Korusz

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Despite my newfound status as Motion's resident drum solo album reviewer, I nevertheless took a deep breath before tackling this two cd set from Magma leader Christian Vander. 'Korusz' is a compilation of percussive marathons (some clocking in at 20 minutes plus) lifted from Magma live recordings, mainly from the mid 70s. As any Magma fan knows, Vander is one of the most expressive and technically gifted rock drummers around, yet his roots, as his accompanying sleeve notes point out, are in the work of jazzers like Art Blakey and more particularly Elvin Jones (the closing piano/vocal piece, 'Versets Nocturnes', is a brief homage to Jones). An abiding love of John Coltrane lies at the heart of Vander's aesthetic, and the solos on 'Korusz' come across as the work of a man driven by some of the same concerns that motivated the saxophonist. While his playing is technically staggering (as is his stamina), there's a logic and emotional commitment that makes this gripping listening, as anyone who's seen Magma live will probably testify. As he says in his sleevenotes, which are basically a list of sometimes spiritual, sometimes purely musical aphorisms (reminiscent in some ways of Robert Bresson's book 'The Art of the Cinematographer' or some of Robert Fripp's oblique pronouncements); 'technique will always be frustrating because it isn't an end in itself'. The album's subtitle is 'In search of the Supreme Korusz' and the playing here is a document of Vander's quest; like Coltrane on 'Interstellar Space', he's pushing at getting to somewhere. 'Each evening i emerge from this combat exhausted - but purified', he writes, and by the end of CD2 you'll know how he felt. Like Ronald Shannon Jackson, Vander also vocalises, but in Kobaian, the language he invented for Magma, and his shouted declamations add to the psychodrama of his search for the Supreme. A must for Magma obsessives, and a reminder for the rest of us of the possibilities of good old acoustic drums.