Released
June, 8 1998
Copyright 1995
by
:zoviet*france:
for Soleilmoon
SOL 62 CD
Label
Soleilmoon
Recordings
Reviewed by
Kim Alexander
Contact
Soleilmoon
Visit
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Last Edit/Update
24 March, 1999
digilogue
1. Alchemagenta
2. Haze Polder
3. Soft Helion
4. Another Soft Helion
5. Angel's Pin Number
6. Carbon
7. Amber
8. Init
The music recorded for "Digilogue"
examines the subtle and shifting nuances that contrast the Digital and Analog worlds.
The bands fascination with the failings of technology by which music is produced, recorded, mass-produced and played back, and adapting to the
faults that the machines develop into the means to
reshape sound, is the basic material with which they work. "All audio equipment distorts sound to some degree and, eventually through
mechanical and electrical failure, fucks it up. Since indeterminacy as a
compositional parameter has been a constant in our work, this often produces what we regard as interesting new developments. Digilogue was
recorded using a mixture of failing analogue equipment and high-end digital equipment, and monitored in our studio exclusively on damaged hi-fi
speakers. Sound can be as dirty and as clumsy as anything else we perceive with our senses. This is just as true of sound generated in the
digital domain, much as we would all like to believe the claims of near-perfection made by audio equipment manufacturers."
--Press Release Material
Long drawn out slow pulsating rhythms defines the greater part of this experiment in
digi-analog sound adventures by Zoviet France on Digilogue. The
sound has an overall eerie feel to it with abundant echo drones of extended length and
various other aural qualities, some that sound like someone is speaking far off in the
distance, meshed with reverberations of seemingly endless backgrounds of soft an subtle
noise. A good many tracks, if not all of them, would fit well into a science fiction
thriller film soundtrack, and much of what I hear on this release reminds me of parts of
the soundtrack to 2001:A Space Odyssey. And rightfully so, Zoviet
France are masters in producing aural rituals in the realm of experimental music.
Tracks vary from the nebulously
expansive Alchemagenta to the angelic whisperings and floating sonics of Angel's
Pin Number, to Carbon with its birdlike chirps and into Amber with a
clicking beat layed down over more pulsating gentle "horn-like" emissions
catering again to pulsating tempos.
Overall, this is a good release for
background music for the novice, or for the discerning listener who is more involved with
experimental sound creation. Play it loud.
