ZGA were an experimental music band who were based out of Riga, Latvia, and were seen form years as one of the leading lights of the then post-Soviet experimental and improvisational music scene.
Bandleader Nick Sudnick is still making music, and has been reissuing the ZGA back catalog on Bandcamp recently. This particular title brings fond memories as I had the pleasure of working with the venerable David Katznelson in bringing this album onto CD for the first time.
Nick Soulsby of The Vinyl Factory penned a nice retrospective on the best records the incredibly noisy (in a good way) Throbbing Gristle ever produced.
We’re treated to the year’s first Bandcamp surprise, thanks to our beloved friend A.M Ferrari Fradejas, currently based in Barcelona, Spain.
Despite its 13-minute length, the composition packs a lot of time changes, churning guitars, an eerie choral section reminding one of a solstice ritual melded with her trademark progressive/improvisational sound. I hope that either a full album is forthcoming soon, or that works in this style are further expanded upon.
Blissful!
Believe it or not, this particular album was my introduction to Ukrainian alternative music. It has managed to stay on my CD shelf for two decades, and it’s quite nice to have this wonderfully digitized so that I can refer to it at my leisure.
Though I think Foa-Hoka are defunct, bandleader Dmytro Kurovskiy is still quite active making music.
We lost another legend today.
Percussionist Stefan Weisser, known to his fans and colleagues as Z’ev, passed on today at the age of 66. He left a body of work so important in experimental music that I expect tributes to pour out for days (including this one from our pals in Lithuania, Radikaliai!).
This free download is a release Z’ev did in Iceland in 2004. It gives a nice taste of what he could do with percussion.
Words fail to describe just how important Raffaele Pezzella’s contribution to dark ambient music is. He has singlehandedly curated compilations from artists as far away as Russia, Iceland, Iran and seemingly all points in-between while concentrating on his own venerable work. These two compilations house 229 tracks covering the best of the bleakest, blackest ambient available at the moment!
Conrad Schnitzler was a legendary electronic music composer who passed away in 2011. Four years beforehand, he collaborated with a young fellow German musician called Bernhard Wöstheinrich, who was well over 30 years his junior. The collaboration produced one hour-long track which builds, grinds, throbs and swells in a way that is abrasive, yet pleasant.
The release is on Iatepus Media, and you can read notes from their album on the label site.
This Is Darkness is a website based out of Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States which is dedicated to promoting dark ambient music. This is their first in what we hope to be are a long series of compilations dedicated to the promotion of the best of bleak music. Such names as Xerxes The Dark, Cisfinitum, Kammerheit and Leila Abdul-Rauf should be familiar to those of you who dig throughout the Internet finding the finest in headphone music, but there are loads more talented artists waiting for you to explore.
For those of you who are fans of Touch Records, this podcast introduces cuts of some remarkably good music. Thanks to CAMP HQ for starting this series.
Sonologyst is no stranger to this blog. Raffaele Pezzella, Mr. Sonologyst himself, brings a new release (also available on vinyl!) of dark ambient inspired by conspiracy theories. If Alex Jones were an ambient composer… oh, just kidding. He has a far more serious interest, and you can either read more about it at the Bandcamp page for this release or in the pull quote below:
For a serious introduction to the conspiracy theory, and the Breakaway Civilization, here’s a link to an excerpt from the book “A.D. After Disclosure” written by Richard Dolan and Bryce Zabel
www.richarddolanpress.com/ad-after-disclosure
Raffaele has brought so much good music into existence, both his own and so many others’, that he is owed a debt of thanks.
Zonards des grands Z'espaces
სელექტორის ბლოგი
Cultura, tecnologías de la comunicación e Ideología Moderna.
My Projects and Collaborations
the home of psychedelic sounds and more....
These are the things I do.
Illuminating the Post-Industrial Underground
© P. Robinson 2004-2025
Iberian record label since 2012.
the greatest songs of the 1960's that no one has ever heard
A Tudo o que tiver que vier.
the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance
Discovering the wonderful world of classic actresses and their beauty...
Creative bands of extreme quality and competence
Writing Lostness
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 