An Article from OptionBy the time of the interview, Vander was playing with Offering, between Offering I / II and III / IV.
Christian's overall concept is now governed by what he calls ZEUHL, which I had mistakenly believed was the name of yet another spin-off. He calls ZEUHL music the "supreme accomplishment of my dream inside my dreams". Part of ZEUHL music was the development of the "Theusz Hamtaahk" series of compositions, which many consider to be Vander's masterworks. Included here is music such as "Mekanïk Destruktiw Kommandöh", Köhntarkösz, "Ementeth-Rê", "Ptah", "Soi Soi", "Hhaï", and the riveting yet unrecorded "Zëss". Christian does plan to record "Zëss" in his "integral version, which is the first piece composed as ZEUHL music." These pieces are and were phenomenally influential.
"These pieces got developed slowly," recall Vander. "Before starting to play Mekanïk with the group, I was working on it for one year and a half, on my own. It's while playing it with the group that I found the definitive shape. After I did the first Magma double album, made of songs composed in 1969, I immediately started to get in more obsessional music, without knowing if I was going into something. I stayed on the piano for almost two months, playing on a D on the bottom of the keyboard, then I add, re-recording on our old Revox, a few other D's, medium and sharp.
"I was looking for an 'OM' unconsciously, and it was only after two months that a first chord appeared, resounding in the D ; the a few chords that made a melody. It became, at this moment, the central melody of Mekanïk. It is actually in the middle of Mekanïk. Then I had to compose the beginning and the end. It was really original, I never heard this kind of music before. I intended to stay for years on that way. I knew it was 'fresh' and that there were a lot of possibilities inside.
"Unfortunately or fortunately, while we were recording in England in the beginning of 1973, we were playing Mekanïk's main melody all the time, with Stundehr (Rene Garber). In the studio there was an English musician called Mike Oldfield. He only remembered this melody and it became a part of Tubular Bells, and was the music of the movie The Exorcist. Then this sound of music became usual for almost all the fantastic or horror movies. I could not go on using it. People could imagine I was copying Mike Oldfield, that's why I stopped suddenly and started Köhntarkösz."
Lately Offering has expanded its musical vocabulary even further. In concert they have been playing songs such as "Opus" by McCoy Tyner, "Ole" by John Coltrane, the Deer Hunter movie theme, old Frank Sinatra covers (!), Coltrane's "Out of This World," their own "Another Day" (which incorporates excerpts of Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and "Om," along with Pharoah Sanders' "Upper and Lower Egypt"), and a new major composition, "The Swans and the Crows." This piece is still undergoing change ; only a part of it ("The Swans") has been publically played. As Christian explains, "The 'Swans and the Crows' is a piece for Offering. It is a proposition for Offering to develop the eternal story.
Vander says, "For me the whole story begins today. I'm going to be able to realise at last the Kobaian adventure on three different levels, to clarify the situation between Magma, Offering and ZEUHL music. Proportionally it's certain that it's gonna be less ZEUHL records than Magma or Offering records. After a while, things will get transparent. It always was my idea. It's becoming reality now, so good... the mind has to be ready for it."
Original Article by Dana J. Lawrence - Jan / Feb 1988