''Kartëhl'' or ''Kãrtëhl'' is the fifteenth studio album by

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

and

zeuhl Zeuhl (pronounced zœl meaning "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 Kobaïan, the fictional language created by ...

group

Magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma (sometimes colloquially but incorrectly referred to as ''lava'') is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also ...

, released on 30 September 2022 by Seventh Records as a

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

and three-sided double LP. The album is a collaborative work between the band members, with royalties from the track ''Dëhndë'' to benefit the French charity ''La Fondation Initiative Autisme'' for people with

autism Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...

. The album was recorded by Francis Linon at the band's own UZ Studio between 7 March and 12 June 2022, and

mastered Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source from which all copies will be ...

by Marcus Linon at Greasy Records Studio in Paris.

Background

After the previous album, ''

Zëss __NOTOC__ ''Zëss'' (also known as ''Zëss: Le Jour du Néant'') is the fourteenth studio album by the French rock band Magma, which was released on 14 June 2019 on Christian Vander's Seventh Records. The composition dates back to the 1970s and ...

'', the subject of which is of a universe-ending apocalypse, the band members wanted to produce a brighter and more optimistic album with ''Kartëhl''. ''Kartëhl'' is notable for being the first album since 1976's ''

Üdü Ẁüdü ''Üdü Ẁüdü'' is the sixth studio album by French rock music, rock band Magma (band), Magma, released on 10 September 1976. This album was first issued with a provisional sleeve, as Klaus Blasquiz's artwork was not finished on time. This ar ...

'' to have songs not written by Vander fill up half of the album's tracklist. For the title ''Hakëhn Deïs'', Magma has released a

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

clip for the first time in its more than 50-year band history. In the video, two dancers from the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...

, alienated by

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, dance in an expressionist style to the music.

Tracklist

Personnel

* Christian Vander - percussions, vocals, tambourin *

Stella Vander Stella Vander (born Stella Zelcer, also known as Stella; 12 December 1950) is a French singer, musician and record producer. Early years Born in Paris into a family of Polish immigrants, she began writing music in the early sixties together with ...

- vocals, backing vocals, chime * Hervé Aknin - vocals, backing vocals * Isabelle Feuillebois - vocals * Sylvie Fisichella - vocals * Caroline Indjein- vocals * Laura Guarrato - vocals * Rudy Blas - guitar * Thierry Eliez - piano, Fender Rhodes, keyboards * Simon Goubet - piano, Fender Rhodes, keyboards * Jimmy Top - bass * René Garber - vocals, piano

Reception

On the progressive rock website

Prog Archives Prog Archives is an online fan-based website with information on progressive rock bands and musicians. Teams evaluate whether the band or musician should be added to the website or not. As of the summer of 2014, the website had web pages on 8,671 ...

''Kartëhl ''received a rating of 3.55 of 5 points from 41 ratings, and on

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

it received a 4.5/5 stars rating from nine users. Nik Brückner of German progressive-rock-website Babyblaue Seiten, ''Kartëhl'' is: "not the best Magma album, and certainly not the most intense, but it's still a strong middle-of-the-road album in their catalogue." He rates the "wonderfully diversified" album, compared to its predecessor ''

''. Michael Büttgen of the internet music portal Betreutes Proggen rates the album 12 out of 15 points and judges: "''Kartëhl'' is somehow a classic Magma album, but it seems to leave the 1970s behind a bit and surprises instead with many new and also unusual ideas."

References

{{Authority control 2020s concept albums 2022 albums Magma (band) albums