r/zeuhl

Each time I saw a post about it on Reddit, there was no explanation except it was a French prog/fusion band. As a Corsican, I will give more details about what Rialzu was.

First it’s important to note that this band was not just French, it was from Corsica, and island in the Mediterranean sea next to Italy, just North to Sardinia, in which the local population has their own culture, significantly closer to Italians than the French.

In the 1970s, the island saw the rise nationalism and many revendications including autonomy or indepence as well as many other things which I will not detail. This time was a period of struggle and political violence, buildings were being bombed by organizations such as the FPLC, Ghjustizia Paolina and the FLNC after 1976.

In this context of huge political tensions, many Corsican artists started singing in Corsican, reclaiming their culture, and THAT’S when Rialzu appears, in 1976.

Rialzu was composed of Christophe Mac-Daniel (keyboard), Dumè Gallet (violin, vocals), François Mac-Daniel (bass), Gilles Renne (guitar), Olivier Renne (drums) and Françoise Augé (choirs). It blended elements of Zeuhl and progressive rock with Corsican singing.
The lyrics were written by the poets Ghjacumu Thiers and Dumenicu Antone Geronimi and talk about resilience and things that return but also about magic folklore (the song "I lagramanti" is about ghosts for example).

The band existed from 1976 to 1978 with a single album, "U Rigiru", unfortunately in such a tense period, this music was not considered not traditional enough for Corsican music, and they were pretty much pressured into stopping.
The main composer Christophe Mac-Daniel still continued to make music that pushes the boundaries of Corsican music, he collaborated with many artists, including Petru Guelfucci, and the song "Innu" clearly has Mac-Daniel’s progressive touch, and if you listen to "Triton" by Fredy Olmeta, it is clearly inspired by King Crimson’s Discipline.

And yes, Rialzu was clearly inspired by Magma, the intro of "Rigiru" is nod to the intro of Köhntarkösz and the band members did listen to Magma. I know these infos because I had the chance to interview Christophe Mac-Daniel for an article for the journal of the association of history students of Corte, which is not out yet but if the sub allows it, I’ll share a link when it comes out (it will be in French though).

So now you know more about this rare Zeuhl gem. I hope you liked it !