"In the early 70's I discovered Magma, my true obsession." Steve Davis, March 2004
Back in 2003, when I first started listening to a certain French Prog Rock/Canterbury/Zeuhl band named "Magma", I had no idea just how far this band was listened to and loved. The magic of P2P filesharing and a half whispered mention of the group's name brought forward a single track, "Ork Alarm". Ironically, this track is actually quite different from rest of their [Christian Vander's] music, but it piqued my interest nonetheless. Back then, I thought Magma were the most obscure abstract novelty that had ever existed. Like discovering 5000 year old hieroglyphics of flying saucers, I thought I had happened across something unwitnessed by man in a very long time. Imagine my surprise then when I later discovered that snooker legend, Steve Davis, was not only a fan of the group, but had at one stage organised, promoted and paid for the group to come and play a gig in the UK back in the 1980's! Steve Davis, a far-field hero of mine, was obsessed with a group that I wasn't sure had ever even been heard of before. Amazing stuff, to me anyway.
After watching Davis return to serious competitive snooker at the Crucible last year I was inspired to create something to commemorate his interest in Magma and all things Zeuhl. Utilising Hubble's Ultra Deep Field once again as a backdrop, I layered a Magma logo that I had painted earlier, over the top. After a bit of searching I found a suitably atmospheric image of Davis on Flickr, that I could use. It was mean't as nothing more than a bit of fun but I still feel it came out looking quite well.
I'm also going to include a demo/extract of something musical I worked on last year. While not directly connected to the story of Magma and Steve Davis, I feel all this talk of Zeuhl makes it suitable place to drop it in. Arguments will continue as to what exactly makes a piece Zeuhl or not, but reflections of Üdü Ẁüdü and Köhntarkösz were a definite influence on me when developing this piece.
Locrian Mode by Gammagoblin
