Zoviet France @ Tusk Festival 2014

Emerging from England’s rich industrial underbelly of 1980, :zoviet*france: have made a career out of their unassumingly profound sonic strokes, bending sound barriers before most of us even knew what sampling and improvisation were. Words like ‘ambient’, ‘found sound’ and ‘dub’ seem too emphatic for the serene way in which the duo’s emanations materialise in the air around you.

North East residents have luckily been fed the lion’s share of their sporadic performances and projects over the years, from illicit collaborations with Autechre to rattling the foundations of the Cumberland Arms with a barely legal Jim O’Rourke as opener, dance company projects and their part in that great performance of Cage’s Variations VII at BALTIC in 2008. They’ve also developed an impressive catalogue of film soundtracks, their latest being for the vampire flick Savageland.

Their 2012 multi-sized vinyl package 7.10.12 via local allies (theirs and ours) Alt.Vinyl flew out and now can’t be grabbed for less than 3 figures. And you should find their next Alt.Vinyl release, a collaboration with Fossil Aerosol Mining Project, just landing on the merch table in time for doors opening at TUSK on October 10.

:zoviet*france: are often described as wilfully obscure but a more likely reality is that they operate to their own time signature, creatively and musically, communicating purely via the sounds they construct. They might keep you waiting but its always worth its weight.