Christian Vander (born 21 February 1948) is a French drummer, musician, and founder of the band Magma.

Vander is known for his extended compositions, drumming, and shrill falsetto improvisational/scat singing. His music fuses jazz, rock, classical and operatic influences, and draws on the work of musicians as diverse as John Coltrane and Carl Orff.

Christian Vander is the adopted child of famous French jazz piano player Maurice Vander (who was a long time sideman of the French singer Claude Nougaro). Most of Vander and Magma's recorded work is still available through Vander's own record label, Seventh Records.

He was married to singer Stella Vander who released many EPs herself in the 1960s and has performed vocal duties for Magma since 1972. They divorced in the 1980s, with speculations of this occurred in the hiatus years. Christian and Stella have a daughter, Julie, who has appeared on several Magma and Offering releases.

Source: Article "Christian Vander (musician)" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Christian Vanderschueren, dit Christian Vander est un batteur, pianiste, chanteur et compositeur français. Il est connu en particulier pour être le cofondateur du groupe Magma. Reconnu comme un excellent batteur au niveau international, notamment pour son travail au sein du groupe Magma, il possède un style personnel intéressant, influencé par certains batteurs de jazz, notamment Elvin Jones. Il a la particularité d'utiliser une grosse caisse de 18 pouces et de placer des cymbales derrière lui. Christian Vander est également compositeur, auteur de longues pièces, telle que Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh (quarante minutes). Il a inventé une langue, le kobaïen, aux consonances germaniques et slaves, majoritairement utilisée dans sa musique. Il est parfois crédité sur les albums sous son « nom kobaïen » : Zébehn Straïn Dë Geustaah.

Il a également cofondé Seventh Records, le label qui produit et distribue la plupart de ses enregistrements, tant au sein de Magma que de ses formations satellites.

Il est le fils adoptif de Maurice Vander (entre autres pianiste de Claude Nougaro).