Zoviet France

:zoviet*france:
:zoviet*france: at Norbergfestival, Norberg, Sweden, 2011. Left to right: Mark Warren, Ben Ponton
Background information
Origin	Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Genres	Dark ambient, post-industrial, industrial, ambient
Years active	1980–present
Labels	Charrm, Red Rhino Records, Staalplaat, DOVentertainment, Soleilmoon, Mute Records
Associated acts	Reformed Faction, Rapoon, Dead Voices on Air
Members	Ben Ponton Mark Warren
Past members	Andy Eardley Lisa Hale Mark Spybey Paolo Di Paolo Peter Jensen Robin Storey

Zoviet France (also known as :$OVIET:FRANCE:, Soviet France, :Zoviet-France: and latterly usually written as :zoviet*france:) is a music group from Newcastle upon Tyne in north east England. While often dissonant and made of industrial textures, their music also falls into the ambient music category. Formed in 1980, and remaining largely anonymous,^[1] the group has had a number of members; presently it consists of co-founder Ben Ponton and Mark Warren. Former members included Neil Ramshaw, Peter Jensen, Robin Storey (who now records as Rapoon), Lisa Hale, Paolo Di Paolo, Mark Spybey (who now records as Dead Voices on Air) and Andy Eardley. In 2005 Storey, Spybey and Eardley formed a new group, Reformed Faction.

The packaging of their releases was often unconventional, involving materials such as hessian, tar paper and aluminium foil.

Discography

Year	Title	Label
1982	Garista	Self-released
1982	[untitled]	Red Rhino Records
1983	Norsch	Red Rhino Records
1983	Mohnomishe	Red Rhino Records
1984	Eostre	Red Rhino Records
1985	Popular Soviet Songs and Youth Music	Red Rhino Records/Singing Ringing
1985	Gris	No Man's Land
1986	Misfits, Loony Tunes and Squalid Criminals	Red Rhino Records
1986	Gesture Signal Threat	Red Rhino Records
1987	Loh Land	Staalplaat
1987	A Flock of Rotations	Red Rhino Records
1987	Assault and Mirage	Red Rhino Records
1988	Shouting at the Ground	Red Rhino Records
1990	Just an Illusion	Staalplaat
1990	Look Into Me	Charrm
1991	Shadow, Thief of the Sun	DOVentertainment
1991	Vienna 1990	Charrm
1993	Collusion	Mute Records/Soleilmoon in the (US)
1993	What Is Not True	Charrm
1996	Digilogue	Soleilmoon
1996	in.version	Charrm
1996	Feedback	Staalplaat
1998	Mort Aux Vaches: Feedback	Staalplaat
2000	The Decriminalisation of Country Music	Tramway
2003	utdrag	amino
2005	Music for a Spaghetti Western	Klanggalerie
2008	shteirlel	King Worldwide via alt.vinyl
2012	7.10.12	alt.vinyl
2013	The Tables Are Turning	Soleilmoon

Soundtracks

• Loud Visual Noises: film by Stan Brakhage (US, 1987). Includes an excerpt from Cair Camouflet from the album Look into Me. Released on the video 4 Sounds Films by Stan Brakhage (Joel Haertling, 1990).
• Transients #1: video production by Mark Mushet (Suture Productions, Canada, 1991). Includes excerpts from the album Shadow, Thief of the Sun.
• (untitled): video production by the band (UK, 1991). A promotional video for the album Shadow, Thief of the Sun produced for television broadcast only.
• T-City: A video production by Karas (Japan, 1993). Includes excerpts from the album Shadow, Thief of the Sun.
• En Scooters Sous Les Mers: film by Jacques Cousteau, soundtrack commissioned by Ian Helliwell for the Soundtracks for Super-8 film programme (UK, 1998).
• Tyneside Journey: film by Ravi Deepres (UK, 2000).
• (untitled): video production by the band (Nuit Et Brouillard, France, 2001), included on the Deadly Actions Live Retrospective 1994-1996 video compilation of bands that performed at Deadly Actions festival in France.
• Spadeadam: video production by Louise K Wilson (UK, 2003).
• The Shop Floor: video production by Francis Gomila (UK, 2003), from the album Digilogue.
• Euphony: video production by Louise K Wilson (UK, 2005).
• Tremor: film by Ravi Deepres (UK, 2005).
• Runner: film by Ravi Deepres and Michael Baig Clifford (UK, 2006).
• Deadly Cargo: film by Camcorder Guerillas (UK, 2008).

Notable performances

• 29 February 2008: European premiere performance of John Cage's Variations VII with Atau Tanaka and Matt Wand, AV Festival, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK.^[2][3]

References

1. Interview with Brent Bambury, CBC Radio, 2 May 1991
2. "Variations VII". AV Festival. Archived from the original on 2008-03-06. Retrieved 2008-03-31.
3. "JOHN CAGE 29 February - 2 March 2008 Variations VII". Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Retrieved 2008-03-31.

External links

• discogs.com Zoviet France on discogs.com, a community-built database of music information
• Jim's Music Pages: :zoviet*france, a fan site with discography