ProgFest 1999
Palace of Fine Arts
San Francisco, CA
(May 29-30, 1999)
By Keith HendersonFrom Aural Innovations #7 (July 1999)
Sometimes fortuitous breaks come your way (not often enough mind you). So in an amazing stroke of synchronicity this past February, the very day I learned of the imminent appearance of Porcupine Tree and Magma (both!) at this year's ProgFest (excuse me...the 5th International Progressive Music Festival) in San Francisco, I received a call from my brother (a Bay Area resident) who wanted to know if I could fly out for a week over the Memorial Day holiday. Apparently, he'd found a Columbus-SF airfare deal that couldn't be passed up, and suggested a trip up to the family cabin at Tahoe. So I consulted the calendar...wouldn't cha' know! Same time as ProgFest! Of course, I said "Yes" immediately, once he promised that the Tahoe trip could take place *before* the weekend. It was only later that Gong magically appeared on the schedule, and the trip began to take on the appearance of a pilgrimage.
... / ...
And now.... Magma. What was this really going to be like, I wondered. Although legendary for decades, I had only been introduced to their music about three years ago. I was instantly hooked then, which I gather is seldom the case. Everyone uses the same formula to describe the music... imagine the melding of Coltrane free-form jazz, Wagnerian opera, and heavy, dark psychedelia. Even if you *can* picture that, you still need to hear it to believe it. Of course, they sing in their own language (you'd *have* to) called Kobaian (not their native French), a product of drummer/vocalist/leader Christian Vander's extraordinary imagination. On this night, a trio of singers (including Stella Vander) was the Kobaian chorus that had the gigantic task of recreating the complex and demanding sounds required to appropriately complement the instrumental music.
Other than the Vanders, the members of the seven-piece orchestra were unfamiliar to me, and looked far too young to be up to the task. But from the first moments of the epic Kohntarkösz, I and everyone in the theatre was mesmerized by the unequaled brilliance of the musical performance. Every member was outstanding (which technically is impossible, but it was true) within their own domains, but then the way the band coalesced into a single living entity was astonishing. An unparalleled display of artistic wonder. I recognized almost all of the musical passages from their 1970s albums, but this was truly a new experience above and beyond anyone's first introduction to the relative sterile quality of a record or CD, be it Magma or anyone else.
As one who is generally attracted to the lower end of the sonic spectrum, I naturally was intrigued at how the bassist (Phillipe Bussonnet) would fare against my preconceived notion as to how (original bassist) Jannick Top would perform on stage. It only took a few moments for me to decide... Bussonnet was a monster! His bass looks like anyone else's, but the sounds that emanate from it are dark, alien, and awfully scary. In contrast was the relative calm of Emmanuel Borghi's electric piano, playing strange chords in succession to seemingly draw wisps of fog from the underworld. The guitar isn't the focal point of Magma's music but when given the chance, James McGraw made his black-body Les Paul scream out from behind the curtain like the projection in the Wizard of Oz. All the while, master percussionist Christian Vander was busy amazing us with polyrhythmic rolls and fills and simultaneously conducting the entire orchestra with subtle looks, and then sudden wild gestures and outbursts. When he got into the mode of constant head-shaking, you knew they were building up to a climactic moment.
I'm certain that seeing Magma perform was the most worthwhile two hours I've ever spent doing nothing. And they didn't even play any music from my favorite two albums, 'Udu Wudu' and 'Attahk.' But most attendees were there to hear the classic material from 'Kohntarkösz,' 'Mekanik Destruktïw Kommandoh,' and 'Live Hhai' and it was the more proper choice I admit. But why Magma isn't the most famous band in history I can't imagine. The fact that they play the same instruments as everyone else, and that they can combine influences from music I don't even like and make it among my very favorites....well, that's enough to convince me they should be millionaires. How unfortunate is it that they only managed to play in four cities in the US (New York, Chicago, LA, and SF) on this rarest of opportunities to have them on this side of the pond. A pox on the music-marketing industry for this injustice.
So in the end, I can say ProgFest was the very best music event I have ever witnessed. No amount of delays were going to diminish the quality of the artists gathered on this site for these two days. The Palace of Fine Arts is a fabulous place - excellent seating, acoustics, and facilities. Most of the 1000 seats were full on each day, but a few hundred more could have the experience of a lifetime. The sound was generally very good, although on Day One the guitar and drums were loud enough to drown out a lot of the keyboard parts. (I even heard some shouts from the crowd to this effect.) There were also some feedback and mic problems with Gong's set Saturday night. The mix was much improved on Sunday, though the drums were still kinda loud (relatively speaking) at times. Snare drums hardly need to be amplified at all... why everyone does this so heavily puzzles me.
At some time in the morning, I returned to the East Bay still buzzing from the excitement of the final two acts, and found it hard to fall asleep though I was dead tired. Monday (Memorial Day) I had the pleasure of shopping at the twin supermarkets of CD stores (Amoeba and Rasputins in Berkeley) and came home to Ohio more broke than ever. So I hope you appreciate the reviews of all the new albums in this issue, as that's where some of them came from :) Kudos to Shawn Ahearn and all the folks at Pangea Music for this memorable event. If they think they can ever outdo this festival, I'll have to come back to see for myself.
http://www.aural-innovations.com/issues/issue7/progfest.html
Zïha Bernard "Wurd" Hadjadj pour le lien
WPB le 16 Octobre 2013