Their compositions, either instrumental or vocal melodramas, poetic, lyrical, cabaret crooning are sung or spoken in different languages; English, Spanish, French, and also in Arabic, German, Turkish or Russian.
Although strongly focused around the music component, the peculiarity of Von Magnet is to endeavour the recurrent relationship between theatrical actions, dance as well as visual or performance arts, resulting in the creation of "staged" concerts.
Coming from the world of theatre (Flore Magnet, Samia Doukali), visual arts (Laurence Abraham, Erik Yaeger) or music (Stocha, Phil Von), the different individuals forming the group invented a style of performance which combined all of those disciplines.
In parallel, they were initiated to flamenco rhythms (palmas, zapateados, palos) by dancer Nuria Garcia and guitarist Mick Jingle (members of the London Peña Flamenca) who both contributed to the first showings and tours.
Von Magnet met with music wizard Phil Erb (keyboard player of the group Psychic TV) as well as producer Ken Thomas (Psychic TV, Test Dept, Sigur Rós, Dave Gahan, The Sugarcubes, Moby, Yann Tiersen, Current 93...), with whom they achieved their album El Sexo Sur-Realista, their first Electroflamenco manifesto inspired from Federico Garcia Lorca and Salvador Dalí, iconic flamenco artists Camarón de la Isla, Lole y Manuel, Enrique Morente as well as from early electronic acts such as Suicide, Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, The Residents...).
Metal costumes hung from the ceiling, objects made out of wire (creations of Andalusian sculptor artist Manuel Olarte), physical actions, slide projections, flamenco dance and guitar, saxophone (Stocha), singing and electronic sequences are fused together to form this first interdisciplinary piece.
[citation needed] With stages on wheels, moving objects and giant sculptures (Manuel Olarte), ingenious MIDI triggering, Pani projections (designed by Thierry Noyer), futuristic characters hanging in the air, acrobatics, contemporary and flamenco dance, water, fire and welding.
Computador talked about mutations, human (physical or psychological) or material (scenographic), pushing the limits which can define a performance piece, questioning the place, voyeurism and comfort of an audience as well as constantly transforming the space and actions.
More artists arrived to collaborate on different presentations of this big project (Mariana Bouhsira, Gregory Ryan, William Petit, Rob Verdegaal, Patricia Ruyters, John Wagland, Kate Tierney, Ken Thomas, Mick Jingle, et al.).
To access a different network of smaller venues on a broader scale, Flore Magnet, Laurence Abraham, Rosa Sanchez, Stocha, Phil Von & Erik Yaeger, decided to condense their favourite themes.
It is that encounter with the world of German Ballet which led Von Magnet to work for choreographer Mario Schröder in Kiel (Guten Morgen Du Schöne, Fight Club) and the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau.
The concert-performance Mezclador experimented again with some daring ideas of scenic destabilisation, this time using three stage areas, lighting sculptures and objects (created by visual artist Angelino), television screens, vinyl scratch (musician ON OFF aka Christophe Coutant) and choreographed physical actions in the midst of the audience.
Stalker Project, a performance especially designed for 3 old factories (in France, Germany & the Netherlands) was set around four cardinal stages encircling the public and featuring a special collaboration with contemporary dancer Myriam Gourfink.
Still opening up to a wider range of musical landscapes, but this time with a slight Sufi flavour, the record El Planeta, mainly programmed by Mimetic & Phil Von, held a more electronic feel.
With its latest performance Polarized, Von Magnet returned to the conquest of classic theatre stages and pushed the idea of the confrontation between opposite poles, neighbour territories and conflicting characters.
and Oddateee, Hugues Villette (drums) half of the electronic duet 2Kilos & More, and Lisa May (performer & dancer for the company Troubleyn Jan Fabre), complete the distribution of the concert/performance created in the Theatre of Vanves & in Le Fil St Etienne.
After the collaboration with Norscq on Atlas Project, he wrote the piece Compass (double string quartet + electronics) for Art Zoyd and the Musiques Nouvelles Ensemble of Jean Paul Dessy which was performed in Brussels.