Zoviet France
Zoviet France (alternatively : zoviet * france: and other spellings) is a decidedly experimental music group from Newcastle upon Tyne in north-east England . Musically, this project can be classified as post-industrial , but due to its complexity and variance it can also be counted as part of the ritual or ( dark ) ambient .
history
The group was founded in 1980 by Ben Ponton (1980 to today), Peter Jensen (1980–84) and Robin Storey (1980–1992) as an artist collective. According to Robin Storey, it was founded in 1979. According to Storey, Zoviet France came into being when, through Lisa Hale's mediation, he met two members of a punk band who were musically alienated from punk and were looking for new forms of expression. The first recordings took place towards the end of 1979, the first studio album Hessian was recorded in January 1980, but was only released later.
Zoviet France currently consists of Ben Ponton and Mark Warren (since 1995). In addition, several other musicians were temporary members, including Lisa Hale (1980-81), Paolo Di Paolo (1984-86), Mark Spybey (1987-89) and Andy Eardley (1990-95). Spybey, Storey and Eardley formed a new music group in 2005 called Reformed Faction. Mark Warren in turn published some works under the name Penumbra.
The individual members of Zoviet France deliberately stayed in the background as individuals in their publications. Naming of names on the sound carriers was dispensed with, and photos of the members were not printed. Live performances, interviews, and responses to written inquiries were just as rare. For years the group did not participate in any sampler . This deliberate demarcation from the music business led to the initial image of a barely tangible, mysterious group, which brought them a certain cult status in the eighties.
Around 1990 the group fell into a crisis when anonymity was abandoned and Ben Ponton presented himself as the leading musical head at Zoviet France. Spybey and Storey then left the band to pursue their own (solo) projects: Mark Spybey under the names Dead Voices on Air and Propeller, Robin Storey as Rapoon .
From the beginning to the middle of the nineties, the number of publications also decreased noticeably, with only a few live recordings such as Vienna , compilations such as collusion , sampler contributions and re-releases. Instead, the focus was on working on soundtracks. The first CD with new studio material was Digilogue in 1996.
style
Initially, Zoviet France played with guitars and drums under the influence of punk , new wave , krautrock and industrial . The band then quickly turned to more experimental sounds and initially completely dispensed with computer-generated music. Instead, they improvised with traditional, ethnic and self-made musical instruments, as well as with tape loops and lo-fi effects. In principle, any object that can produce a sound could be used as an instrument. In addition to instruments, alienated acoustic field recordings , African tribal chants or recordings of radio broadcasts were also used as further stylistic devices. Over the years, more and more electronic elements, such as sampling , were added.
“What really drives us is the interest in noises and sounds. It's not about mastering a certain instrument particularly well, it's about the sound as abstract, raw material that can be worked with in order to create music. "
The music is mostly made up of scraps of speech and word groups that are incorporated into an experimental sound collage with sometimes repetitive, sometimes broken rhythmic structures. Other tracks, on the other hand, are kept very minimalistic, with monotonous sounds and almost no rhythmic variation. After the improvised recordings, individual sounds were isolated, alienated and reworked until they appear in a new arrangement in a completely new context and can no longer be assigned to the original acoustic environment.
The first publications from Garista (1982) onwards consisted almost exclusively of rough, dissonant noise collages. On Mohnomishe (1983) and Eostre (1984) the turn to more melodic sounds began. From Misfits, Loony Tunes and Squalid Criminals (1986), the music of Zoviet France then changed to atmospheric, meditative pieces with numerous loops . This makes Zoviet France one of the pioneers of ambient .
Charrm
Charrm was a record label that operated from 1980 to 2002. Behind Charrm Limited from Newcastle upon Tyne was Zoviet France, who sold their own phonograms in this way. In particular, reissues of the records from the 1980s were published on CD. 20 CDs with the codes CHARRMCD01 to CHARRMCD28 were released. Some numbers were not assigned, which is why 20 publications go to number 28. In addition, four LPs, a cassette and a maxi were produced. Codes here were accordingly CHARRMLP and CHARRMTC as well as CHARRMT. In 2001 a single and a double CD were released, which deviated from this pattern, as it is a collaboration between Zoviet France and Locus +. Almost all other recordings are from Zoviet France itself, with the exception of an LP (CHARRMLP03) by the Hafler Trio , as well as a sampler (CHARRMCD28).
Discography
The first Garista publication was recorded in 1982 and released on cassette. Characteristic for Zoviet France in the eighties was the special design of the cassettes, records and CDs: Instead of normal sleeves made of cardboard or plastic, processed and partially painted materials such as aluminum, plywood, roofing felt or jute are used. The records in particular were packaged in this way, cassettes and CDs less often. This led to the fact that some of the sound carriers were named after their packaging: The second publication without a name thus became the Hessian or Jute record . Originals of these records have become coveted collector's items.
- 1982: Hessian (Red Rhino)
- 1983: Norsch (Red Rhino Records)
- 1983: Mohnomishe (Red Rhino Records)
- 1984: Eostre (Red Rhino Records)
- 1985 :: Garista: (Red Rhino / Singing Ringing)
- 1985: Popular Soviet Songs and Youth Music (Red Rhino Records / Singing Ringing)
- 1985: Gris (No Man's Land)
- 1986: Misfits, Loony Tunes and Squalid Criminals (Red Rhino Records)
- 1986: Gesture Signal Threat (Red Rhino Records)
- 1987: Loh Land ( Staalplaat )
- 1987: A Flock of Rotations (Red Rhino Records)
- 1987: Assault and Mirage (Red Rhino Records)
- 1988: Shouting at the Ground (Red Rhino Records)
- 1990: Just an Illusion (Staalplaat)
- 1990: Look Into Me (Charrm)
- 1991: Shadow, Thief of the Sun (DOVentertainment)
- 1991: Vienna 1990 (Charrm)
- 1993: Collusion (Mute Records / Soleilmoon)
- 1993: What Is Not True (Charrm)
- 1996: Digilogue (Soleilmoon)
- 1996: in.version (Charrm)
- 1996: Feedback (Staalplaat)
- 2000: The Decriminalization of Country Music (Tramway)
- 2005: Music for a Spaghetti Western (Klanggalerie)
- 2008: Shteirlel (old vinyl)
- 2012: The Tables Are Turning (Soleilmoon)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interview with Robin Storey in: IndustrialnatioN No. 18, USA, July 2003 Archive link ( Memento from October 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Interview with Robin Storey in TDR-Magazin, 2002 archive link ( Memento from October 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Netzzeitung Evolver, Vienna [1]
- ^ After an interview with Zoviet France. In: Network News - Deep Sea Issue. Newcastle (England), 1990 [2]