| Zoviet France
Interview by Brian Duguid
Like Nocturnal Emissions, Soviet France have become a cult band.With a reputation for obscurity that
would put many others to shame, they've been quietly producing their own distinctive blend of industrial sound
collage throughout the last decade.But most of them seemed to find their favourite three chord thrash, get stuck there, and give
up within a year or two to become accountants."We were into all the more familiar stuff, like Can, and Neu, and early Kraftwerk, all the German bands.Stockhausen, and Pierre Boulez, and Luciano Berio.At the same time we've got very catholic tastes, we listen to all kinds of music.But there is more to the music of Soviet France than just genre or
stylistic considerations.Most conventional bands are performers.We weren't interested in that at all.Also as an
avenue or a medium for accessing some of the more primitive instincts and subconscious: stuff that goes on in
everybody's heads, but most people don't have an outlet for."Soviet France certainly go some way to following up that avenue.It's generally a cyclic, abstract music,
looping and shifting textures of noise around to create a soundscape that certainly doesn't exist anywhere else in this
world.On the other hand, sometimes there are recognisable fragments
swimming through the music, brief snatches of voice, or perhaps something else that sounds familiar but rarely
identifiable.This side of the mix will inevitable trigger instinctive associations in the mind of the listener, helping
to personalise it and drawing them in.It's repetitive nature is highly entrancing, very hypnotic.Although Soviet
France feel their music is a highly personal expression, there is quite a lot there to attract others to it."We produce music all the time.We record everything we do.Making music is
an end in itself to us.Anything else is subsidiary and secondary to it.We just switch off all conscious sensory perceptions, and we start making the music.Maybe two days later we listen back to it.Because we're
listening to it in a different state of consciousness, it's like listening to somebody else's music.It's music I like listening to over and above any other kind of music.Having said that, we always have this
problem in that actually releasing something exorcises these kinds of feelings.In many ways, to release a piece of
our music really is giving something of ourselves away to people.It loses all the previous relevance that it had for
ourselves.I've never had any children, but the closest thing I can imagine to it is like losing a child ...Also, it means that the music is to
a large extent irrepeatable.Because this means there is such a huge
quantity of Soviet France music, and such a seemingly huge quantity of potential music still to come, it
makes brief excerpts (like albums) seem somehow less important.It integrates itself into life more, becomes more closely entwined with the people who
produce it.For us poor schmucks who only buy the stuff, it can never form such an important place in our life.But that's hardly the point.The point is that what Soviet France do anyone can do: if music really
can have intuitive, subconscious application, and if only music that someone produces themself is ever
really going to give them the meaning that they need, then surely they should get out their and do exactly what
Soviet France have done.We set up a few mikes around the place, wherever we decide to make the recording.We generate about two to three hours worth
of material, and then post produce it.We mix what we've got, reprocess it, and complete a finished set of recordings
which maybe one day will get released.In a way, there's two very apposite sides to the production.Having initially attached themselves to the
label Red Rhino, they quickly became the label's token "weird" group, producing esoteric and obscure music that
was sure to find its own cult audience but probably not get much further.It's only natural that they achieved
some recognition as part of the "lunatic" fringe of the burgeoning indie music scene."We never felt we were in the industrial tradition which was very much the contemporary movement from which
we sprang.We saw ourselves as very isolated and very much out on a limb.It seemed to coalesce, particularly
after punk.That also coincided with a general upgrading in technology, like the synthesiser and
cassette recording technology.People realised very quickly that they could make what the fuck they like as music,
call it music, and be able to spread it around and distribute it.And people would be interested in that."What was at first noisy
and abrasive gradually matured into a more sophisticated sound.In Soviet France's case, the harsher cyclic music
of their early albums made way for something that was smoother, easier to listen to, and as a result probably more
effective in its ability to worm its way into the listener's subconscious.An additional
reason, like N.With the ability to produce something with less rough edges, it also resulted in a music that was more positive in
feeling, less of a reaction and more of a contribution.We still make them available.We haven't disowned them and
don't regard them as irrelevant.But compared to what we're doing now they're almost childish in their approach.We had to deal with that
then to come to where we are now.It was
complementing something that I knew I had within me anyway, and at the same time it was like 'fucking hell,
there's people actually doing this kind of stuff'.One other thing about the band grew less extreme as the years passed, although for different reasons.An album like Look Into Me sits
in a perfectly normal CD or LP sleeve.There's
more to this than just a desire to maintain some form of notoriety, of course.These products really are
something special.CD boxes which currently fill one of my
drawers, I was always going to pay closer attention to what it contains."We realised early on that one of the biggest favours we could do ourselves was in not creating any kind of image
or allowing any kind of image to be created for us.That's the reason why we don't include any names of personnel
on the records.It's not secrecy, and it's not a deliberate marketing ploy like the Residents use.Anybody who really
wants to can find out who we are and talk to us personally, like you're doing.We've never
allowed photographs of ourselves to be published, or haven't until now anyway, and we've never really identified
ourselves as personalities at all."Soviet
France can actually be funny too.Cynical humour about the industrial
movement, cynical humour about the political state of the world or this country.We have a good laugh making it and we think other people should have a good laugh listening to it as well,
if they can work out what the jokes are!"Their investigations have taken them into fictional cultures where nothing is easily located and reality often slips into the hypnagogic.Just as :Zoviet*France:'s sound was alchemic reconfigurations of inexpensive technologies, their vinyl packaging literally covered their sounds with aluminum, roofing shingles, and porcelain.In spite of the digital polish resulting from their usage of hard disk editing on their latest records, :Zoviet*France: has continuously fashioned a beautiful eeriness with unplaced signifiers, sonorous echoes, and hazy driftscapes.On the 1997 Digilogue album, :Zoviet*France: maps an unrecognizable psychic terrain with oblique references to American movies of World War Two battles.As these pieces show, after all these years :Zoviet*France: is still one of the best things nobody knows about.Bad Alchemy, West Germany
LE MUR MUR NU on 'Fight!Mark Mushet (Suture Productions, Canada 1991)
Utilises parts of SHADOW, THIEF OF THE SUN
(untitled) a video by :zoviet*france: (UK 1991)
Promotional video for SHADOW, THIEF OF THE SUN for television broadcast only.CD) Iris Light, UK
Rapoon:
Robin Storey started releasing sounds under the name Rapoon in 1992."Are you sure you want to block this user?Kind regards from the Silent Space!Hello the mini LP 1973 is available on my Myspace, 4 titles downloadable new!The way how they mix thing is amazing.Respect to Zoviet France for their art and vision!For more monumental dreaming feel free to visit my blog!Zoviet France without ever putting it in my ancient section .Thank you for keeping this project alive !Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.Big influence on my stuff.Colombia south america im very fan of zoviet france music..Id + " Link: " + targetLink.Id + " Text: " + targetLink.Plugin: Days since last Visit 1.You may give each page an identifying name, server, and channel on
the next lines.Zoviet France (read more)
123,055 plays scrobbled on Last.CD era their vinyl packaging usually evoked as much mystery and fascination as the music itself.Another astounding achievment in sculpture!I'mvery into this band for about 20 years now.It was a bitch to keep in good shape!Would love some DLs of older stuff.If you'd like to add some events for Zoviet France then you can do so on this page.Things Go Better with Audioscrobbler.Pepsi Smash
Nissan Live Sets
Who's Next?Rating affects your music played in LAUNCHcast and Music Videos.Over the past 14 years, the members of :zoviet*france: have explored industrial music through the DIY framework of punk without so much as showing their faces.Among the group's many album, Misfits, Loony Tunes and Squalid Criminals,...Assault And Mirage (1987), 6.Shouting At The Ground (1988), 6.Shadow Thief Of The Sun (1991), 6.Terry Riley,
dalle produzioni dub di Lee Perry e dalle musiche etniche.Le loro composizioni sono in gran parte basate su un
drone ciclico che emana da loop e strumenti etnici, una tecnica semplice
che produce un flusso sonoro ipnotico e suggestivo.Ogni album contiene
un elemento caratterizzante (tipicamente un campionamento) che ricorre
dall'inizio alla fine.Nel frattempo erano state pubblicate anche diverse cassette, fra cui Gorista, forse la prima.La Music For A Spaghetti Western (Klanggalerie, 2005), composta nel
1986, rimase incompiuta.They're Eating The Passengers sul primo).Zoviet France hanno dichiarato che esiste un rapporto di uno a venti fra il
materiale che hanno pubblicato e il materiale che hanno composto.The early collages (1982) by Zoviet France
were even more savage than Nurse With Wound's, evoking
a cross between "musique concrete" and tribal music.The tetralogy of "Charm, Ceremony, Chance, Prophecy" ("CCCP"), begun with
Misfits, Loony Tunes And Squalid Criminals (1986), marked a move towards
a less hostile and more atmospheric sound.Penumbra is the project of
Mark Warren of Zoviet France. |
![Zoviet France : Norsch [ep]](/covers/72/7269/alb_118123_th.jpg "Zoviet France : Norsch [ep]")
