Described as a cosmic free jazz orchestra, Zaäar are clearly not short of ideas as they embark upon this 90-minute journey. With the sounds of a saxophone, trumpet, synths, flutes, drums and electric bass, this always had the makings of a weird and wonderful type of adventure.

Dark, ambient, slow-burning …. this is “Respiration Aérobie”. The drone and the indistinct background sounds which could be rustling papers, objects floating through the sky or whatever you imagine these fleeting images to be, remind me of the [ówt krì] style sound art that I often listen to. At one point there’s a tribal Middle Eastern desert style tone. It’s hazy and although I can pick out recognisable parts, it’s all bit of a dream world with its repressed sound effects. The sax leads the journey to insanity. The drum beat is hypnotic. I felt I was in for the long haul as I found myself in the middle of all this obscurity. More indistinguishable sounds follow on “Multicellularité des Cyanobactéries”. In spite of the fluty tones, the first part sounds like rubbish being emptied into a dust cart. We float off into something more ethereal except that floating off isn’t really what it is as it’s so strident and in its way sinister. That hand drum strikes up along with an obscure sax section. On it drones and wails and beats, and I am none the wiser. If the soundscape is obscure, then it has competition in the form of the titles of these pieces. The next one is “Eucaryotes et Réproduction Sexuée”. The drum is more bassy, while the saxophone sounds more teary than ever. People whisper and echo, but this isn’t doing much other than taking up a lot of my time. Sultry is what it is. I sense there might be some drama behind the sax, but then perhaps not. “Sortie de l’Eau et Seconds Oxygénation” has watery feel as its title suggests but its dreary and drab repetition and off beat tune give the grey and lifeless feel which seems to be the hallmark of this double album. The drum does pick up and borders on either frenzy or a Native Indian chant, I’m not sure which, before drifting away into freeform obscurity. “Explosion Cambrienne” picks up the pace, as drums beat and the flute warbles frenziedly, before stopping. We are transported suddenly into a cosmic atmosphere. The keyboard takes us through a celestial fog. We drift on. The gong signals the next passage but it’s no more comprehensible or accessible than any of these other sax-laden trippy sections. Just one more to go – “Grande Oxydation” is a mere 20 minutes long. Time to shine. Well no, because it’s one more hyper experimental jazz-inspired shuffling drone. That Middle Eastern ambiance comes out of the haunting voice in the background as the sax twists and turns. The one positive for me on this album is the drum work, which is varied and hypnotic in a good way. But ultimately “Grande Oxydation” is like all that has gone before: a baffling kaleidoscope of off-the-wall sounds without, for me at least, any point of reference to fire up my imagination.

Taking that “Magická Džungl’a” means the magic jungle, then I can loosely get the jungle part but I missed any of the magic. This album conjured up nothing for me. It’s too long and too esoteric. There’s a lot of working with sounds, but it’s very sombre and most of all I had no idea where it was coming from or going to. I would love to read a positive review of this work and perhaps gain a different perspective because I couldn’t get anything out of “Magická Džungl’a” at all.

(3/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/ZA%C3%84AR-100330129051991

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/magicka-dz-ungl-a