Zoviet*france / Shouting at the Ground / 1997

Sample Revenue of Fire

“let us say it again, all art is in its origin essentially symbolical and ritual, and only through a late degeneration, indeed a very recent degeneration, has it lost its sacred character so as to become at last the purely profane ‘recreation’ to which it has been reduced among our contemporaries”

The dark drone of Zoviet*france is best soken about in a whisper. A musical collective that takes their status as obscure extremely serious. Challenging our concepts of sound, noise and music in the most fundamental ways. That is, at the core and deep. Revealing themselves only under the duress of repetitious, tribal beats.

Zoviet*france set the standard for this sound beginning in 1982 with the cassette tape release of the first two recordings, Hessian and Garista. Creating extremely dark indistrial-ambient music that is both highly complex and child-like in it’s spirit of exploration. Similar to the spirt of creativity we all had as children. Creating abstract noise that developed our adult voice. And as we more conventional interms of communication, some would mistakenly say “sophisticated”, we left behind the importance of sound and noise discovery. We not only forgot the pleasure of that expression but limited ourselves with the self-imposed rule of the modern-age; conformity.

On Shouting at the Ground, the listeneris challenged to embrace a radical, expansive lexicon. A language of sound that embraces the more primitive and outre’ aspects of the avant-garde movement. The experiments function in an atmosphere that is tense, dark and, often, disturbing one moment and pleasantly erotic only a moment later. Using electronics, tribal-drone and swiping cinematic soundscapes to create an organic and living environment.

Just this warning before you get started in exploring this rich and highly rewarding catalog; the earthly drones found within this album can be genuinely unsettling and addictive. Taking us back to a time before the compromises of modern civilization and it’s lukewarm value system. A voilitile mix of the primative and spiritual can awaken something with all of us. Forcing us to confront whatever lays beneath the thin vanier of superficiality we mask ourselves within. The result will leave full and wanting more.

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