About Weidorje

Weidorje (pronounced VAY-dorj) were a French band that was a shortlived offshoot of Magma. Their sole selftitled album was released in 1978. Their name is Kobaïan for "Celestial Wheel" (which might explain the UFO on the cover?) and was taken from a song from Magma's Üdü Wüdü album (which is the most similar album to Weidorje's sole release). One could almost describe it as the ultimate bass guitar album, though it owes a strong debt to Magma for the operatic vocals and seems to also drawn on Magma's subtle John Coltrane influences. The band was formed by bassist Bernard Paganotti and Patrick Gauthier, who also played synths and keyboards with the band Heldon. around this time some members of Magma also appeared on Heldon's album Standby. Paganotti also played on numerous Magma live cds in the 1970s, notably Live/Hhaï, widely regarded as one of Magma's masterpieces, and this clearly influenced Weidorje's sound. One of the more distinguishing features of Magma's music for much of the 1970's was a prominent distorted bass sound. Guitar is notably absent in Weidorje and much of Magma's music, with the distorted bass taking on much of the role of a lead instrument in it's place, while at the same time driving the rhythm section. Weidorje throbs, moans, and squonks a little, but is driven along by a manic lead bass unlike any other bass you'd heard before aside from in Magma. Among those influenced by this was a young bassist, Bill Laswell, who would riff on this a bit in live sets of his band Material before they recorded any albums. Weidorje also did at least one concert, and some live material was included on a CD re-issue of the original LP. They also have an unreleased second album that has been made available through online blogs.