Your cart (0 item)

ZOVIET FRANCE - Look into Me

Format: do-LP Label & Cat.Number: VOD Records VOD165.7-8 Release Year: 2020 Note: first vinyl re-issue of this album from 1990 (with recordings made 1987 + 1988), probably the last one with MARK SPYBEY in the line-up... "Zoviet France cycle and recycle abstract noises into a constantly changing texture, composed of sonorous drones, grindings, scrapings, squeakings and so on. It's atmospheric without conjuring up any obvious imagery at all, thanks to the unreality of most of the sounds used.." - lim. 300 (outside of the Chasse II box) Price (incl. 19% VAT): €32.50 More Info "First vinyl reissue of ZF’s elusive ambient noises, originally transmitted in 1990 on their Charrm label and including parts used for a Stan Brakhage soundtrack, now resurfacing as part of V-O-D’s ongoing archaeological survey of the Northumbrians’ seminal early years. Far as we can make out, ‘Look Into Me’ marks one of the last Zoviet France appearances of Mark Spybey, who was a band member 1987-1989. Alongside founding members Ben Ponton and Robin Storey they conjure a rawer, coarsely hypnagogic sequence of events and textures that recalls a folk drone symphony played by wraiths on high moorlands and in the pits of derelict collierys. A section of the 24’ opening side’s wizened strings loops and windswept ambient noise in ‘Cair Camouflet’ was used as part of the soundtrack to the film ‘Loud Visual Noises’ (1987) by Stan Brakhage, and the rest of the record follows in a fittingly enigmatic allegory of synaesthetic sound abstraction and experimental de/composition, to deeply psychedelic tracts of drone noise reminiscent of Two Daughters, mottled voices reminding of Delia Derbyshire’s Dreams records, and clangorous, feral ambient noise that could really only come from these epochal shaman and masters of their craft." [Boomkat] "Look Into Me contains a combination of industrial grinding, modified guitar and electronics. Other tracks apply synthesizers and tape loops with far more sophistication and impact than on the earlier albums. Zoviet France cycle and recycle abstract noises into a constantly changing texture, composed of sonorous drones, grindings, scrapings, squeakings and so on. It's atmospheric without conjuring up any obvious imagery at all, thanks to the unreality of most of the sounds used. Occasionally, the overtly machine-like nature of some sounds has a familiar feel. The LP consists of the spacious and disjointed side-long Cair Camouflet, backed by ten other tracks, and the 45rpm companion record provides another three. Enjoyable and imaginative.." [Soundohm]