Legendary French experimental/prog band Magma have announced they are to release a new album – “Zëss” on June 28th via Seventh Records. It’s taken the band some time to pull it together into a studio recording because the first drafts were made in 1977. After a gradual process finishing the record, the band debuted it on concert in the spring of 1979 where it remained until being set aside some four years later.
According to a lengthy press release which paints the piece much more vividly that I could “Zëss”—the name itself is sharp as a blade, slender as a cut, sudden like a darting meteor, fast as it is acute. While the inspiration that permeates “Zëss” comes from time immemorial, the music itself seems born out of the night in order to transfigure it. The first chords ring out in the dim dawn, then rise and cast their great shadows against the day. Already their orb suggests the oval shape of an ancient stadium set in the cosmic darkness. It is an immense celestial arena, an agora where all the voices of the universe resonate. Everyone has assembled for a last celebration, a gathering of the innumerable into a single point where everything comes together for the Day of Oblivion.
“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.”
It’s available to pre-order now on CD with a 40 page deluxe booklet including all the lyrics. More details, here
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