![\"magma-single.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/magma-single.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Koba\u00efa \/ M\u00fch (1970), a single by Magma.<\/em><\/p>\n 1: Zeuhl definitions<\/strong><\/p>\n Zeuhl is an adjective in Koba\u00efan<\/a>, the language written by Christian Vander, drummer and founder of the French band Magma.<\/p>\n Pronunciation: zEU(h)l, while the EU are like a French E with a slight U, and the (h) is a semi-silent letter which is an integrated part of the EU, totalling in a “syllable and a half”. (Prog Archives<\/a>)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Zeuhl (pronounced [z\u0153l]; lit.\u2009’celestial’) is a music genre that is a hybrid of jazz fusion, symphonic rock and neoclassical music, established in 1969 by the French band Magma. The term comes from Koba\u00efan, the fictional language created by Magma’s Christian Vander and Klaus Blasquiz for Magma, in which Zeuhl \u1e80ortz means approximately ‘celestial force’. 2: The Birth of the Zeuhl<\/strong><\/p>\n “1967,” he says. “The year John Coltrane died. It seemed to me that afterwards, it was as though music had to try to start all over again. Someone had to pick up the pieces, go on searching in the way that he had. Nobody could match him, but people could pick up the flame. It was almost impossible for anyone to do anything new after Coltrane, but you had to try, try to find other new directions. So that’s what I tried to do with Magma. I was a bit young at the time, but\u2026”<\/p>\n Christian Vander describing the birth of Magma to Paul Stump, <\/em>The Wire<\/a>, July 1995<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n 3: Zeuhl lists<\/strong><\/p>\n Weidorje (1978) by Weidorje. Cover art by Klaus Blasquiz.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2022 Shindig! Magazine<\/em>: Magma in seven records, and Deeper Underground: the best albums by the Magma family<\/a> by Warren Hatter.<\/p>\n \u2022 Prog Is Alive and Well in the 21st Century: My Favourite Zeuhl Albums of All-Time<\/a> by Drew Fisher.<\/p>\n \u2022 Bandcamp: There is No Prog, Only Zeuhl: A Guide to One of Rock\u2019s Most Imaginative Subgenres<\/a> by Jim Allen.<\/p>\n \u2022 Discogs: Zeuhl lists by Neit<\/a> and ultimathulerecords<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 Prog Archives: Top 100 Zeuhl<\/a>.<\/p>\n 4: Live Zeuhl<\/strong><\/p>\n A poster by Jofre Conjota for a concert in Chile demonstrating that Zeuhl can exist without electricity.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2022 Magma, Hippodrome du Pantin, Paris, 1977<\/a> (46 mins; a French TV film that captures one of the 70s lineups in peak form. Includes an almost complete performance of Mekan\u00efk Destrukt\u00ef\u1e81 Kommand\u00f6h<\/em>.)<\/p>\n \u2022 Weidorje, French TV, 1979<\/a> (11 mins; Magma offshoot Weidorje were only active for a couple of years, this may be their only TV appearance.)<\/p>\n \u2022 Magma, Th\u00e9\u00e2tre Bobino, Paris, 1981<\/a> (A complete concert\u20141 hr 53 mins\u2014from the group’s weird-funk period: Christian Vander leaves his drumkit to sing and rant at the audience, everyone is dressed in spacey glitter outfits, and some of the songs from the Merci<\/em> album can’t be classed as Zeuhl at all. The musicians are all first rate, however.)<\/p>\n \u2022 Magma play K\u00f6hntark\u00f6sz<\/em>, 2005<\/a> (A fantastic 32-minute performance in a very cramped venue.)<\/p>\n \u2022 Collectif PT\u00c4H interpr\u00e8te Magma<\/a> (12 mins; a Magma covers band playing in a village square.)<\/p>\n 5: Cinematic Zeuhl<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022 Tristan et Iseult<\/em><\/a> (1972): a French feature film with a score by Christian Vander and three members of Magma. The soundtrack album was later incorporated into the Magma official discography as \u1e80urdah \u00cftah<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u2022 Moi y\u2019en a vouloir des sous<\/em><\/a> (1973): a French satire in which Magma make a brief appearance as a way-out rock group.<\/p>\n 6: Lovecraftian Zeuhl<\/strong><\/p>\n Les Morts Vont Vite (1986) by Shub Niggurath. Cover art: La Ballade de L\u00e9nore<\/a> (1839) by Horace Vernet.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2022 Liri\u00efk Necronomicus Kanht<\/em><\/a> (1978) by Magma.<\/p>\n \u2022 Dagon<\/em><\/a> (1980) by Eskaton.<\/p>\n \u2022 La musique d’Erich Zann<\/em><\/a> (1981) by Univers Zero (a Belgian group, originally named Necronomicon, which included former members of an earlier group named Arkham).<\/p>\n \u2022 Yog-Sothoth<\/em><\/a> (1986) by Shub Niggurath.<\/p>\n 7: Comic Zeuhl<\/strong><\/p>\n Magma’s Christian Vander and Klaus Blasquiz in a three-page comic strip from Pop & Rock & Col\u00e9gram<\/em> (1978), a collection of satirical music-themed pieces by Jean Sol\u00e9, Alain Dister & Marcel Gotlib.<\/p>\n Previously on { feuilleton } Koba\u00efa \/ M\u00fch (1970), a single by Magma. 1: Zeuhl definitions Zeuhl is an adjective in Koba\u00efan, the language written by Christian Vander, drummer and founder of the French band Magma. Pronunciation: zEU(h)l, while the EU are like a French E with a slight U, and the (h) is a semi-silent letter which is an … Continue reading “Zeuhl \u1e80ortz!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"New blog post: Zeuhl \u1e80ortz!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,7,43,3,20],"tags":[14400,4359,3967,14397,14399,14398,1687,3463,10951,10259,636,6193,1473,14401,320,14396,10295,14088,10181,10952,2644,10203],"class_list":["post-29697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comics","category-film","category-magazines","category-music","category-science-fiction","tag-alain-dister","tag-christian-vander","tag-dagon","tag-drew-fisher","tag-eskaton-group","tag-horace-vernet","tag-hp-lovecraft","tag-jean-sole","tag-jim-allen","tag-jofre-conjota","tag-john-coltrane","tag-klaus-blasquiz","tag-magma","tag-marcel-gotlib","tag-necronomicon","tag-paul-stump","tag-shub-niggurath-group","tag-univers-zero","tag-warren-hatter","tag-weidorje","tag-yog-sothoth","tag-zeuhl"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-7IZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n[…]
\nZeuhl is determined by several characteristic elements. Especially important are dominant rhythm fractions, usually in the form of a pumping bass guitar and sometimes sluggish or flexibly playing drum kits. Slow repetitive structures that serve to build a hypnotic atmosphere are just as prominent as solo passages of high technical finesse. Vocals are often widely present and can consist of polyphonic choral movements, such as Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana<\/em>, or soloistically performed passages with shrill intonation. Zeuhl bands also often have solo guitarists or pianists that usually have a more than accompanying function, especially to emphasize the repetitive patterns. (Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n
\n![\"weidorje.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/weidorje.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"magma-poster.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/magma-poster.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n![\"tristan.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/tristan.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"shub-niggurath.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/shub-niggurath.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"magma-comic1.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/magma-comic1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"magma-comic2.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/magma-comic2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"magma-comic3.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/magma-comic3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\u2022 Dune: some French connections<\/a>
\n\u2022 HR Giger album covers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"