happy Family is one of the best bands currently happening in Japan right now. Furious riffing, noisy angular drumming, intense energy and top-notch musicianship is what they're about. Their guitar work is in the vein or Robert Fripp; the keyboards recall either Univers Zero or Magma (depending on what passages you're hearing); the fretless bass work will no doubt remind you of the Magma/Zeuhl fusion sound; and the drumming will instantly recall Bill Bruford or Daniel Denis of Univers Zero. Throw in a bit of heavy metal, some Japanese goofiness and you're in for quite a sonic ride.

Bondage Fruit, led by the genius guitarist Natsuki Kido, one of the leading figures in the Japanese avant-rock scene, boasts their latest album, the best work of their career, 19 years after their last album 'VI'! This energetic work, featuring expressive electric and acoustic guitar work, each member's superhuman technique and versatile expressiveness, is the band's best work ever, by their own admission and that of others!
Zeuhl, and particularly good Zeuhl, isn't an exclusively French phenomenon if we are to judge by this excellent Japanese outfit who have built themselves a strong reputation in the Japanese underground. Their material, which borrows more from the European school (Magma, Mahavishnu Orchestra) than the Japanese new music scene…

Rhun are a French sextet playing zeuhl and avant progressive-influenced music. Their first album came out a decade ago on AltrOck and they’ve just resurfaced with their excellent second album here.

Weidorje, formed in 1977 by two ex-Magma members, Bernard Paganotti and Patrick Gauthier (also keyboardist for Heldon, a group that featured Richard Pinhas) is one of Zheul's children, probably the most faithful and the closest musically and spiritually to Magma. One can find a mythology close to Magma's one: "the wait of a flying saucer that would come one morning take us with its new values, sane and safe".
Weidorje means "celestial wheel". This word appears for the very first time in Magma's album "Üdü Wüdü" in the form of a short track (4:30) composed by Paganotti and Blasquiz, the latter being the second master brain in Magma, along with Vander (Blasquiz achieved by the way Weidorje's cover art)…

Corima is a new Zeuhl/R.I.O. band based out of Texas very influenced by Magma, Koenjihyakkei, and Present at times. Formed in the year 2005, they started out with 4 musicians: Sergio Sanchez on drums, Juan Tarin on bass, Jaime Silva on guitar and Erik Martinez on guitar as well. They started out playing music very influenced by King Crimson and ELP. About a year later Francisco Casanova joined the band in keyboards. They remained together for about a year and a half and after that Erik Martinez was forced to leave the band for personal reasons and soon after Jaime Silva left the band as well. It was during this period that Corima found out about the Zeuhl and R.I.O. genre and fell completely in love with it.

A must for Magma fanatics, fans and freaks everywhere. An opportunity not to be missed. For the first time ever, the full set of 9 incredible studio albums - from Kobaia to K.A - in deluxe digipack form. Each volume has its own 32 to 48 page booklets, containing photos and previously unpublished documents re-telling the story of Magma in 9 detailed chapters. Also includes a bonus double CD of archive documents: the first demo recorded by the band in 1970, the original sound track from the film 24 heures seulement recorded that same year by the line-up playing on the first album, a demo version of MDK with just rhythm section and a vocal guide track, and a version of Eliphas Levi with drums.