Seffer

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.

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.

This archival Magma double disc album represents a concert recorded on 12th of November, 1971 in Brussels, Belgium at Theatre 140. The septet known from 1001 Centigrades (that is, with the three man horn section and minus the guitarist Claude Engel from the first album) performs a set culling material from the first two albums, plus two later Magma standards that were new at the time…

Rïah Sahïltaahk is listed by most sources as a new studio album by Magma but it is in fact simply a re-recording of the first track of the same name from their second album. Apparently, Magma’s leader, Christian Vander, was never satisfied with the original 21-minute arrangement of Rïah Sahïltaahk that appeared on 1971’s "1001 Degrees Centigrades". Thus, over 40 years later, he has set out to rectify the situation. And the result? There are plenty of familiar passages throughout this 24-minute version. However, Vander has broken up the original single-track piece into seven separately-named tracks. Also gone are the horns of the 1971 recording, notably the distinctive bass clarinet of Yochk’o Seffer. In the place of the brass and woodwinds, we get guitar, vibraphone, and female vocals. All in all, not a bad tradeoff. Also, due to modern technology, this EP has a cleaner, clearer mix than the original.

A varied double live set, where Magma speaks and sings in Kobaïan of course, but also in French and English ; so it can be a good introduction for those who are willing to discover them. The presence of a horn section make them sound much more funky and soulful than usual, and "Otis" is a tribute to Otis Redding…