Magma

LP version. Félicité Thösz is the 2012 studio album by Magma, the French group founded by drummer and composer Christian Vander. It is one of the brightest records in their catalogue. Vander wrote the title suite in 2001 and 2002, and the band played it live from 2009 before committing it to tape. In place of the hammering ostinatos of the seventies Zeuhl albums, this is choral, pastoral music built on piano, vibraphone and voices. It is sung almost entirely in Kobaïan, the language Vander invented for the group, with one passage in French. Vander produced it himself for Seventh Records, the band's own label, which issued it on CD in July 2012.

The album was recorded between September 2011 and April 2012 at Studio ÜZ by Francis Linon, with Vander on drums, piano and lead vocals. Stella Vander, Isabelle Feuillebois and Hervé Aknin lead the vocal group. Bruno Ruder plays piano, Benoît Alziary vibraphone, James Mac Gaw guitar and Philippe Bussonnet bass. The title piece runs about twenty-eight minutes in ten linked sections, from Ëkmah through to Zahrr. Its early sections are pastoral and glistening, with male and female voices passing the melody back and forth over piano and vibraphone. Tambourine and small bells keep the pulse light. In the middle the whole ensemble breaks into something close to a swinging pop song, before returning to the slower themes. The short Les Hommes Sont Venus, a vocal piece Vander first wrote for Les Voix de Magma in 1992, closes the record with glockenspiel and a larger choir. Sandrine Destefanis, Sylvie Fisichella and Marcus Linon join the singers for this piece. Reviewing it for Prog in 2012, Sid Smith noted that a surprising degree of light dominates the dark terrain of a usual Magma album.

This Music On Vinyl edition (MOVLP3908, with Seventh Records) was released in 2025. It is a remastered 180 gram LP cut at 45 RPM, in a single jacket with a colour printed insert.