Zoviet France

:zoviet*france:
:zoviet*france: at Norbergfestival, Norberg, Sweden, 2011. Left to right: Mark Warren, Ben Ponton
:zoviet*france: at Norbergfestival, Norberg, Sweden, 2011. Left to right: Mark Warren, Ben Ponton
Background information
OriginNewcastle upon Tyne, England
Genres
Years active1980–present
Labels
SpinoffsReformed Faction, Rapoon, Dead Voices on Air
Members
  • Ben Ponton
  • Mark Warren
Past members

Zoviet France (also known as :$OVIET:FRANCE:, Soviet France, :Zoviet-France: and latterly usually written as :zoviet*france:) are 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 band participated in the early-eighties underground tape scene. The packaging of their releases was often unconventional, involving materials such as hessian, tar paper and aluminium foil.[2]

Zoviet France also provided the music for the 2015 movie Savageland, a mockumentary that depicts the aftermath of a massacre on a US-Mexico border town that leaves every citizen dead except for an amateur photographer who is accused of committing it.

  1. ^ Interview with Brent Bambury, CBC Radio, 2 May 1991
  2. ^ Reed, S. Alexander (2013). Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 118–121. ISBN 9780199832583. OCLC 1147729910 – via the Internet Archive.