Guides/A Riffiter guide
Where to start with zeuhl
One French band invented a genre, a language and a planet. Here's the way in.
Zeuhl is the avant-progressive genre invented by French band Magma around 1970, characterized by martial rhythms, operatic chanting, jazz-fusion bass and lyrics sung in Kobaïan, a constructed language. This guide gives seven entry points, starting with Magma's 1973 landmark Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh.
Most genres emerge from scenes. Zeuhl was invented by one man: drummer Christian Vander, who founded Magma in Paris in 1969, dreamed up the planet Kobaïa, and wrote the band's entire mythology in an invented language because French wasn't intense enough. The result sounds like a military choir performing space opera over Coltrane-obsessed fusion, and once it hooks you, nothing else scratches the itch.
"Zeuhl" is Kobaïan for "celestial." Here's the on-ramp, from the essential Magma records to the bands that took up the language.
- 1
Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh
Be the first to rate—The genre's definitive 39 minutes. M.D.K. (1973) is one continuous build (chanting choir, pounding piano, Vander's drumming like weather) toward one of the most overwhelming climaxes in any genre. If this doesn't convert you, zeuhl isn't your planet.
- 2
Köhntarkösz
Be the first to rate—The 1974 follow-up trades M.D.K.'s mania for slow-burning trance: two long movements that grind toward transcendence. Many lifers call it Magma's deepest record. Hear it second, when you're ready to sink rather than soar.
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- 6
Heresie
Be the first to rate—Belgium's answer: chamber zeuhl played on bassoon, harmonium and violin, pitch-black and acoustic. Heresie (1979) is routinely called the scariest album in progressive music. Where zeuhl meets gothic chamber music, approach after dark.
- 7
Z=7L by Zao (1973)
Formed by Magma alumni François Cahen and Yochk'o Seffer, Zao loosened the genre's military discipline into ecstatic fusion, soprano sax and electric piano chasing each other across Z=7L. The friendliest record in early zeuhl, and the proof the language could swing. (Not to be confused with the American metalcore band of the same name.)
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