$oviet France

While classic Zoviet France is unparalleled in greatness, it is unfortunate Ben has taken the path of digital gear. It sure shows in the music. Nothing against computers, its just that classic era Zoviet France was this timeless beautiful thing that seemed to have vanish when Robin Storey left. The Reformed Faction is up to snuff without losing that eloquent intangible. I stepped outside while *ZF* played a show a few years ago in San Francisco when I saw the digital gear they were using but made it back to see Michael Gira play. I will however be flying to Boston to see Mark and Robin play this November.

Here is an idea... how about Ben gives up the Zoviet France name and starts a misc. boring - run of the mill experimental side project. Then the Reformed Faction can restore the tarnished name, Zoviet France, once and for all!

Zoviet:France is out of this world - a respectful compliment and as scary a thought on equal terms. Daring you to 'play' their records means challenge beyond formal treatment (sometimes as equally challenging when transferred onto CD). A phenomenon similar to the likes of Muslimgauze or some other obscure sound explorers - Z'ev, The Hafler Trio or Strafe Fur Rebellion. But like all of them, Zoviet:France is beauty and the beast in their own right, a non-descriptive sound-format offering stunning visual and auditive escape from the music's stereotypes.

I would say that *Zoviet-France* do not create music - they create imaginary soundtracks to the movies that could've looked like something that we often see in dreams. Critics are trying to find terms for this genre - some are calling it dark ambient, some are calling it "isolationism", but in essence none of these terms will help us to define what it is really Zoviet-France are creating.
According to some sources, their work usually consists of months of improvisation and painstaking editing work. Results are hard describe with ordinary terms. Its meditative and hypnotizing, but at the same time it have nothing to do with new age. Its agressive (at least in the early phase), but it have nothing to do with power electronics or harsh noise. Its influential, but at the same time few heard about it outside of avant-garde/experimental circles.
So what is it, really ? A giant sound puzzle ? Hypnotizing sound walls ? *Zoviet-France* music might be all of it, but it doesn't fit into existing genres and musical schemes.

Next to Brian Eno, Zoviet France are the most important, innovative, and unique creators/inventors/signatures of ambient music. They should be catalogued in music-history books next to Mr. Eno-- not so much for their similar, adventurous standards of approach, but by their sheer individuality and outspoken, uncompromising vision.
Before samplers became ubiquitous, there was Zoviet France. With tape loops and organic percussive instrumentation, they have created some of the most incredibly beautiful, blissed-out, and engaging ambient gems of the last 20 years. The sheer weight of their discography has something to prove: from experimental meanderings to industrial repetitions, to gauzy, hazy tonal glows, to repetitive. percussive sun-showers, Zoviet France has run the pain-killing gamut. Any free thinking, music loving consumer should seek them out and discover a beautiful universe run by tape-loops which are held together by brilliant analog light. What might sound passe by todays glitchy standards are only the result of a spoiled perspective. any spirited and informed artist/consumer has a Zoviet France album in their archives. and most likely, during any eventful moment of peace, will remember the folks who brought them there...