Description
Visitors was the brain-child of the obscure but infamous French producer/composer Jean-Pierre Massiera. In 1974 he single-handedly recruited a group of nineteen musicians (most notably Didier Lockwood, the jazz violinist who spent a brief tenure touring with Magma and made an indelible mark on their 1975 live album) to record an album of his unusual, progressive compositions.
The resulting LP was a concept album on the theme of extra-terrestrial contact (hence the title Visitors) and was a truly eclectic mix of prog, psych, fusion and zeuhl elements with complex arrangements and often grandiose vocals.
Never really anything more than a studio project, nothing more was seen or heard of Visitors until 1981 when Massiera recruited a new group to record a second (and again self-titled) Visitors album. Unlike the original 1974 LP, Massiera handed most of the writing duties over to other members of the group, and the resulting album bears little resemblance to its predecessor beyond the concept itself. Musically, the album is a synth-dominted mix of rock, pop and electronic sounds which, though still rather quirky at times, is overall a considerably less proggy affair.
