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Offering — Paris Théâtre Déjazet 1987
(Seventh Records AKT XI, 1987/1998, CD)

by Jerome Schmidt, Published 1998-07-01

Paris Théâtre Déjazet 1987 Cover art

Back where we began... Back at the time when this special band led by the now legendary drummer of Magma, Christian Vander, produced a beautiful music made of percussions, strange obsessing voices, and a great amount to Coltranian piano. This 2CD set consists of the full live show given by the band when they were at their best. For this set (totaling over two hours) Christian Vander is accompanied by a group of top-notch French jazz musicians (Simon Goubert, Emmanuel Borghi, Pierre  Marcault...) and the Magma-like voices of Stella Vander and Isabelle Feuillebois, and they create a much more intimate music than Magma but in the same spirit. The show begins with a piano playing Beethoven's "Lohengrin" and it is immediately followed by a very convincing cover of  a Coltrane tune ("Ole") where the voice of Stella assumes the sax parts! This is followed with "Cosmos" and "A Fieeh," which were the best  tracks from the last album by the band in 1993, and then the Vanders move in front of the audience to interpret a kind of vocal duo entitled "Les  Anges" where there is just some diffused percussion and a very repetitive Coltranian piano. At this moment, the emotion is at its highest point as the maturity of Christian and Stella's voices is just astonishing and very moving, Christian singing like in "Hhaï" with  intensity and urgency. After an extract of their forthcoming album ("Les  Cygnes"), the band plays other unreleased tracks which are original compositions or covers of Coltrane or Pharoah Sanders, and offer a splendid version of "Joia" and, strangely enough, "Another Day" does not bore as in the studio album because of the great drum work by Vander and the vitality of this tune when played live. For the fans of Vander as a drummer, he even plays a solo of more than 10 minutes, but this is, on CD, surely the most annoying moment, with their cover of Billy Strayhorns's "Lush Life"! Despite that, this live release from Seventh records (AKT label) is truly a must-have for those who did not understand the link between 70s Magma and the more acoustic music of Offering. It is also a good opportunity to discover this band, which created a really magical music during concerts, and which has been more or less disbanded since 1994. Don't miss it!

Filed under: New releases, Issue 15, 1998 releases, 1987 recordings

Related artist(s): Stella Vander, Christian Vander / Offering, Simon Goubert, Emmanuel Borghi

More info
http://seventhrecordsoffering.bandcamp.com/album/paris-th-tre-d-jazet-1987

 

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