Z’EV
Stefan Joel Weisser aka Z’EV born in Los Angeles, California. He’s a poet and musician who have explored the sound possibilities of percussion influenced by traditional world music.
He has worked in different art fields since 1963: sound installations, contemporary performance art, modern composition and theatre.
He studied world music at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) and at that time he created his own percussion instruments made out of industrial materials.
His recordings have been released by labels such as C.I.P., Cold Spring, Die Stadt, Soleilmoon, Tzadik Records, Subterranean and Touch.
Nowadays he lives and works in the UK.
Z’EV kindly answered this interview configuring a complete context of his music.
www.myspace.com/rhythmajik/blog
I think that of industrial music nowadays there is a misinformation; is not “real” as the original when it was created. There are so many bands tagged as “industrial”. What’s your opinion about?
“What was at the beginning of industrial?
First off I need to make clear that I never did, and never will, consider myself (or my work) in any way describable or definable by the term Industrial. That being said, as I was included the Industrial Culture Handbook, this puts me in the continuing position on being called on to speak on its’ behalf. So I think at this point, the best I can offer in these situations is some context and critique. Ok then, and to begin then… The Mothers of us all…..”
Futurism
Founded in Italy in 1909.
In 1913 Futurist musician Luis Russolo wrote The Art of Noises.
Russolo concluded that a Futurist composer should use their creativity and innovation to «enlarge and enrich the field of sound» by approaching the «noise-sound.»
His ‘six families of noise’:
1. Roars, Thunderings, Explosions, Hissing roars, Bangs, Booms
2. Whistling, Hissing, Puffing
3. Whispers, Murmurs, Mumbling, Muttering, Gurgling
4. Screeching, Creaking, Rustling, Humming, Crackling, Rubbing
5. Noises obtained by beating on metals, woods, skins, stones, pottery, etc.
6. Voices of animals and people, Shouts, Screams, Shrieks, Wails, Hoots, Howls, Death Rattles, Sobs
No surprise that these families basically describe the pallet employed by the seminal Grindcore band Carcass c. 1988-96. One thing I should like to point out is, in fact, how very ancient music incorporating this vocabulary of sounds is. For in the Homeric Hymn XIV – To the Mother of the Gods, c.7-600 BCE, we find perhaps the first listing of this vocabulary of sounds.
‘I praise you, clear-voiced Mousa, daughter of mighty Zeus. I sing to you, O Mother of all Gods and Men. For you are well pleased with the sound of rattles and of drums, with the voice of flutes and the outcry of wolves and bright-eyes lions, with echoing hills and wooded valleys!’
Dada And Surrealism
Founded in Switzerland in 1916.
The center of the group’s actions took place at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich.
In 2007 critic Marc Lowenthal wrote:
‘Dada is the groundwork to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for performance art,…an influence on pop art, [and the Punk ethos through Malcom McLaren’s efforts]… and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism.’
57 years later 3 artist/musicians in Sheffield, England took the name Cabaret Voltaire to call their band. They were also featured in the Industrial Culture Handbook, and again, Dada was an acknowledged influence of most all of the artists featured therein.
From 1978–82 Cabaret Voltaire’s worldwide releases on Rough Trade were hugely influential.
