Art Zoyd

The French band Art Zoyd are a fearless experimental ensemble that has always operated in a dimension entirely of its own. Among the key figures of the Rock In Opposition movement, they went through decades of transformation to the point that, just a few years after their debut, the band was already profoundly different from the one that started it all.

The group's first incarnation was born in 1969 in Valenciennes, in northern France. Although already moving well outside mainstream conventions, Art Zoyd were still, at least formally, a rock band, devoted to a style of progressive music influenced by artists such as Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.

Both the line-up and the sound, however, began to change rapidly, in a process that would accompany the entire history of the group. In 1971 a major shake-up in personnel led to the departure of some founding members and the arrival of violinist and keyboardist Gérard Hourbette and bassist and cellist Thierry Zaboitzeff. From 1975 onward, it was Hourbette and Zaboitzeff who led the shift toward a new musical approach.

The first version of Art Zoyd recognizable as the one we know today definitively abandoned the typical elements of rock, doing away with guitars, drums and conventional compositional structures in favour of a vision radically projected toward the future. The line-up was built around violins, trumpet and bass, creating an atmosphere of avant-garde chamber music. Some traces of the most experimental progressive rock remained, in the wake of King Crimson and Magma, but the group looked above all to contemporary classical composers and the most original sound artists.

In 1976 Art Zoyd released their debut album, “Symphonie Pour Le Jour Ou Bruleront Les Cites”, put out by the label AZ Production Michel Besset. Shortly afterward the group began touring across France, opening for fellow countrymen Magma. By the time they released their second LP, “Musique Pour L’Odyssee” (1979), Art Zoyd had become part of the Rock In Opposition (RIO) movement, alongside England's Henry Cow, Italy's Stormy Six, France's Etron Fou Leloublan, Belgium's Univers Zero and Sweden's Zamla Mammaz Manna. Founded the previous year, RIO was a cooperative bringing together musicians united by the desire to create music far removed from convention and to subvert the traditional mechanisms of the record industry. By choice it remained an underground phenomenon, but one destined to exert an enormous influence on international avant-garde music.

In the 1980s Art Zoyd performed across Europe, cementing their reputation as one of the most important ensembles of the progressive scene. 1983 marked a decisive turning point, when they were commissioned to compose the music for choreographer Roland Petit's ballet “Le marriage du ciel et de l’enfer”, staged at Milan's Festival della Scala and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. It was their first step into the world of multimedia events, which would go on to become a core part of their work: in the following years they wrote soundtracks for silent films, theatrical productions, dance performances and numerous other projects across Europe, reaching an ever-wider audience.

As the line-up kept changing constantly, Art Zoyd also broadened their reach, performing everywhere from Hong Kong to Japan, from Australia to the United States. They became especially renowned for their film scores, composing new soundtracks for silent-era classics such as “Nosferatu”, “Faust” and “Häxan (Witchcraft Through the Ages)”.

Thierry Zaboitzeff's departure in 1997 marked the end of an era, but it did nothing to slow the group's momentum. One of the most important innovations was opening up their studio and creative process to outside artists, giving rise to a long series of collaborations. Among the first was “Dangereuses Visions”, created together with the Orchestre National de Lille and defined by its integration of music, video and other art forms. The show was staged in numerous cities, from Maubeuge to Mexico, reaching more than 20,000 spectators.

In the new millennium, this kind of collaboration became the core of Art Zoyd's activity. Among the major projects was “Experiences de Vol” (“Flight Experiences”), developed together with the Belgian collective Musiques Nouvelles. Out of this collaboration came the Cross-Border Center for the Production and Creation of New Music, a hub for artist residencies that would go on to support the creation of dozens of new works. In 2001 Art Zoyd also debuted their score for Fritz Lang's masterpiece “Metropolis”, while Gérard Hourbette composed the music for “Schrödinger’s Cat”, a project by American choreographer Karole Armitage realized with the Ballet National de Nancy.

Meanwhile the group's discography kept expanding, and their film scores became some of their most acclaimed releases. In 2005 Art Zoyd pushed even further with “Armageddon”, a project that put both technology and art to the test. In collaboration with Musiques Nouvelles and robotics engineer Louis-Philippe Demers, the group created what was effectively the first operetta performed by robots.

In the years that followed, Art Zoyd presented their score for the film “The Fall of the House of Usher” at the Louvre Museum, created the “spoken opera” “Kairo”, inspired by a novel by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and also produced a show aimed at younger audiences, “A demi endormi déjà”, based on a story by Célia Houdart with illustrations by François Olislaeger.

The journey seemed to come full circle with the concert for Art Zoyd's “44 1/2 Birthday”, held in 2015 at the Rock In Opposition Festival in Carmaux, France. The event, the festival's main attraction, brought together musicians from numerous incarnations of the band, who over the course of three nights revisited the most significant moments of the group's 44-and-a-half years of activity. It was on that occasion that the collaboration with American label Cuneiform Records was born. The festival, organized by Michel Besset — the same man whose label had released Art Zoyd's debut album — provided the ideal setting for Steve Feigenbaum of Cuneiform and the band to discuss creating a definitive tribute to the group's extraordinary career: a box set meant to gather all their live material and unreleased recordings, including the most prized rarities from their history.

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