Wednesday, December 19, 2007

ZGA-Zgamoniums,CD,1991,Russia/Latvia(introduction)

One small crowded apartment gave rise to ZGA, one of Russia's original noise projects. Searching for creative ways to perform loud music without disturbing the neighbors, Nick Soudnnick, the founding member of ZGA, began creating his own instruments, called Zgamoniums, by attaching contact microphones to metal sheets, plates of steel, iron grids, springs, and other found objects and metallic scraps. The recorded reverberations allowed him to create powerful music without performing it at a loud volume. Producing sounds by stroking contact-miked metal sheets with whips or hammering the springs with mallets, among other techniques, Soudnick was able to achieve sustained, low-frequency resonances that were picked up by the contact mikes. The microphones used by ZGA were never designed for musical purposes, but were used in Russia as a signaling devices that sent a single electrical impulse whenever, for instance, the glass to which the mikes were attached was broken .Acting as an unusual pickup for instruments, several of these mikes were attached to the body of the instrument at different portions to pick up different resonances. The sound of the resulting improv noise, described by Finnish industrial musician Anton Nikkilä, functions as “a metaphor of the late Soviet or post-Soviet everyday life: rusty, broken-down, unpleasantly dominated by cold metal, functioning to seemingly impenetrable, absurd logic.”
From:Russian Industrial Music article
Nadya Lev
Philadelphia, PA
August 2002

Great industrial soundscapes,dark most of the time,played with self invented instruments.This one seems to be still in print and available through ReR but not worldwide, and most of the time as people told me whenever they tried to buy a copy it seemed to get no answer.If i'm wrong let me know....Anyway this is a very good introduction to this great band.Be sure to visit their website too.
Since now it's figured out that this cd is still in print links have to be removed.Go to Zga website(link given above or order it straight from ReR.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since now it's figured out that this cd is still in print links have to be removed.Go to Zga website(link given above or order it straight from ReR.

Huh?

What?

Húndún said...

Nick Sudnicks other industrial/noise project vetrophonia has been a favorite for the past year or so, here is a link: http://fuzzygroinland.blogspot.com/2008/05/vetrophonia-strappadology.html