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Philippe Bussonnet (Magma, One Shot)

Buchada Azeda

Buchada Azeda

Mar 25, 2009
899
87
Germany
papangu.bandcamp.com
#1


Simply amazing. BTW, that band he's playing with, Magma, is quite well known in the progressive rock/avant-garde music circles; the music (which could be described as progressive rock meets Coltrane, Carl Orff, Stravinsky, dissonance, fuzz bass a la John Wetton and weird sh**) is sung in an operatic fashion in a constructed language made in the late 60's. All the band's musicians are top notch.
 
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#6
Had to revive this really old thread!.... Just to give a big shout for Philippe Bussonnet!..
Personally I think he is the best of the magma bass players... he has it all! That guy can play.... from full on 'fingers blurring' to sitting on a simple groove for hours.... all with such feel & accuracy...
If you've got half an hour or so to spare... pull up a chair & check this!.... (Less is more!)
Great piece.. brass is terrific! Usual Magma impeccable tightness & 'in the zone' involvement! ...Jazz-Opera from another planet!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YfIpbXpmvQ&feature=share
 
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#9
escaraBAJO said:
Hey! I'm gonna give this thread a try before starting a new one.
Do you know what does he use for that thick fuzz sound?
It is just what I'm looking for
Click to expand...

I'm not up to speed with Phillippe so much, as I tend to stick to the earlier Magma. I guess Phillippe is the guy on the K.A. record and the Mythes et Légendes Epok 1 - 4 albums... He is probably the most conventionally virtuoso (virtuosic?) bassist of the lot...

The classic Magma tone comes from Jannick "Janik" Top. He brought that tone with him. For the Kohntarkosz rehearsal tapes you can hear when Jannick joined the band, as the previous bassist had a much more 'Beatle bass' tone. Jannick's tone came from a Jazz bass, tuned CGDA, into an Ampeg SVT with a master volume added. I guess he drove the preamp section really hard, then lowered the master volume to acceptable levels. On Udu Wudu it sounds like he double-tracks the bass parts as well. He also added octave-down effects and envelope filters.

The freakiest bassist I think Magma had was Bernard Paganotti. This guy had a custom Jacobacci bass with a massive oversized body and three pickups. He lets rip a crazy solo on the Theatre Du Taur Concert, 1975, during MKD. The solo comprises sections of the De Futura basslines and a lot of weird octave fuzz. It sounds like he is using a fuzz like an Arbiter Add-A-Sound, that creates both an octave above and below the original note. He is also using a wah, or possibly a Q filter built into the bass. Crazy stuff.
 
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#10
I must bump this because Philippe Bussonnet is amazing. I have seen a lot of bass players and I have played a lot of bass with some great musicians and I have never seen anyone play as well as this guy. He is intense in his subtlety. He has bionic fingers. He respects those who came before him. He has his own tone but still sounds like he belongs with Magma. His technique is unstoppable. HAILS.
 
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#11
Big bump, because I saw Magma in Edinburgh last night. Definitely a bucket list gig, and not something I would have thought I would end up going to. A Magma crowd is quite interesting; a mix of metal heads, old rockers, French students and guys that are serious about their prog rock. The setlist was pretty simple: Theusz Hamtaahk, Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh and Zombies (in Ëmëhntëht-Rê form) as an encore.

Phillipe Bussonnet was on bass, and a simple Google brought me to this thread! He was using an active Jazz-style bass with no pickguard and a long thumbrest between the pickups. It had a small headstock finished black on the front. From where I was located I mostly saw the back of the neck. The bass ran through an Ernie Ball volume pedal into some unidentifiable yellow stomp box (looked like an old DOD or similar, but I could be wrong here) into an SVT. I think he was tuned CGDA for the whole gig. He must have the stamina of an ox, as he was busy the whole night, be it running all over the neck or pedalling away a simple lick for ~5 minutes at a time. The cello tuning seems to make certain licks look easier to play and others look much harder.
 
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#14
Another bump.

Factual error: Paganotti did not play his bass tuned in fifths. He had a five-stringed bass with a low B.

Strongly held opinions: No one touches Jannick Top, the most underrated bass guitarist in the history of the instrument, for sheer power or originality. Every subsequent Magma bassist is a pygmy existing in Top's very long shadow. Bussonet is an excellent technician, nothing more. And that's about the sum of it.
 
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#16
kohntarkosz said:
I'm not up to speed with Phillippe so much, as I tend to stick to the earlier Magma. I guess Phillippe is the guy on the K.A. record and the Mythes et Légendes Epok 1 - 4 albums... He is probably the most conventionally virtuoso (virtuosic?) bassist of the lot...

The classic Magma tone comes from Jannick "Janik" Top. He brought that tone with him. For the Kohntarkosz rehearsal tapes you can hear when Jannick joined the band, as the previous bassist had a much more 'Beatle bass' tone. Jannick's tone came from a Jazz bass, tuned CGDA, into an Ampeg SVT with a master volume added. I guess he drove the preamp section really hard, then lowered the master volume to acceptable levels. On Udu Wudu it sounds like he double-tracks the bass parts as well. He also added octave-down effects and envelope filters.

The freakiest bassist I think Magma had was Bernard Paganotti. This guy had a custom Jacobacci bass with a massive oversized body and three pickups. He lets rip a crazy solo on the Theatre Du Taur Concert, 1975, during MKD. The solo comprises sections of the De Futura basslines and a lot of weird octave fuzz. It sounds like he is using a fuzz like an Arbiter Add-A-Sound, that creates both an octave above and below the original note. He is also using a wah, or possibly a Q filter built into the bass. Crazy stuff.
Click to expand...

Yes I agree. All are great players. Really Jannick Top’s playing and also Paganotti’s. They defined the Magma bass sound. Big Magma fan myself. I love the old classic Magma the most. My favorite album is Live 1975. Some newer late Magma albums are nice too but they became a bit more doomy and gothic. Favorite album of the ever ones are Zess and Slagtanz. The other newer ones don’t do it for me.
 
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