Editing Magma (band) (section)

===Development===
French drummer and composer [[Christian Vander (musician)|Christian Vander]] formed Magma in late 1969 in an attempt to fill the void left by the death of American jazz musician and composer [[John Coltrane]].<ref name=Wire-p2/> Magma's first album, ''[[Magma (Magma album)|Magma]]'' (later reissued as ''Kobaïa''), told a story of refugees fleeing a future Earth and settling on a [[Planets in science fiction|fictional planet]] called Kobaïa.<ref name=PSF>{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.furious.com/perfect/magma.html |title=Magma |magazine=[[Perfect Sound Forever (magazine)|Perfect Sound Forever]] |first=Peter |last=Thelen |year=1995|access-date=16 October 2009}}</ref> The lyrics were all in Kobaïan (except the title track, sung mostly in English), a language Vander constructed for the album, some sung by soloists and others by "massive quasi-operatic choruses".<ref name=Wire-p2/> Over the next three decades, Magma have made fifteen albums that continues the mythology of Kobaïa, all sung in Kobaïan.<ref name=TinyMixTapes/>

Vander (his Kobaïan name is Zëbëhn Straïn dë Ğeuštaah) said in an interview that he invented Kobaïan for Magma because "French just wasn't expressive enough. Either for the story or for the sound of the music".<ref name=Telegraph/><ref name=Wire-p4>{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/2324/?pageno=4 |title=Different Drummer: Magma – interview with Christian Vander, page 4 |magazine=[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]] |first=Paul |last=Stump |date=July 1995 |access-date=16 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604202020/http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/2324/?pageno=4 |archive-date= 4 June 2011}}</ref> He said that the language developed in parallel with the music, that sounds appeared as he was composing on a piano.<ref name=DrummerWorld>{{Cite web|url=http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Christian_Vander.html |title=Christian Vander interview |website=[[Drummerworld]] |first=Theresa |last=Stern |access-date=16 October 2009}}</ref> Vander based Kobaïan in part on elements of [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] and [[Germanic languages]] and in part on the [[Scat singing|scat]]-[[yodeling]] vocal style of American [[Avant-garde music|avant-garde]] jazz singer [[Leon Thomas]].<ref name=Wire-p2/> The subsequent expansion of the language became a group effort, and as Magma's personnel changed, so new ideas were incorporated into the language (and the music).<ref name=PSF/>

British music critic [[Ian MacDonald]] said that Kobaïan is "[[Phonetics|phonetic]], not [[Semantics|semantic]]", and that it is based on "[[Sonority hierarchy|sonorities]], not on applied meanings".<ref name=MacDonald>{{Cite web|url=http://www.orkalarm.co.uk/orkalarm04/04_an_irresistible_life_force.htm |title=An Irresistible Life Force |website=Ork Alarm! |year=1975 |first=Ian |last=MacDonald |author-link=Ian MacDonald |access-date=16 October 2009 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227200309/http://www.orkalarm.co.uk/orkalarm04/04_an_irresistible_life_force.htm |archive-date=27 February 2012}}</ref> One of Magma's singers, Klaus Blasquiz, described Kobaïan as "a language of the heart" whose words are "inseparable from the music".<ref name=MacDonald/> Magma expert Michael Draine said "the abstraction provided by the Kobaïan verse seems to inspire Magma's singers to heights of emotional abandon rarely permitted by conventional lyrics".<ref name=Wire-p2/>

The Kobaïan lyrics on Magma's albums were generally not translated (though both Kobaïan lyrics and an English translation were provided for the first UK release on A&M of ''[[Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh]]''), but clues to the unfolding story of Kobaïa were given in French in the albums' [[liner notes]]. While the original intent of the language was to avoid over-scrutiny, unofficial Kobaïan online [[lexicon]]s were created by Magma fans, and Vander himself has since translated many of the words.<ref name=TinyMixTapes/>