Zoviet France

Three Panasonic remixes made in 1996 by Zoviet France and by Muslimgauze, found on DAT decades later and issued by Sähkö in 2020: one side of Zoviet France, two Muslimgauze pieces. Repress.

1990 2LP set self-released on Charrm by the prolific post-industrial unit.

On The Gate Is Open, Zoviet France turn four decades of occult tape‑alchemy into a new portal object: a Hong Kong–forged box of LP, 12-inch and cloth that extends their found‑sound rituals into a meticulously staged, cross‑continental threshold experience.

**34 CDs within 3 separate box sets** :Zoviet*France: is an idiosyncratic group of anonymous music makers, gatherers of sound, and fabricators of unknown music. For nearly 40 years, they have explored and reported back from the liminal areas of music and composition, walking the margins where little is easily located and consensus reality melds with the hypnagogic and half-heard.  Having wilfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, :zoviet*france: has develo…

From out of nowhere comes a unique collaborative album from Edvard Graham Lewis (Wire) & Mark Spybey (Zoviet France). Mixing lush electronic rhythms, sonic collage, ambient soundscapes and manipulated field recordings, these six compositions form an album with a strong identity. That this is such a vital and fertile partnership should come as no surprise. After all, both men have made careers out of creating confidently questing musics. Lewis with Wire, He Said, Hox, Dome etc. and Spybey with De…

*2024 stock. 250 copies limited edition* In 2023 we wished to properly celebrate the 40th anniversary of ADN’s birth. So, we have contacted groups and musicians that stimulated our curiosity through these 40 years. Some of them are good friends of us, some were already part of our music trajectories; others, never contacted in the past, are near to be seen as our myths. Anyhow to cover our multiple interests we should have brought to your attentionmany more tracks, but we think this is a good sy…

** Hardcover book with 176 pages, most printed in color. Limited edition of 400 copies. ** “On the Borderline” is two books in one: It’s an autobiography by Robin Storey, the musician best known for being the co-founder of Zoviet France and the man responsible for the long-running ethno-ambient project Rapoon. And it’s a comprehensive survey of his parallel career as a visual artist. Rounding out the package is compact disc containing all-new recordings, attached inside the front cover. Robin St…

Original 1995 release. Kurt Dahlke, Christiina Kubisch, :zoviet*france:, Asmus Tietchens, Andrew McKenzie, Philip Jeck,

**Limited edition of 500 numbered copies in a wooden box, including LP-sized 24-page booklet and t-shirt** :Zoviet*France: is an idiosyncratic group of anonymous music makers, gatherers of sound, and fabricators of unknown music. For nearly 40 years, they have explored and reported back from the liminal areas of music and composition, walking the margins where little is easily located and consensus reality melds with the hypnagogic and half-heard.  Having wilfully obscured themselves in Newcastl…

300 copies. VOD presents the third chapter in the Collusion series that collects rare tracks previously released on various Zoviet France's compilations. First time on vinyl.Constructed from an array of samples and environmental recordings plus plenty of feedback, Collusion exudes a rare beauty for an album of such varied sounds (each track was originally released on a different compilation). Though the first includes a long passage from a religious-revival preacher (complete with the sample use…

Although you're more likely to find :zoviet*france: soundtracking art installations and performances, 2012 saw the release of the studio album 7.10.12 released as a boxset edition on alt.vinyl. On The Tables Are Turning the duo of Ben Ponton and Mark Warren present a studio version of their live soundtrack to Designer Body, a contemporary dance production by Ballet Lorent. Ballet Lorent's 2009 production featured dancers on revolving plinths. At first fully dressed with hats, scarves and full ma…

This, Zoviet France's first major release in over a decade, originally surfaced last fall as a characteristically cryptic and incredibly limited box set containing rubbings of neolithic Northumbrian stone and a vial of hawthorn berries.  Unfortunately, it completely sold-out world-wide on the day it was released, so most of us never got to hear it.  VOD has now issued a new version. 7.10.12 offers up roughly an hour of minimal/quasi-ambient loopscapes.  While they certainly offer many subtle nod…

VOD presents the first physical release of this 2011 recording by Zoviet France.

* 300 copies * As Glasgow's Tramway building evolved from train station into arts space, Zoviet France were present recording the ambient sounds for use in their commissioned themes for the Scottish Arts Council.  Though you'd hardly believe it from the mostly non industrial nature of these very comfortable soundscapes.  Five tracks range between five and twelve minutes apiece and the remaining four serve as in-between filler.  In "Something Spooked the Horses" a constant warm drone and panning …

** 300 copies ** Quite possibly one of the better live showings from digital era Zoviet France, and in my opinion this matches the dark spiritual energy of Vienna 1990 as well, which is a testament considering that that album is a leviathan of dark ambient. Heavy on the pulsating, bubbly effects, Feedback feels like you are exploring the dark corridors and caverns of an alien moon, where lava flows are the only source of light and the tremors of your own footsteps and the cracking of rock are th…

**300 copies** Digilogue is a set of extremely dark and somewhat convoluted minimalism from :zoviet*france:. The combinations of experimental and conventional sounds create massive clouds of sinister atmospheres. The layered textures increase the tensions of exotic darkness. This music is definitely exotic and definitely erotic -- not pleasantly but disturbingly. The sinister timbres are seductive and jarring. It is a shocking sample of an alternate reality. This CD will appeal to fans of Darkro…

*300 copies* The 90's run of :zoviet*france: is, what I consider to be, a divisive time for long time fans of the group. Gone are the days of wild and experimental sound collages and grating industrial, ritualistic ambient banger's and in its place is a more subdued and droning affair. During this period especially the groups hallmark sound would be twisted and shifted into what amounted to a swill of limp krautrock inspired dark ambient. Their live albums especially, are long and desolate treks…

**Limited Edition Pressings of eleven separate Zoviet France Albums circa 1988-1993 now available as standalone, in bundle. Beautiful remastered editions, 300 copies only **  :Zoviet*France: is an idiosyncratic group of anonymous music makers, gatherers of sound, and fabricators of unknown music. For nearly 40 years, they have explored and reported back from the liminal areas of music and composition, walking the margins where little is easily located and consensus reality melds with the hypnago…

**Edition of 400 copies** :Zoviet*France: is an idiosyncratic group of anonymous music makers, gatherers of sound, and fabricators of unknown music. For nearly 40 years, they have explored and reported back from the liminal areas of music and composition, walking the margins where little is easily located and consensus reality melds with the hypnagogic and half-heard.  Having wilfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, :zoviet*france: has developed a radica…

**300 copies** The quintessential ZF. "'Shouting at the Ground' showed a dramatic improvement in sound quality and production from their earlier albums - all of which, by the way, are excellent in their own right.  What we have here are an arsenal of hand made instruments, mostly stringed and percussive in nature, that are squashed through various delay and echo filter machines, creating an otherworldly, timeless and overwhelming creepy atmosphere.  Outside this website Zoviet France are classed…

**300 copies** Never released before 1990 album. More information is coming soon.

**300 copies**  Just An Illusion represents a continuation of the Zoviet France electronic style of the late 80s early 90s. Together, Acend A Fall and Caught In The Square comprise a hypnotic masterpiece. 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. With longer mood pieces and shorter works that highlight the Middle Eastern and Asian influences which have o…

**300 copies** Never released before 1988 album. More information is coming soon.

**300 copies** 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. Oc…

**300 copies** Released just before a four-year layoff, Shadow, Thief of the Sun is both one of Zoviet France:'s better releases as well as one of its rarer albums (the label it was on, Death of Vinyl, had limited distribution and eventually went out of business). While :zoviet*france: often wanders out into fairly random soundscapes, most of the material here is grounded by a drone of some sort, with atmospheric chanting and other instrumentation designed to complement the drone. The drones are…

**300 copies** Zoviet France's Collusion released on the short-lived Mute imprint The Grey Area, is a collection of pieces Zoviet France contributed to compilations between 1984 and 1990. While none of the tracks stands out, they collectively provide a reasonable précis of the band’s various approaches

**300 copies**One long, slowly-unfolding live track, Vienna 1990, originally released as a CD-R, is a single disc-length improvisation which explores the outer limits of ominous minimalism. These recordings are taken from two performances at Szene Wien, Austria, 9 and 10 November 1990 as part of the 'Ohrenschrauben' festival

**300 copies** For a band which had performed only a handful of live shows during its first decade, the bulk of Zoviet France’s ’90s releases are performance documents. What Is Not True assembles three long tracks from shows in Sheffield and Nottingham into a work of album-like cohesion. The 54-minute closer “Cyclonic Sub Alien” is a masterpiece of shifting drones that develop slowly into an ungodly cavern of noise before ending with the ghostly floating voices of a distant broadcast. Magnificen…

**300 copies** Constructed from an array of samples and environmental recordings plus plenty of feedback, Zoviet France's Collusion exudes a rare beauty for an album of such varied sounds (each track was originally released on a different compilation). A wide range of stylistic choices are on display, from the chilling account of the brutal murder/suicides from Jonestown on Ram to the surprisingly sedated and subtly beautiful Something This Beautiful, the album is a pretty great find for those l…

**300 copies** 'A Flock of Rotations' is an aptly named album for this collection of shorter Zoviet France tracks which only has a running time of 36 minutes. It has a theme running throughout, of sorts. It may be tenuous, but for the first 20 minutes it sounds like something is trying to break out from the inside of a short-wave radio.bA shouting garbled vocal from what sounds like the top of an Iranian Minaret introduces listeners to yet another highly peculiar and strangely alluring recording…

**300 copies** Assault and Mirage is an entirely instru(mental) and excellent Zoviet France recording from their year of glory in obscurity and a decent place for beginners who are unfamiliar with this collection of oddballs. It kicks off with 'Seige' -a tune which will remind you of that bit in the film "Close Encounters" where multitudes of far east people chant the famous five alien notes - only here it's done through what sounds like three foot wide pipes played by the God Zeus, with unearth…

**300 copies** Originally released as a cassette back in 1987 as a tape on Staalplaat, Loh Land is one of the few albums from Zoviet France’s early days that encapsulates many of their ideas for a fictional music rich with amorphously spiritual connotations. The aforementioned drones, dubs, and drums alongside distanced vocal chants with have been thoroughly abstracted through a series of delay effects boxes, tape loop machines, and multi-track studio tricks, to create the album’s murky atmosphe…

**300 copies** Morphed, twanging strings of unknown origin strum as subdued fake ethnic chants open 'Gesture, Signal Threat'. Odd little whistling instruments are layered throughout 'Gllisten'. It's a repetitive swirling track that makes you feel you're listening to music whilst in a coma. Literally every sound is played in reverse in 'Host' - which is pretty much par for the course as far as Zoviet France go. In many ways, listening to their albums is similar to lying in a hospital bed where th…

**300 copies** This 1986 album was the beginning of Zoviet France’s Charm, Ceremony, Chance, Prophecy tetralogy and continued the collective's shift away from harsher textures and lo-fi production towards a cleaner and more restrained aesthetic.  Misfits occupies something of a lull in the Zoviet France discography, as it is not nearly as strong as earlier releases like Eostre, Gris, or Norsch nor does it give much hint of how much potential such a change in direction actually held.  Despite tha…

**300 copies** Premiere, expanded vinyl edition of the 4th LP by inimitable ambient / post-industrial pioneers Zoviet France, dished up as part of a necessary reissue scheme by the ferric archivists at Vinyl-On-Demand. First released on 2 x C90 & C80 tape in 1985, Popular Soviet Songs and Youth Music ran to just shy of 3 hours in length and was then the Newcastle-based band’s most substantial release to date. 34 years and following a number of 3CD reissues, this new vinyl edition is particularly…

**300 copies** From myth to reality, the long-rumoured 40 minute version of Gris manifests as part of Vinyl-On-Demand’s resoundingly appreciated Zoviet France reissue programme, recutting the original 10” tracks on one side with 20 minutes of bonus, previously unheard material on the flip. First issued on a series of three 10”s by Germany’s No Man’s Land label, the original Gris revolves four cuts ranging from mesmerising proto-echoes of Wolfgang Voigt’s Gas of Axel Willner’s The Field, thru to …

**300 copies** 1985’s shamanic beauty Eostre is the equally acclaimed, cultish follow-up to Zoviet France’s classic Mohnomische album, and sees the inimitable Geordie unit drift in and out of entrancing texturhythms, etheric tape loops and bucolic dream sequence keys in deliciously mind-bending style. Another vital instalment to one of 2019’s most prized boxsets and reissue programmes, Eostre finds the group slightly reshuffled, with Paolo Di Paolo replacing Peter Jensen alongside the band’s sol…

**300 copies** The quintessential Zoviet France album takes pride of place in Vinyl-On-Demand’s reissue scheme, making the death trance proto-techno charge of Mohnomische available on vinyl for the first time in 35 years. Practically establishing a genre or sonic dimension unto itself, Mohnomische enacts a sort of metempsychosis between industrial and ambient spheres which arguably birthed an Ur, inimitable form of proto-techno in the process. Coveted on the 2nd hand market, the 1983/1984, 2LP p…

**300 copies** The second in the Zoviet France reissue series compiles a pair of their early 12”s. Less murky and more stripped-down, rhythm driven than their debut, Garista (1982), the tracks on both $oviet France (1982) and Norsch (1983) are more easily identifiable as products of the post-punk / post-industrial era, yet they still sound as though from a parallel musical universe or overlapping timeline. We’d attribute this perceived difference to the rest of UK tape culture and post-industria…

**300 copies** Vinyl-On-Demand kick off a keenly anticipated Zoviet France reissue scheme with Garista, the sui generis Geordie unit’s 1982 debut slab of cranky, atavistic expression. Industrial-not-industrial, ambient-not-ambient, and so on, Garista gave the first glimpse of Zoviet France’s sprawling, organically freeform soundworld on a self-released tape in 1982. Like cracking open Hellraiser’s puzzlebox, all the variegated, phantasmagoric hallmarks of their sound began to emerge from their d…