Customer Reviews

Ka: Kohntarkosz Anteria

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What an incredible CD! Having bought everything Christian Vander has ever recorded through the years, I did not expect this CD to be a disappointment. But little did I know that this tour de force could very well be Magma's greatest album!

While Christian Vander has always been busy musically, it has been many years since there was a "true" Magma album released of new studio material. "K.A" is the CD that Vander fans have been waiting for, and the wait has been well worth it! Vander wrote the music for this album back in the 70's, but it took him this long to get it recorded and released.

While so many bands reform to cash in on their former reputations and release sub par music, "K.A" is a very welcome exception. Of course Stella Vander is also present, but for the most part Christian Vander has reformed Magma with a new, fresh, young lineup who are still up to the task at hand! I rank it right up there with some of Magma's finest legendary albums and I'm sure that with time, "K.A" will also go down in history as being another such milestone.

The foldout CD packaging comes complete with a book of lyrics, entirely in Kobian!

So, bravo Christian! This CD is a truly essential one and an absolute must have for fans of Zeuhl music!

Apparently since this was recorded Jannick Top and Klaus Blasquiz have returned to the fold, but this is still a great album by the younger incarnation of the band (plus the Vanders). I saw this lineup in Chicago in 1999 and it was one of the most memorable experiences (musical or otherwise) in my life.

It's wonderful to finally hear this "lost composition" and it sounds great, even if I haven't heard ALL of it: This album happens to be available for FOUR DOLLARS on iTunes (which is the version I own), but the third track is cut off at 6 minutes, far short of its total running time (so I've read). I can't hack $27 for PART of a track though, so for now I'm living with what I've got.

Assuming Amazon doesn't remove this for mentioning the competition, I'll just say that any Magma fan or music lover willing to take a risk will enjoy what they hear here. And be sure to check YouTube to see how crazy these guys are live!

We prog rock fans have pretty much spent the last few decades in a desert of mediocre music. The Old Guard of the genre have mostly either broken up or are content with reunion tours and the occasional re-issue. New studio releases from the survivors rarely show more than dim reflections of former glory.
Into this vacuum steps Magma with "Ka: Kohntarkosz Anteria." And it is absolutely wonderful! The disk clocks in at a little over 48 minutes, not one of them dull--delightful harmonies (all in Kobaian, I'm happy to report), excellent musicianship, and complex time signatures abound.
For dedicated Magma fans, this album should prove a worthy predecessor to the original "Kohntarkosz." And if you've never heard Magma before, this is a good beginning place. Don't worry about understanding the words...just enjoy the ride!

This release is certainly among Magma's best work, which puts it strongly in the running for some of the best music ever made. Christian Vander's drumming is as excellent as ever; the melodies are spine-tingling; the invariably diverse instrumentation continually lends itself to a vastly engrossing and original offering; the choir-like Zeuhl vocals are as amazing as on any other Magma release. Overall, the three pieces have that Magma feel that cannot be replicated by any followers or imitators. Magma's music is simply Magma, through and through. They are an island unto themselves, and on that enchanted isle they have created some of the greatest music of the modern ages. _KA_ is certainly not an exception.

Any fan of the band will enjoy this immensely, and any newcomer to the band that is not afraid of 10-20 minute songs should be able to get into this.

"Yay"" ...i know that sounds childish, but..."YAAAY!" i am so so happy with this new Magma album that i can't help but act foolish ansd giddy. i was a little apprehensive with the idea of this amazing French group giving new life to one of their old, unheard compositions. one has to admit, it could've been a sour affair. but Magma does not dissapoint, in fact, they shot over my expectations...way over....into the other stratosphere. Kohntarkosz Anteria is the real deal. a triumphant album that sounds like the band has a rekindled creative fire. perhaps all those live shows they've been putting on for the past years gave them a good push. whatever the case may be, this is a jaw-droppingly astounding album and, possibly (possibly!) Magma's best album...ever(?). the verdict is still out on that one, but let's just say that if i was to recommend a Magma album to someone who was semi-curious about the band, you could do no worse than to pick up Kohntarkosz Anteria!

Magma is not an easy band to describe to people. in fact, i feel like the term "band" is not adequate and is misleading. the same goes for labels and genres like "prog" or "fusion." sure, there are plenty of those styles represented within Magma's core sound; and their influences are easily felt in their music. but Magma, to me, are a force...a gigantic, almost monsterous presence that cannot be ignored. their sound is huge and massive, filled with moments of terror and beauty. stark minimal rhythms give way to colourful audio explosions, drenched with harmonious voices and thundering bass and guitar. and the drums...wow. well, the drumming is just brilliant. this French group has enjoyed legendary status for decades, and has been highly influential (spawing many Zuehl obsessed bands...Ruins, Guapo, The Flying Luttenbachers...just to name a few), but yet their overall appeal is quite limited. probably due in no small part to their choice of language to sing in (a language called Kobian, which Christian Vander, drummer and mastermind behind Magma, has invented in order to explain the concepts behind his group's music and lyrical stance). there pieces are long and full of complexities and brilliant twists and turns...dark, treacherous, disonant avant-prog with intense crescendoes that bubble and boil with an electrifying power and joy that is both familiar and strangely alien to the senses.

ghostly distant voices and warm cymbal washes greet the listener for the first few seconds of Kohntarkosz Anteria, and it sounds (briefly) like a cut from Donald Byrd's brilliant album A New Perspective. but within moments, the Kobaian chanting begins and the song erupts forth in it's cosmic swing. there are still lots of elements of the gospel influence here on KA, as seen in Magma's Udu Wudu & Attahk albums, although now it feels like that gospel influence has been refined to fits more in with the traditional Zuehl and avant-proggy sounds. the choir has been stripped down to only five singers (including Vander), as compared to the seven member group that graced the third disc of the Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie Live 3cd box set (that Amazon does not seem to carry at the time of this writing...shame), and it sounds alot more open and clean, allowing these beautiful voices to rise and soar among these infinitely expressive and impressively complex structures. and i feel lucky and blessed to have witnessed this amazing album performed live on their Japan tour this past September. and if you thought this album sounds good at home on the stereo; you have no idea how powerful it can be in a live setting! wow! Kohntarkosz Anteria is a more than worthy addition to the otherworldly Magma legacy. Hail!

I was confused as to the identity of the band, Magma, before I purchased this CD. Magna Carta was a 1970's semi prog but really metal band who I had heard of. But also heard of Magma as being sort of an operatic progressive metal ensemble. This is what best describes Christian Vander's Magma. They are still around after 40 years! and fresher than ever! The vocal choir is complex musically and beautifully done. It is reminiscent of an Broadway production but far more intense. Excellent spin!

3 1/2


Splendid comeback disc is no less than the full-bodied, frenzied formula of songwriting supremacy fans of these distinctly jarring jams had come to expect, even if eventually becoming slightly less impactful than most of a startling catalog.

What is the oldest cliche in the world? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It applies you dad wants to tinker with your $20,000 McIntosh Monoblock, when your girlfriend asks you to go into couples therapy for no apparent reason, or when you are one of the worlds most inventive progressive rock bands; the only one to have written their own language.

Magma put out some of the 1970s most enduring prog: if Miles' 1Bitches Brew met Carl Orff's [[ASIN:B00005QHTA: Carmina Burana]], it would sound like Magma. This music was huge in structure but quite listenable--full of substance and void of flash, and holds up incredibly.

This album could be from 1973. Magma has made the smart move of even sticking to warm electric piano straight out of your bell bottom as opposed to going with modern digital gloss. A style choice, but with Magma, it is always the writing that makes it work, and here, this is as top notch and fresh as ever.

I originally was hesitant about buying this album. Usually bands revisiting material, doing new material or getting back together some twenty years after breaking apart are almost always disappointing. I was dead wrong. I didn't know that the band on this CD is essentially the same band as found on the stunning Mythes Et Legendes and Theusz Hamtaahk live DVDs recorded in 2005 and 2000 respectively: Stella and Christian Vander, Antoine and Himiko Pagnotti (children of ex-bassist Bernard Pagnotti) on vocals, Isabell Feuillebois on vocals, James Mac Gaw on guitar; Emmanuel Borghi on piano, new member Frédéric d'Oelsnitz on piano and über bassist Philippe Bussonnet. This band was amazing live and in the studio they are no less amazing. The compositions by Christian Vander found on K.A. were written back in the '70s and are part (the last I believe) of the Kontarkosz trilogy consisting of Kontarkosz, Emenenteht-Re (found previously only on live albums but to be released in studio form in December) and this album K.A.
What is most surprizing is that K.A. sounds as if no time has passed since Magma's heyday back in the early seventies. K.A. is stunning, emotional powerful, odd and rivals the best of Magma's studio work. In fact its one of the most powerful studio works released under the Magma name. Now if only vocalist Klaus Blasquiz would rejoin Magma permanently (he appears on Mythes Et Legendes Vol. 1) I would be a truly happy man.

The live DVDs Theusz Hamtaahk and Mythes Et Legendes are all worth getting as well and contain some of the best and a few definitive versions of some of Magma's best known compositions. Well worth the price.

For many, 1973's 'Mekanink Destructiw Kommandoh' is one of the most amazing records ever made. The only problem is that the sound quality is murky, and every edition of the CD released always attracts the rumour that it has been recorded from an LP (albeit a pristine copy) rather than any tape master. It's an album crying out for a re-mastering -- ideally to a 5.1 SACD format.

In the absence of such, I was intrigued by the blurb about 'Ka', which seemed to herald a return to Magma's 1970s values, while promising 2004 recording quality. The only original members stil in the band, as far as I can tell, are Christian and Stella Vander. Desperately missed are Jannik Top (now working on stage productions like Notre Dame) and vocalist/shrieker Klaus Blasquiz.

The result is an anodyne, no-risks return to pseudo-MDK compositions. Unfortunately it now sounds to me rather like an amateurish school concert in which a few ageing teachers have donned their flairs one last time to play for the parents, with the headmaster's secretary on backing vocals.

It undoubtedly has its musical moments, but just as most of us had grown out of Star Wars by 1985, so we also learnt to put away the childish things of the Kobaia story about 30 years ago.