:zoviet*france: Appreciation thread

[YangYing]

So, except for this thread I couldn't find much appreciation for such a pioneering band, I do not know much about them except that I love Loh Land, Mohnomische and especially Assault and Mirage with all of my heart:
 

 

 

 

 

 

They also run the radio show "A Duck in a Tree" since 2012 (edit: with 219 editions!), which has helped me discover some incredible music...

 

Please enlighten me on other works of theirs, and appreciate the sounds

Edited March 19, 2020 by MIXL2

[cwmbrancity]

Shadow, Thief of the Sun is prob the most played ZF album in the last few years, "Feel the Warmth", "This Moment Obscure", "Cahl Yn Yan" (check that voice echo thing), but the crowning glory is the last track "Static Fields".....mixes well with J Cope/Thighpaulsandra drones

(no audio links sorry) - one of those acts where every release is worthy of deep listening & sifting for nuggets

 

cheers for The Duck in a Tree link, fuck me thats a lot of good music, have you ploughed thru the Rapoon discography? different again

 

the north of England seemed to have a way of producing these kinds of acts, Hafler Trio's McKenzie is a Geordie, TG in Hull, summat about those dark Satanic northern mill cities & ports where the nights get late early

[YangYing]

Shadow, Thief of the Sun is prob the most played ZF album in the last few years, "Feel the Warmth", "This Moment Obscure", "Cahl Yn Yan" (check that voice echo thing), but the crowning glory is the last track "Static Fields".....mixes well with J Cope/Thighpaulsandra drones

(no audio links sorry) - one of those acts where every release is worthy of deep listening & sifting for nuggets

 

cheers for The Duck in a Tree link, fuck me thats a lot of good music, have you ploughed thru the Rapoon discography? different again

 

the north of England seemed to have a way of producing these kinds of acts, Hafler Trio's McKenzie is a Geordie, TG in Hull, summat about those dark Satanic northern mill cities & ports where the nights get late early

no I haven't, I don't recognize most of the names you have mentioned, will check em out! yeah, the Duck in a Tree archive is huge.. i think I actually started listening to it back when it started in 2012 but forgot about it for almost 5 years.. recently re-discovering it.

 

also, here is this moment obscure for reference:

[Polytrix]

Nicely done! I adore ZF but don't own any records/think they are pretty hard to get hold of anyway.

 

I listen to Eostre (1984) quite often:

 

 

 

Discogs tells me they have 24 albums with :Garista:(1982) being the first so I suppose that's where people should start?!

 

I can listen to about 5 minutes of this stuff and get instantly inspired to make tunes so I appreciate this thread!

[dr lopez]

if only robbie was still here he could explain how zf have influenced every single musical group in history

[YangYing]

 

 

I can listen to about 5 minutes of this stuff and get instantly inspired to make tunes so I appreciate this thread!

indeed, their work is really inspiring.. instantly gets me in the mood to make something

[joshuatxuk]

if only robbie was still here he could explain how zf have influenced every single musical group in history

 

came here to post this

[dr lopez]

that said zf are indeed great

[Key]

Got into them in a big way a few years ago, they are one of those acts that are so singular that you get swept up in them and never listen to anything else, but they don't suit a casual listen.

Popular Soviet Songs is often singled out as their best but while good its a little drawn out and subdued compared to others. Assault & Mirage sounds closest to modern day Fennesz/T.Hecker style droneyness. Loh Land is folky and creepy (those flutes). Just An Illusion is one of the better 'tribal' recordings. Music For A Spaghetti Western is another one of my favorites, long almost Niblock style drones. 

As far as the side projects go, I'd recommend the early Rapoon albums as they just sound like 85-90 Z*F albums. I'm not too into the Reformed Faction stuff, but theres some fascinating stuff on Charm Records to investigate, including an album made entirely of field recordings of Remembrance Sunday silences at the Cenotaph in London.

[YangYing]

Got into them in a big way a few years ago, they are one of those acts that are so singular that you get swept up in them and never listen to anything else, but they don't suit a casual listen.

Popular Soviet Songs is often singled out as their best but while good its a little drawn out and subdued compared to others. Assault & Mirage sounds closest to modern day Fennesz/T.Hecker style droneyness. Loh Land is folky and creepy (those flutes). Just An Illusion is one of the better 'tribal' recordings. Music For A Spaghetti Western is another one of my favorites, long almost Niblock style drones.

As far as the side projects go, I'd recommend the early Rapoon albums as they just sound like 85-90 Z*F albums. I'm not too into the Reformed Faction stuff, but theres some fascinating stuff on Charm Records to investigate, including an album made entirely of field recordings of Remembrance Sunday silences at the Cenotaph in London.

cheers for the recommendations!

[Polytrix]

I agree that it's not for casual listening. I very much agree with that. I think you need to be ready to fully immerse yourself in it.

 

I wish I owned some of this. I'd appreciate it more if I did. Going to Manchester in a few days record shopping so I might try and see if I can find anything. 

 

I got into this stuff around the same time I started listening to Nurse With Wound. Perhaps two very different things but they are both incredibly evocative and instantly make me want to make tunes. 

 

Keep giving me recommendations - the discography is too vast to know where to dip in and out.

[YangYing]

I agree that it's not for casual listening. I very much agree with that. I think you need to be ready to fully immerse yourself in it.

 

I wish I owned some of this. I'd appreciate it more if I did. Going to Manchester in a few days record shopping so I might try and see if I can find anything.

 

I got into this stuff around the same time I started listening to Nurse With Wound. Perhaps two very different things but they are both incredibly evocative and instantly make me want to make tunes.

 

Keep giving me recommendations - the discography is too vast to know where to dip in and out.

highly recommend their radio show I linked on the OP, "A Duck in a Tree" it totals over 200 hours of (edit: very similarly veined) music! Edited November 20, 2017 by MIXL2

[hello spiral]

This is a very good three-way split that's often overlooked https://www.discogs.com/ZovietFrance-Jim-ORourke-The-Hafler-Trio-Unentitled/release/309955

 

This is a pretty enjoyable Reformed Faction album https://www.discogs.com/Reformed-Faction-The-War-Against/release/1073238

 

Sliver Fuse is the one that sticks in my mind but I can't find it on youtube

 

Love Rapoon, listen to lots of that

 

https://www.discogs.com/Rapoon-The-Kirghiz-Light/master/1008092

 

 

https://www.discogs.com/Rapoon-Alien-Glyph-Morphology/master/38950

 

 

https://www.discogs.com/Rapoon-Media-Studies/release/2824599

 

[misc]

This track always gives me the weirdest feeling.

 

 

 

If the autechre collaboration ever sees the light of day i'll be very happy.

[YangYing]

Wonderful stuff, I had not heard of Rapoon before cheers for the recommendation!

 

This track always gives me the weirdest feeling.

 

 

 

If the autechre collaboration ever sees the light of day i'll be very happy.

Indeed, but didn't Sean say on the AAA that was never gonna happen? that track is magnificent btw... man every single track from them makes me feel "I wish I could create that"

[cwmbrancity]

This is a very good three-way split that's often overlooked https://www.discogs.com/ZovietFrance-Jim-ORourke-The-Hafler-Trio-Unentitled/release/309955

 

This is a pretty enjoyable Reformed Faction album https://www.discogs.com/Reformed-Faction-The-War-Against/release/1073238

 

Sliver Fuse is the one that sticks in my mind but I can't find it on youtube

 

Love Rapoon, listen to lots of that

 

https://www.discogs.com/Rapoon-The-Kirghiz-Light/master/1008092

 

 

https://www.discogs.com/Rapoon-Media-Studies/release/2824599

 

 

 

tasty, the Kirghiz Light title track is sumptuous

 

anyone who can sample David Icke's madness so succinctly is on the right path, aint listened to the latter in a while so to hear "Terry Wogan is a cunt" then Icke on energies insania is a flashback trip

 

This track always gives me the weirdest feeling.

 

 

 

 

 

Shamany indeed, 1 of their highlights

[misc]

@MIXL2 Just went back and checked:

 

kieselguhr kid: 

what became of the zoviet*france / AE collaboration - any chance of hearing any of that material (if it actually exists) ?

 

Sean Ae: 

ben's got the DAT

every time i ask him to send it over he goes 'yeah' and then doesn't, so i haven't heard any of it since we did the gigs

Edited November 20, 2017 by misc

[YangYing]

yay, hope exists! :)

[joshuatxuk]

This track always gives me the weirdest feeling.

 

 

 

Ah yes, I remember Robbie posting this one in the context of BoC and 'hauntology' vibes in music. Mesmerizing stuff.

[Polytrix]

That track is gorgeous! Properly inspiring and beautiful. I will try and get some of this soon, it deserves my money.

[cwmbrancity]

a few years slightly later than Shamany, has a transition around the 3mins mark where the harmonics restart & unfurl into summat else

 

[patternoverlap]

Big fan. Not much else to add to what's been said already except to look up their live recordings too as they are most often worth it.

 

 

here's a live performance from San Francisco 1991 which is quite nice

 

[Polytrix]

I listen to a lot of Muslimgauze and so I kind of group their stuff in that sort of thing of highly prolific sound explorers/artists. 

 

There's some interesting comments at the bottom of this discogs site about them with some guy ranting about how they've deteriorated since taking up digital instrumentation.

 

https://www.discogs.com/artist/581-Zoviet-France

 

 

Don't know enough about the band to really comment on that, it's all absolutely gorgeous to me. I prefer it to Nurse With Wound - I find that too abrasive at times although still good. 

 

I also like the fact that they released creatively packaged records which are pretty interesting to say the least! WANT!

 

[Polytrix]

Makes for pretty interesting reading regarding the above image

 

 September 18, 2017

 

referencing Popular Soviet Songs And Youth Music, 2xCass, Ltd, C90, none, REDC 58 

Of all the odd school packaging of cassettes that appeared in the magic era that was the 80s, this double cassette by Zoviet France is one of my favourites. Not only do the cassettes contain some amazing music, the packaging is way beyond belief. And, in those days of DIY-yore, the sky for packaging was the limit - as long as you and your friends had enough free time (read: if you were unemployed) to create and assemble the often stunning product packaging concepts. And Zoviet France was a big player in that field. In 1980 Ben Ponton and Mark Warren had joined forces to create unconventional music as well as unconventional product packaging using material such as aluminium foil, hessian fabric, tar and other intriguing substances to pack up their releases. None however, turned out more spectacular or labour-intense than their 1985 double cassette Popular Soviet Songs And Youth Music. Rumour has it that only 200 copies were assembled, which makes sense – just imagine the amount of work involved in packing a hand-painted stick, a piece of rope, a parody on the American flag (featuring hammer and sickle instead of stars and stripes) silk screened on muslin, several hand-printed paper art inserts plus a radio-active feather collected from the beach at Seascale – near the Sellafield nuclear reactor – into a specially sculpted ceramic box and sealing the whole thing off with wax. Even multi-lingual user instructions were included, urging buyers to ‘discard burned cassettes and retain box’. The cassettes themselves feature over two and a half hours of non-compromising music. Less user- and listener-friendly than many of Zoviet France’s ambient releases, Popular Soviet Songs And Youth Music is an alienated grittier, and admittedly at times patchy affair. Zoviet France clearly refused to make any compromises, with as much exuberance in the music as in the packaging. Popular Songs and Soviet Music is a confrontational but fascinating statement – this is us and this is what we feel to be important to us it almost screams. And I agree; of all the Zoviet France releases that I used to have, this one is the only one left in my collection. Popular Soviet Songs and Youth Music is an important artistic statement that somehow has transcended time and place. As such, it almost seems inevitable that copies with all content complete and correct are near-impossible to locate.

[cwmbrancity]

makes you wonder whats been missed & subsequently lost, prolific quality control as it is, maybe people are sitting on things for personal reasons as well as the classic bag of tapes going moldy in a loft somewhere scenario

 

unrelated but similar thing happened with the Jerry Garcia Band where a sound engineer found if you put tapes in the oven or microwave (memory fails) at just the right temperature it would reactivate the chemical structure to unveil the lost audio

 

 

 

 

 

 I prefer it to Nurse With Wound - I find that too abrasive at times although still good. 

 

 

 

 

the Andrew Liles side of things has more analog warmth while still being richly textured if that makes any sense, his solo gear especially, spent years trying to tie up all his output into one collection

 

googling for tracks threw up this earlier, had to re-tweak audio thru the telly a bit to compensate for youlube