Vom musikalischen Standpunkt aus betrachtet, lässt sich der bisherige Bekanntheitsgrad dieser Band nicht wirklich nachvollziehen. Dass bereits 1988 gegründete Projekt von Andrew Cadmore und Chris Brandrick setzt jedoch auch nicht auf leicht konsumierbare Spartenmusik, sondern bedient eher die experimentelleren Gefilde. "Alien Nature", dass mittlerweile fünfte Album verbindet hierbei Avantgarde, Ambient und Electro so gekonnt miteinander, dass es schwer fällt, sich diesem anfangs fremdartig klingenden Mikrokosmos zu entziehen. Ganz nach der Tradition musikalischer Größen, die die elektronische Industrialmusik weitgehend geprägt haben, setzten Zone über 20 Jahre danach, erneut an diesen musikalischen Ideen an und präsentieren ein Werk, was heute vielleicht nicht mehr ganz den Tenor trifft, aber qualitativ so einigen Bands den gar ausmachen könnte. Andrew Cadmore, eine Hälfte, des aus Swansea stammenden Duos, erzählt mit großem Interesse im folgendem Interview über das neue Album "Alien Nature".


You are existing for a long period of time, since 1988. Please give the people who don't know about the band Zone a quick overview about the history. What has driven you to make music? What music/bands had influenced Zone in the beginning?

Chris & I met back in the early 80's, through the local music scene in Swansea. We played together in a local band for a few years, before consolidating forces and forming Zone, in 1988. Zone's first album, "Sword Of The Sun", was a compilation of recordings that Chris & I had made separately, but which clearly complimented each other. It was at this point in time that we also formed our label 'Potentia', which remained the platform for all Zone's future releases. We them published a very limited edition hand-made book, entitled "Beautiful Machine". The book consisted of an eclectic assortment of poetry and images that outlined Zone's concept and idea's. Then in 1991 Zone's 2nd album, "Born Of Fire", was released, an extreme departure of the subterranean electronics of Zone's 1st album, "Born of Fire" was considered more gothic/ambient. Followed in 1994 by "The Divine Simplicity", a magnum opus comprising of 2 compositions, each lasting approx 23min. We then had a long break until releasing "Angel Of Freedom" in 2000 and our most recent album "Alien Nature" in July 2005. Zone's music has always followed the principle of diversity; hence each new album is quite different from the previous ones. Our drive is simply a passion to produce music that we enjoy and want to hear. Zone's eclectic musical influences range from the intense industrial music of Throbbing Gristle, the ambient electronics of Brian Eno & early Tangerine Dream, to the experimental and avant-garde of Karlheinz Stockhausuen, Fred Frith (Henry Cow & Art Bears), Faust, & Can.

Your new and fifth album "Alien Nature" were released in July in an initial edition of 500 copies. Why such a small number of copies?

Our long-standing distributors, World Serpent, went out of business last year and we currently have no firm distribution. Therefore manufacture of "Alien Nature" had to be financed by myself. We therefore started with minimum manufacture quantity of 500 to keep initial costs down. We are still seeking out new distribution. Also, Zone's music has never been a big seller (probably due to our general lack of self promotion and marketing over the years) so we would rather manufacture small batches at a time.

The music of Zone is mostly instrumental, so there were just a few songs with a guest vocalist. Where do you see the attraction in instrumental songs?

Zone's music is born out of what Chris & I enjoy playing and listening to, not the expectations of others. We don't really think of our music in terms of "songs", more-so as musical compositions. The formalised song structure, that utterly dominates modern music, rarely interests us. Even the vocal tracks that Zone record can rarely be called songs. In fact I think Zone have only ever intentionally recorded 1 actual "song", with a traditional vocal track, verse and chorus etc. For Zone music is all about freedom of expression through sound, not treading the well worn path of formalised song structure. Not that I have any objection to songs, it's just not what Zone are about.

Your music comes up in many varieties and doesn´t seem to be arranged electronical at all. Some exotic instruments and sounds can be heard. Are there more accoustic instruments on your album besides the bass-guitar or does it all based of machine & software programming?

From Zone's inception we have always sought diversity in musical expression. Actually other than the vocals and bass guitar all of the sounds used on "Alien Nature" come from computer generated soft-synths and samplers. We currently use an Apple G5 with Logic 7.1 and are wholly immersed in computer technology, but we rarely use the standard song structure building blocks. In particular we rarely take any notice of the tempo, looping many sounds out of sync with each other so that the results appear to have a moving tempo. We have a mass of sound libraries offering ethnic instruments and often use random programming methods when programming the soft synths. We mainly improvise when recording each sound, cleaning the sequencing up afterwards if necessary.

Is there a certain image of the sounddesign of each songs in your mind or does this develop during the composing process?

For me most everything we record is improvised, off the cuff. I rarely have an image of what the composition should be like in advance, I just know I want to start a new composition. We have used a lot of random programming of synth settings on "Alien Nature", which introduced a third mind into the creative process, apart from Chris and I.

Tell us something about the workingprogress. In what way do you create songs? Are you working out ideas together?

Sometimes, but often one of us starts with an idea which we then both develop. Or, maybe one of us will pretty much record a whole composition, with the other offering editorial input.

Where do you record & mix your songs? At home?

Potentia House, which is really just my home. Pretty much all of Zone's music has been recorded at my place. Our set up is really quite lean nowadays. We've ditched most of our analogue equipment and work almost wholly in the digital domain. We still have some rack-mounted midi synths, but hardy ever use them nowadays, using soft instruments in preference. Zone's last 2 albums were recorded, mixed and mastered at Potentia House, previously we used to master our work in a mastering studio, but with modern computer technology we are happy with our own home-grown mastering. It is really important for us to endeavour to do everything ourselves, including production of final artwork. Although, on Alien Nature, we did take up an offer from one of our fans, Ivan A., to design the artwork layout using images that I had previously processed and prepared.

As said before two songs of the new album are with spoken vocals. Does this mean a special way to compose, because another instrument (the voice) gets included by the end?

All vocals are added on last. I can only compose music and then look to add vocals afterwards, if we think vocals are appropriate to the music in hand. Chris & I always maintain complete editorial control over the vocals or any other third party contribution. Often the finish product sounds very little like the original recording, as we cut and paste all third party recordings whatever way we feel fit, so that we like the way it sounds. This usually means that 80% of what was recorded is not used and the sequence of recording is changed beyond recognition. For Zone's music, the end always justifies the means.

Vocalist Jeremy S. Gluck is responsible for the spoken words on "Always The Same" How can we imagine this? Is it up to him what the context is about? There is a much bigger concept behind the songs of "Alien Nature"?

We have known Jeremy since 1999 and he has contributed vocals on both "Angel of Freedom" and most recently on "Alien Nature". Jeremy is a very prolific writer, so most of Jeremy's contribution has been taken from a selection of existing poem's that Jeremy has offered up to Zone. Chris and I (but mainly Chris) then selects which poem we want to use. Jeremy then records his contribution, which we then cut and carve as we feel fit. This may sound somewhat callous, but Jeremy has always liked our editorial choice. I suppose we treat vocals/lyrics as any other computer based instrument or sound. We have little interest in linear flowing, storyline, lyrics, much preferring lyrics that have a sense of the ethereal, a dream sequence. This was of particular important for any lyrics used on "Alien Nature".

What other person or guest musicans were involved in the work of "Alien Nature"?

Our long-standing friend Syd Howell plays bass guitar on 2 tracks off "Alien Nature", "Deluge" and "Attacking The Heart". Syd is a an all-round well accomplished musician and song writer, playing in several local bands and also producing solo recordings.

How would you describe the music of "Alien Nature"? And where are the musical differences between the previous releases you made and the new album?

As suggested by the title name "Alien Nature", we were interested in a sound and feel that conjured up images of an unknown Alien world co-existing in parallel with the everyday Natural world. I suppose the concept is of feeling somewhat alien in one's own skin. We try not to think too consciously of preconceived concepts, but rather go with the flow of the moment when we are recording. Other than the age old musical influences mentioned earlier in this interview, we really take little influence from modern music and in fact we are both quite out of touch with what is happening in the current music scene, both the commercial factory music found in the charts and the more interesting underworld of music. We simply have busy lives and just don't have the time to research modern music, as we may have in the past.

Are there plannend any live performances of "Alien Nature" or are you a band, that is just working in the studio?

Yes, Zone are a studio band. Zone have never played live and doubt we ever will. We are simply not interested in playing live. Anyway, most of what we record would be almost impossible to reproduce live. Also neither Chris nor I are that accomplished as musicians, we learn to play what we need to in order to achieve the goal in hand, but simply have no interest is learning to be accomplished musicians.

What plans do you have after "Alien Nature"?

Certainly interesting times at present. Will CD's survive, or will music just turn into downloaded data files? The demise of CD's certainly does sadden me somewhat, but I think that is just the materialist in me speaking. Zone is our passion not our profession. Both Chris & I have families and demanding day jobs, so finding time to record new material can sometime be a task, hence why our average frequency of releasing CD's is once every 4 years. However, we would like to develop more of an internet based cottage industry, with Zone increasing it's frequency of output.
Check out our web site www.potentia-zone.com

That was is it from my side. If you want to say something at last then the last words belong to you.



Interview: Thomas Tröger & Zone [Andrew Cadmore]
September 2005

Zone:

Andrew Cadmore
Chris Brandrick

Internet: www.potentia-zone.com