'NUMBER ONE' - review in 'THE WIRE'
Conceived, edited and assembled by Z'EV, Number One gives cogent articulation to the percussionist's thinking on the innate close relationship between music and many traditional theatrical forms. Starting with the five part structure inherent in Japanese Noh drama, he has joined with Kazuyuki Kishino and Chris Watson in creating theatre from an intense series of superimpositions.

In response to Z'EV's invitation, Chris watson supplied a set of field recordings he made in East Africa. According to the listing supplied by Watson and reproduced on the disc's inner sleeve, the subjects captured on his microphones include vultures feeding off an animal carcass at noon, an oncoming thunderstorm and a herd of grazing elephants. Located on the far right and left channels in the stereo mix, they form stark backdrops from which the electronic and acoustic sound files independently created by Kishino and Z'EV derive their resonance. In order to heighten the project's ritual aspect still further, Z'EV has also compiled a list of mythic adjuncts for each composition, creating a behavioural table of elements through which the piece can be interpreted. This subtle layering of effects helps deepen the rich interplay of sounds, producing a complex dramatic work from a strict economy of means. [Ken Hollings]

'NUMBER ONE' - review at AB-CD.COM
American performance/noise/percussion artist Z'EV, Japanese composer/performer K.K. Null, and field-recording artist Chris Watson (formerly of Cabaret Voltaire and the Hafler Trio) conjoin in a first collaboration for Touch. The idea for this recording, generated by Z'EV, has three elements: 1) to use the structure of the Noh Theatre cycle as the basis for the composition; 2) to consider the initial sound development in terms of developing "characters" which would then interact with one another through the specific "scene;" and 3) to place the "character interactions" as the "figure" inside of particular soundscapes as the "ground."

In the production process, Z'EV framed his and K.K. Null's electro-acoustic musics inside Chris Watson's field recordings from East Africa. A dynamic dialogue and inside-outside mirroring of natural and synthetic sound is the result: where the click and rhythm of an insect merges with K.K. Null's drumming; where the calls of the elephants combine with the electronic bass frequencies; where bird and frog song and Z'EV's harmonic structures produce surprising counterpoints. This is carefully-constructed, pure avant-garde.

'NUMBER ONE' - review at VITALWEEKLY.NET
The collaboration between Z'EV, KK Null and Chris Watson - seems on paper a most curious collaboration. Z'EV and Null played together one evening and talked about collaborating. It would involve the structure of the NOH theatre, sounds used would act as developing characters and the 'the character interactions would be placed as the 'figure' inside particular soundscapes as the 'ground'. Z'EV is the man to mix the various sound input by KK Null and Watson - the first known for his electronically manipulated electro-acoustics and the latter for his field recordings made in Africa. An unlikely combination perhaps, but surprisingly it works very well.

The bird and insects sound electronic and the electro-acoustics sounds sound quite natural. Z'EV's responsibility is to mix all these elements together, and he does a great job, much along the lines of his 'Headphone Musics 1 To 6'. Densely layered pieces of sounds swirling in and out, which work best with headphones one (despite the fact that no such reference is made on the cover). It's music that is hardly to be described as 'ambient' or 'soundscaping' or even 'industrial', but which is very much it's own thing, defying any category (well, perhaps 'avant-garde' comes in place then?). A highly vibrant disc of beautifully dense music. [Frans de Waard]

'ARTIFICIAL LIFE' - review at AB-CD.COM
A collaborative release between two sound art giants-KK NULL and Z'EV. Percussion and percussive elements are the primary source material on this disc. However, combining Z'EV's diverse materials (and methods for drawing sounds out of them), and Null's rich tone washes and electronic manipulation, the five pieces on this disc are anything but traditional percussion.

With tracks ranging from dense, complex rhythms that sound like angry gnats to sonorous bowed metal and shifting sine waves, this disc shows why these artists have earned their places in the pantheon of experimental sound artists.

'ARTIFICIAL LIFE' – KK.NULL + Z'EV
review at VITALWEEKLY.NET
A review on a CD like this could start like this: do these two heavy weights of experimental music need any introduction, probably not. But then who remembers that KK Null was originally a guitar player, although in the recent years we see him mostly playing electronics. Something similar can be said of Z'EV, although in recent years he shifted back from electronics to percussion, which is the thing that gave him his household name since the early 80s.

Recently both were on tour in the UK, and on that occasion this CD was produced and in a way can be seen as a continuation of a recent work they did with Chris. Both are works of playing together, but in the case of the release with Watson, it was Z'EV putting the stuff together afterwards based on the sound material offered by KK Null and Chris Watson, whereas in this case Null and Z'EV where together and played the music in an improvised way. That means there are differences to be noted. The Touch CD was much more densely shaped with a wide variety of sounds being blurred together into fine woven pattern, whereas here electronics play a main part but separately from the percussive elements thrown in by Null (who gets credit for electro-percussion) and Z'EV. Less dense, but with a lot of variety. From the tribalism third piece (all are untitled) to the abstract and quieter second and fourth piece, these two gentlemen play a fine piece of music. Throughout they know what they are doing and it may seem that Z'EV is the man who plays the 'solo's' here, meaning he gets a more distinct sound, but it's a wonderfully varied and intelligent disc. No wonder they are heavy weights. [Frans deWaard]

'HEADPHONE MUSICS 1 to 6 b/w AS IS AS' - review at VITALWEEKLY.NET
Z'EV has of course been active since maybe 80% of the Vital Weekly readership was either unborn or in diapers or playing around with 'Let It Be' - a mighty long time. Now mostly known for his percussion work since the early eighties, the production of electro-acoustic music has also been a main feature in Z'EV's work throughout that time.

On 'Headphone Musics 1 To 6', Z'EV offers six pieces which should be listened of course on headphones. All of these pieces have been treated in the old-fashioned way, such as "editing, phase relationships, time dilation, and inherent and 3rd harmonic distortion". Although I must admit that listening to music using headphones is something I very rarely do, but I did it with this CD (because "reviewers who don't want to use headphones, should not bother to review this) and I must say that headphones indeed greatly advance the music.

Much of the material appear in total stereo, but it's spliced together in short time frames, meaning the sound bounces from left to right in a very close range. This gives the music an almost psychedelic feel. It's hard to recognize any of the original soundmaterial, but my best guess it is a lot of processed field recordings. As a bonus 'As Is As' from 1976 is added. This sound poem was originally performed under the name of S. Weisser at a Sound Poetry festival in San Francisco and uses two reel to reel tapedecks, three cassette players and two microphones. The density of the looped voices, also with a great stereo use, fits the headphone use quite well. The rhythmic element that is so present in all of Z'EV's work works well, also on this level of tape music. Great release. [Frans deWaard]

'HEADPHONE MUSICS 1 to 6 b/w AS IS AS' [label: Touch]
Although industrial music pioneer and London resident Z'EV is primarily known for bringing non-traditional percussive voicings to the '70s NYC avant-garde scene, he's also a fearsome tape manipulator. With an uncanny ability to fuse the shockingly abrasive with the breathtakingly panoramic, Z'EV's recorded work is both intimidating and sublime. His studies in collage began under the tutelage of Joseph Byrd – the oft mentioned University of California professor and one time United States of America leader – an auspicious beginning that led to the cataloging and re-assemblage of taped sound that is Headphone Musics 1 to 6. A deep plunge into a terrain of wide pans, intervalic distortion and "sound poetry," the disc is another example of Z'EV's preternatural compositional style.

While the study of phase relationships is not a new concept in experimental music, Z'EV manages to find a direct path to the otherworldly by employing visceral techniques that rarely allow the ear a moments rest. Found sound, scripted bashing on heavy commercial equipment, and shamanic singing are all part of the puzzle. Breath is deadly and whispers volcanic in Z'EV's savage sphere. Though expansive, his rusty, howling works are spiked and barbed – exacting their pound of flesh from the listener with surgical precision. Like flickering shadows on slate grey walls, aural wrinkles appear and fade away with chaotic certitude, never content to settle into predictable patterns.

The curdled horror of " 5" features sounds originally recorded in an empty three story printing press in Amsterdam in 1984. Menacing breaths, sighs and whispers waft through corridors ofindustrial clanging, creating an unsettling ambient domain. The space between sounds is as shuddersome as the sounds themselves, an attribute shared by most of the album's seven cuts. Balinese tree frogs recorded in the '70s form the basis of "2," some 14 stereo tracks including a "controlled skipping" turntable are employed to create sheets of cascading tone. The piece is perhaps the least harrowing of any on the record, but is still not entirely hospitable.

Z'EV's 30+ year-old collection of tape may have provided the source material for the compositions on Headphone Musics, but it's his skills in editing and time dilation that thread the sounds together in an encompassing environment of contemplative dread. Much has been made of Z'EV's mystical and occult leanings, but even without an understanding of the esoteric elements that inform his themes, the music remains an evocative aggregate ofmood and menace.
Casey Rea Jan. 26, 2005 dustedmagazine.com

'RHYTHMAJIK' [http://www.smallvoices.it] - review at VITALWEEKLY.NET
In case you didn't notice: Z'EVis back, but these days with something else than what we know him for: rhythmic music. Although his new album for Small Voices deals with rhythm again, as they publish the Z'EV's book 'Rhythmajik' in Italian. The book is subtitled 'Practical uses of Number, Rhythm and Sound' which probably says it all. Z'EV provides music for the book on the CD with the same name.

He plays homemade instruments, such as gongs, metal percussion, titanium plate and low steel drums. In no less than thirty-two tracks, Z'EV displays his unique style of percussive music, usually quite slow, and working on the sustaining of sounds. The result is a densely layered album of multiple percussive elements. It's the Z'EV we know so well from the 80s, but with a sound that has progressed a lot. [Frans DeWaard]


A BRIEF HISTORY OF ODD PERCUSSION. by Rod Smith - SeattleWeekly.com
Percussion instruments as we know them today are manufactured tools whose prices reflect their captive existence in a seller's market. Why spend hundreds of dollars needlessly when nearly everything in the world makes some sort of sound when struck, stroked, or shaken if, say, your neighbor wants to sell you a few dozen hubcaps for 10 bucks? Stealing it is better still. Theft, like dumpster diving, is an important part of the tradition that emerged during the found percussion spike of the '80s, both as political act and matter of necessity.

Like their American progeny—the Beatnigs and Crash Worship in particular—Einstürzende Neubauten, Test Department, and SPK all had anarchist leanings, a healthy disrespect for conventions of property, and no money, meaning they initially followed the path of the finder. Out of the decade's countless metal-and-plastic banging ensembles, these bands enjoyed a modicum of popularity and a reasonable amount of club play. Neubauten and Test Dept.'s edge in the marketplace emanated from videos distributed by the ubiquitous RockAmerica pool; SPK had an album on Sire, with a single—"Metal Dance"—that beat-mixed perfectly out of "Blue Monday." But found percussion originated long before the '80s: hundreds of thousands of years ago, when one of our remote ancestors first coaxed a beat out of a hollow log with a rock or stick.

The practice surged in the Paleolithic Era, evolved slowly until the advent of manufactured goods, and got a big boost in 1939 with John Cage's "First Construction (for Metal)," which included parts for anvil. Cage, like most of the conservatory types who followed him, had only a passing interest in found percussion. Not so for Stefan Weisser—better known as Z'EV. A formally trained percussionist whose pursuit of salvaged sound-making implements dates back to the mid-'70s, Z'EV has contributed his refined rhythmic sensibilities to collaborations with Glenn Branca, Rudolph Grey, Psychic TV, Toshinorio Kondo, and the Hafler Trio's Andrew MacKenzie, as well as releasing 20-plus solo albums and performing extensively in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Like many of his colleagues, Z'EV works with electronics, too.

In fact, on the newly released Tinnitus Vu (Touch), a set of dense drones realized in collaboration with Organum's David Jackman, it's impossible to distinguish the electrons from the percussive bits. Not that it matters—Z'EV, whose tastes run toward stainless steel and titanium (the Cristal of metal percussion)—would never drop a sonic cheese log like the "rave in the cave" scene from The Matrix Reloaded (although the subsonic rumbles on Vu's imaginatively monikered "Track 2" could easily have originated in Zion). Anyone looking to dip a toe in the sea of DIY drumming would do well to pick up a copy of his book, Rhythmajik. Just go to his Web site, www.rhythmajik.com, where, typically enough, it's free for downloading.
Tinnitus Vu (Touch) - MP3 Stream: "Track One" || MP3 Stream: "Track Four"

'5.14.93' [label: C.I.P.]
I was surprised to receive this little 3" CD single for review, as it's been quite a while since I've heard or seen anything from Z'EV. A member of the original "industrial" cadre (if we go by the Re/Search Industrial Culture Handbook list), Z'EV was one of the earliest artists to extensively utilize metal percussion, from barrels to pipes. I was fortunate enough to see him play a show with Rhythm & Noise in San Francisco in the late '80s, and it was quite a performance. The band blew the venue's power temporarily, at which point Z'EV looked up, realized he didn't give a shit about electricity, and gave us a five-minute   percussion solo until power was restored. It was the highlight of the show.

This single, recorded at New York's Performing Garage in 1993, is divided into two tracks, the first nine minutes and the second 11 minutes in length. The first fades in with reverberating, deep metal drumming, a regular mid-tempo rhythm. Midway in, the tempo has increased slightly, and the density has increased significantly. Heavy, insistent metallic clanging and banging like being inside a church bell tower during an earthquake. The recording is somewhat murky, but the performance still makes itself felt. The varying timbres of the metal gives Z'EV's work its dynamics – the crashing metals at the end of the first track are a perfect example.

The second piece almost sounds like it might have been recorded at a different time or place; the bangs and clangs sound closer and less soaked in natural reverb. But presumably, given the name of the single, this was recorded on the same date. In any case, it begins with a less-insistent rhythm, almost a free-flowing series of clashing metallic hits. Towards the end, the piece picks up momentum until it's a constant rolling cascade of drumming, then drops back into a less-cluttered, open break before Z'EV takes it up and down into a rollercoaster of intensity. As a demonstration of the many variations on metal percussion, it's a convincing case.

This is limited to only 500 copies, so it may be difficult to find, but if you're a Z'EV fan you'll certainly want this. If you're curious, it's worth your while to hunt it down, as it's fine work by a longtime master. Hopefully this little reminder will give some label the urge to reissue his long out of print albums (especially My Favorite Things). Mason Jones Jan. 13, 2004 dustedmagazine.com


Z'EV, 'Live, 03.01.86' –
Crippled Intellect Productions release 10" review from brainwashed
Sandwiched between two sheets of metal, numbered out of an edition of 333, and signed by Z'EV, Crippled Intellect Productions has released an excellent 10" of a percussive singularity. The two performances recorded on this release are of the kind that are rarely played live or recorded in the studio. Side A begins with Z'EV suggesting that some "travelling music" be played and what follows is a series of metal on metal rhythms that, on the whole, don't seem to fit a single rhythmic time signature nor suggest any kind of ethnic reference. The entire piece feels like an experiment in time; it is as though the pulsing that consistently finds its way into this piece is moving time along in a new way and the texture of the instruments on top of each other create a new terra firma to experience this time on.

Whether the traveling Z'EV was suggesting was of a mystical kind or merely a trip across land and sea, the movement of these apparent non-rhythms slowly builds into a piece that creates the illusion of recognition — the rhythm was always there in my mind, Z'EV simply showed it to me. Side B begins with the humming of metal sheets. They are surprisingly melodic and, as time carries on, they begin to resonate in a rubbery way, bouncing in a perfect wave form and releasing their ghost in the form of a beautiful moan. It sounds as though Z'EV must've added some kind of extra instrument to this performance or somehow mixed scrap pieces with the rest of his instrumentation because there is the constant effect of metal rolling about slowly over this wave of sound made by the metal sheets.

Z'EV doesn't seem to be in control of this extra element all the time, but the result is amazing. It's hard to imagine how Z'EV could make music like this solely from percussive elements. The second track on the second side is a comparatively more straight-forward exercise in diversity. Z'EV opens by banging away at some kind of metal pipe that changes tones here and there; it's either that or he is moving like a speed demon between multiple metal drums, each of which carry a different tone. The rhythms on this track are more definite, but I find it difficult to keep time with Z'EV and his sense of direction and composition.

The instrument used on this side is incredibly beautiful and at times sounds like an incredibly low steel drum that emits the most powerful of sounds. At times it seems as if the rhythm is weaving like a snake through Z'EV and his hands. This is undeniably a kind of work that I have never heard from anyone else. Z'EV's music is unique beyond compare and his complete mastery of texture and sound only adds to the unique character of his drumming. Lucas Schleicher - Brainwashed.com

Z'EV, 'Live, 03.01.86' -
Also by Z'EV, but from a historical perspective is a really beautiful 10": packed inside two metal plates which are stamped with 'Z'EV' and the copy number (of a total edition of 333 copies). It resembles that other metal packaging, by Chop Shop from so long ago. Crippled Intellect has released a 3" with historical live recordings before and this 10" features recordings made at the N.A.M.E. Gallery in Chicago in 1986. On the first side there is a rhythmic piece, which doesn't sound like it is kept in the same rhythm, but rather like an exploration of the sounds metal on metal can produce.

Side B starts with slow rumbling of metal sheets being rubbed with balls which built in a peaceful way. The second piece is a fast drumming on metal piece‹maybe better known as Z'EV trademark playing. A fine addition to the already vast catalogue of material by Z'EV of which much is no longer available. It could also serve as a fine introduction to his work, in case you missed him out in the eighties." Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly 411

'AN UNS MOMENTO' [label: C.I.P]
Z'EV is back! After two releases last year on Soleilmoon - one of them a re-issue - and both sadly missed here, here is another new old work. The work of Z'EV is mostly known for his metallic percussion with occult inspirations, but Z'EV is also working under many other names. If you are young and wish to seek out more about Z'EV, then try to find a second hand copy of his double CD 'One Foot In The Grave' or the Industrial Culture Handbook. Because yes, boys and girls, Z'EV was among the founding fathers of industrial music.

Uns is one of the names Z'EV uses (or used - I think), for a more poetic tape project. Using outdated technology, like Farfisa organ, cassettes and old amplifier, Uns speaks texts on tape and accompagnies himself in noisy backgrounds. Originally Life Sentense was released as a cassette in 1986 as a c30 tape, so a rare recording of 'Save What?' is here too (originally on a cassette in an edition of 50). This was recorded at the final UNS performance in 1982.

The nice thing about CD's is you index 99 tracks and shuffle this. Since Life Sentense is mainly a work of cut-up and collage, the 14 short tracks are divided on 98 tracks (track 99 being 'Save What?', so when that appears in your shuffle mode, you quickly skip it - which is the bad thing about shuffle play). As a true lover of Z'EV (owing almost everything he did - but sadly missing these UNS recordings), this is a most welcome re-issue. Of course parts of the UNS work were on the Touch 2CD set, but it's very interesting to hear these works in their entire length and complete the image of Z'EV further. Frans deWaard vital 174 vital.caddr.com

HEADS & TALES 's 1 – 19 HYPERcussion [AVANT 34]
Reviewed by Greg Burk in the LA Weekly 1998
 [short samples of the entire CD were available online at cduniverse.com]

I was going to wait until conceptual percussionist Z'EV performed [he's living here again] to talk about his riveting current release, Heads & Tales, but he's been in one of his exile / hibernation states for months, so here goes.

    This album has no melodies. It hardly even has any tones. It consists mostly of drums [synthetic and physical both, I think] plus some electronic noises and some found talking.


    And it got me. I kept turning off more and more lights. I kept turning the volume higher and higher. And when all the lights were off, and my eyes were closed, and the sound was as loud as the plaster could withstand, I sat there and didn't move.

    This isn't trance music. It's like a vise screwed onto your skull. You don't let your mind wander. You have no mind. You're sucked into a very ancient, lightless place where only hunger and power exist. African and Taiko drummers can sometimes visit rooms adjacent to this one, but they enter them in the company of each other and their ancestors, as a matter of culture and ritual. Z'EV goes there alone.

    The beats gallop and battle, hammer and build, pure and hard, sometimes verging on dance punishment. Jets of volcanic steam blast through. A snake hisses and twists. A scraped gong generates heartless whorls. A shrilling noise fills the upper regions. The voices, in narration or cut up into rhythmic samples, are solitary fabrics of abstraction, humanity as a random clot of matter.

    This is real, ultimate stuff, the kind of determined and concentrated energy that doesn't make it onto a record very often, because not many artists have the guts to stare at emptiness without flinching. And they don't expect an eager audience.

    Heads & Tales [on John Zorn's small label, recorded and mixed with the assistance of Wharton Tiers and Glenn Branca] has every mark of outsider art – but it taps into something universal.

    In the first track, Z'EV lifts some kind of radio voice saying "This is a very personal message – it is for a few of my friends".

    I suspect he has more friends than he thinks.


Z'EV CONCEPTUAL PERCUSSIONIST
Review of live performance (Unidentified Reviewer - The Aquarian (Tri-State Area) - 11/79)

Bang! Bang! Silver objects came down like hammers upon Maxwell's stage as Z'EV, percussionist extraordinaire, performed his usual heavy metal compositions at the Hoboken club. Z'EV took Bill Haley's "Shake Rattle & Roll" literally as he played his homemade instruments by rolling them across the floor, rattling them together and shaking them up and down. Z'EV proved to be a sensitive and skilled master of his instruments, creating complex rhythms and varied timbres, building to exciting climaxes and demonstrating that there is more to baking pans, used plastic containers and old metal than previously thought possible.
Z'EV is a pioneer not only in music, but in ecology as well.

REVIEW OF LIVE PERFORMANCE (Mr. B - Boston Rock - 8/80)

As Z'EV completed a recent performance at the 38 Thayer St. loft an enthusiastic person from the audience shouted "More noise!". "Make it yourself", Z'EV casually responded. Z'EV draws a variety of reactions from the crowd. Some stand motionless, absorbing the sights and sounds as if in some form of meditation. Others rocked with the rhythms and shouted cheers of encouragement and wisecracks. The mood was festive and mystical combined. Regardless of your interest in 'tin can' music, Z'EV has to be admired for his inventiveness in creating a primitive ceremony from scraps of a modern society. Without the need for conventional musical instruments, without electricity, without modern music theory, Z'EV is still making music. What would you do if the power went out?

REVIEW OF ELEMENTAL MUSIC ( Louis Morra - East Village Eye - 11/83).

In being so exemplary modern, Z'EV is as primitive a performer as possible. His instrument literally is his body, and the percussion instruments he plays with all parts of it. Z'EV is a dancer, always in perfect control of his muscular body's movements. At least in concept, Z'EV realises many of modernist art's ultimate goals: primitivism, improvisation, multi-media / conjunction of art forms, the artist as direct creator. Z'EV is also one hell of a drummer.

REVIEW OF ELEMENTAL MUSIC (Norman Weinsten - Music Sound Output - 1/84)

Z'EV is a one-man percussion orchestra. Using a battery of industrial discards, Z'EV makes perhaps the only thoroughly literal heavy metal music on earth. By creating 'drums' out of materials like stainless steel, he creates stunningly fresh and emotionally uncategorizable mini-symphonies.

ELEMENTAL MUSIC captures one of his thoroughly engaging live performances. Parts of the recording sound electronically altered in the studio with added reverb, but the word on Z'EV is that he doesn't use any electronic tricks while performing or recording. Hence, on the evidence of this album, he must be one of the greatest percussionists working in any musical genre anywhere in the world.
He just happens to manifest his talent by manipulating a variety of metal objects rather than bashing away at a real drum kit.

FROM AN INTERVIEW (interviewer: Carl Loeffler - Artcom 20 - 1983)

Q. What do you think are the important issues?
A. "The distinction between fine art and commercial art, and the tendency to sacrifice content for form. Not that things are becoming more formalistic, but as an analogy, 'American' English is the cultural currency. If you have a second-rate idea presented in first-rate English, and a first-rate European idea presented in second-rate English, the second-rate 'American' idea will win. The ideas of the dominant become the dominant ideas.
For example, the current trend of mega-movies as just a series of special effects, and a sense of spectacle, creates a level where the appearance of what's happening compensates for the fact that nothing is happening. A certain reality is fed back to the audience to keep them in a controlled status and away from the issues. America employs slick form to evade content.
We can also discuss this from the aspect of 'new music'."
Q. We're talking about the struggle of form over content?
A. "It's not a struggle because the battle is over."
Q. Who won?
A. "Form."
Q. To what are we applying this condition?
A. "Everything."

REVIEW OF PRODUCTION AND DECAY OF SPACIAL RELATIONS
(Roy Sablosky - Option Magazine - 3/83)

Z'EV layers noises: clanging metal, clunking wood, crashing metal, rattling something, more clanging metal. But there is something about the way he does it that is compellingly musical. Not that I hear melodies, or phrasing, or anything like that. It's some underlying quality that disposes me to consider this carefully-layered cacaphony as music. Some people these days make noise instead of music because they think it's hip. This isn't like that. Z'EV doesn't just break the rules, he actually changes them.


REVIEW OF SHAKE RATTLE & ROLL 1981
(Hopey Glass - 'Top 50 Rhythms of all time!' in The Wire - 4/92)

Who else calls up Gods? Z'EV uses his array of hanging metal objects to invoke moods which are more than just moods: to charge the airspace he's working in with the spirit he's saluting. This is an old idea – maybe the oldest – in drum-lore, but almost everyone else has lost sight or sound of it, behind a tradition of art-directed technique. A torrent, a clatter, a tulmult, a vast, endless ringing: you barely get the idea on record. No surprise: as he says, "with recorded sound, the speaker cone is all you hear, and all you hear is cardboard."

Z'EV / FACE THE WOUND / SOLIELMOON reviewed @ strange forthune

A rare appearance of this master of alchemy and percussion. A potent mix of samples and rhythms.

Z'EV - Face The Wound. reviewed by -a.p.- at> freq.freeserve.co.uk/z.htm

Face The Wound is a Sprache Opera, a dialogue between the male and female voices. Known for working with found sounds, Z'EV assembled the narrative of Face The Wound from 30 cassettes collected from thrift shops, garage sales, and flea markets. The rhythms of the voices mix with the rhythms of electronic percussion and electronic textures. The journey through Z'EV's assembled narrative isn't an easy one, I'd go as far as saying it's apocalyptic. Scene three deals with incest. "1 + 1 = kill your parents" and laughter punctuate the ever shifting and unsettling voices. Religion is never far away. One of the sources Z'EV worked with is recordings of media evangelists. References to the end times appear again and again.

Face The Wound is dark, but there's also an uneasy catharsis. And how can there be catharsis without facing the wound? This isn't an album to hide things.

Z'EV -- FACE THE WOUND. reviewed by Jeremy Keens @ ampersandetc.virtualave.net

With 'Face The Wound', performance percussion artist Z'EV has created a dramatic 'Sprache Opera'. Working with voices from 30 audio cassettes collected 'from thrift shops, garage sales and flea markets' that provided over 45 hours of source material ( self help, marketing, evangelists, lectures on very varied, answering machines tapes and much more), he has cut and pasted them to form a musical narrative..Reviewers were given the benefit of a cd-rom with the full 'lyrics' - which has been helpful.

The opera is divided into chorus sections, where the voices are presented without accompaniment, and songs where Z'EV provides powerful background. This is a combination of percussion and electronic tones and textures which provide colour and momentum to the work..'Hello…I want to introduce you to my tapes…listen to them like they're a sick person…this is a very personal message…but it's all intertwined' opens track 1, giving us an introduction to this complex work. Which ends 'Thank you so much for listening'..

While it may sound boring, a number of factors make it far from so. First, Z'EV has a deft ear for rhythms of speech, cutting and editing so that the vocal parts can be listened to as much for their music as there message. Elements recur providing structure and hooks to the flow. Secondly, the rhythm and poetry of the language carries you along as different voices speak their fragments, creating a surreal/cut-up poetry to the segments which is fascinating. Then there is the accompaniment which drives and guides many of the songs, and is listenable in its own right.

And finally, there are themes which Z'EV is playing out for us - instability of the family, submission through religion, judgement - centred on a belief that our inability to 'face the wound' of the witch genocide is at the 'core of a wide variety of social, cultural and especially environmental ills'. Following these tracks through the work offers a complex listening..This piece follows 'HYPERcussion' on Avant (I haven't heard it, but a review indicates it is more percussion, less talk), and the tracks here are described as Heads and Tales 20-38, following the 19 on that album.

Anyway, this is a thrilling and chilling album, probably not everyone's cup of tea, but a labyrinth worth entering.

Z'EV / GHOST STORIES / SOLIELMOON reviewed by Rev. Mathers @ tif.org

Let us travel back some twenty years. Back to when Tom Waits was singing the blues, Skinny Puppy and Einsturzende Neubauten weren't even gleams in industrial eyes, Oingo Boingo was a high school drama troupe, and many members of Instagon weren't even born. Out of San Francisco came a bald experimental noise artist called Z'EV. His real name is Stefan Weisser. Before groups were recording themselves banging things together, he was recording himself banging things together. For over twenty years, he has been putting out breath-takingly original and mind numbingly relentless albums.
Naturally, with such a long career in the experimental side of music, many of his albums are darn near impossible to find. A Z'EV album that is relatively easy to find is "Ghost Stories". It is a reissue by Soleilmoon records of an out of print album. They have done this with several Z'EV albums to make them easy to find and easy on the pocketbook. Bless them. It was recorded in Amsterdam on Halloween of 1990. It is sixty-eight minutes of Z'EV banging together what sounds like lead pipes. You never hear a peep from the audience, but I'm assured that it was recorded from a concert. I don't blame those ticket holders. It's difficult to explain the power of "Ghost Stories". It's really hard to convey the beauty of how Z'EV bangs pipes to one who hasn't heard it.

I would highly recommend this album to every creature that walks the Earth. The first time I threw it on was in the wee hours of the morning as I did some writing. I had it on really low. Every once and a while, I would stop working, lean back with the calming throbs of clattering metal and say, "Wow!" It was ambient music at it's highest quality. The next, and more satisfying time I listened to it was mid-day, a few days later. I cranked up the stereo so that the walls hummed along and laid on the floor with my eyes closed for over an hour. The effect was transcendental. It transported me to a calm and ethereal plane. "Ghost Stories" can be found in lots of music stores. Log off and go buy it right now.
Z'EV / GHOST STOREIS / SOL64-CD reviewed @ verge music

On October 31, 1990, the entire contents of Z'EV's prodigious instrumental accumulation was transported to the Wang concert hall in Amsterdam for a final performance of what was known then as his Wild Style. This instrumental performance technique utilized the physical movement of instruments through space, and established Z'EV's reputation as: "The legendary one man percussion ensemble." (New York Rocker) Ghost Stories is the definitive documentation of Z'EV at a pivotal moment in his career.

Z'EV / OPUS 3.1 & GHOST STORIES reviewed by John Graham @ Willamette Week February 3, 1999

The career of cult artist Z'EV (Stefan Weisser) first bloomed in the early '80s, rising alongside the dawn of avant-garde industrial music, though his style was grounded more in flesh and steel than the intellectual spaces created by electronic musicians. To watch the bald man pound out abstract, percussive vignettes on materials such as titanium rods, iron springs or empty water jugs was a bizarre, entrancing affair. Later, this creative recycling of cultural castoffs would become a central metaphor of all art given the "industrial" tag. In the '80s, however, Z'EV moved his show to Europe, leaving nothing for American audiences to marvel at but that popular Broadway version of his junkyard drumming scheme, STOMP.

Fortunately, Portland's experimental titan, Soleilmoon Recordings, is now providing us with his first domestic releases in well over a decade. (Both discs were recorded in 1990 but have not seen American shores until now.) Opus 3.1 consists of 20 tracks divided into five acts. Each cut--or scene--represents a different percussion instrument. Some are quiet, others cacophonous, but even the slow, stark resonance of a ringing gong maintains a sharp level of intensity. The sole drawback is inconsistency: After being soothed into a reflective trance state, the listener is occasionally jolted by the strident opening clang of the subsequent cut. Ghost Stories, a 1-track, 68-minute live recording, avoids this, building tension through rising and rolling crescendos, then letting its thunder fade into the waiting air before starting over. What it lacks, however, are the wide dynamics of Opus 3.1, and both sorely miss the visual aspect of Z'EV himself working his alchemical magic before your eyes. Regardless, just when it seemed like New-Age techno and all-wet ambient were taking over the world, both albums reclaim the right for experimental artists to get percussive without joining a drum circle. Pick up a pipe and garbage can and play along.

 Z'EV / OPUS 3.1 Reviewed @ verge music

The work was originally produced by Van Lagenstein for Helmholtz Theatre and recorded at De Duif, a legendary church in Amsterdam that features a major stained glass window of The Green Man. It was recorded in four hours, and all the takes were 'first takes'. It was remastered by Z'EV and Mark Wheaton for this release. The 20 pieces recorded at De Duif employed the entire range of instruments collected by Z'EV during the previous seven years of his residency in Europe and his travels throughout the world. These recordings ranged from works for seven metal Tibetan cymbals to Ghanaian lion skin drums to Balinese Gamelan to three different sets of titanium tubes.

Z'EV / ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE 1968-1990 / Touch TO:13 / 156 minutes
reviewed @ hyperreal.com

This comprehensive compilation of Z'EV's work is intended to define his place as one of the most important sound artists of the last two or three decades. It certainly ought to achieve that. If nothing else, it'll dispel whatever preconceptions those only familiar with narrow aspects of his work may have. As well as 2 very full CDs, this package includes a CD-sized 124-page booklet, containing interviews, photos, discography, recording information, conversations, compositions and other writings. It's extremely well designed, and an informative survey of the ideas regarding communication, energy and evocation that recur throughout Z'EV's work.

The music itself ranges from experimental vocal manipulations, using tapes and high distortion, or multiple layering, through extreme versions of rock as part of the group Cellar M, to the brightly hued metal bashing of early 80s performances.

... for many of Z'EV's performances the visual information, in terms of his movement on stage, was as important as the sound, and with only the latter reproduced here it can get a bit meaningless. There are certainly several brilliant moments, including Metal Bizondere Plastik, with clear chiming, reverberating metallic rhythms, and the manic metal energy of Beautiful Music. The appeal is mostly in the range of sound textures created, frequently metallic or otherwise percussive, and at times entrancing. If you want the definitive Z'EV then this is it.

 AN UNS MOMENTO / C.I.P. reviewed by nw @ splendidzine.com [30 second sample of Life Sentense available]

Z'EV (né Stefan Weisser) is a drummer, poet, tinkerer and sound sculptor extraordinaire who has worked with the likes of John Cage, Pere Ubu, Cabaret Voltaire and Bauhaus, and who has inspired industrial acts like Einsturzende Neubauten. An Uns Momento collects two of his works from the '80s, "Life Sentense" and "Save What?" The former is a sort of work of paranoia; Z'EV's stuttering, schizophrenic text treatments, paired with what amounts to layers of electronic noise, make for an unsettling yet mesmerizing experience. This edition of the work is divided into 98 tracks, so that if you run your CD player in shuffle mode you'll get a different piece every time. "Save What?" is the last performance of Z'EV's group, uns. It's much like "Life Sentense", but longer and less insane. It ends in a simulated breakdown, with Z'EV claiming that they need to shut down all the equipment before it gets broken. He then trails off in mid-speech and the 30 minute work is over. I hadn't heard of Z'EV before, but I'm certainly a believer after hearing these two pieces. This stuff is just wacky enough to really work.

An UNS MOMENTO : LIFE SENTENCE & SAVE WHAT? / C.I.P. reviewed @ aquarius records [real audio clip avail at aquariusrecordssf.com]

In the early '80s, Z'EV had developed the Uns persona to stand outside of the percussive heavy physicality of Z'EV. Uns built a portable unit of 4 Lenco turntables (which have the unique ability to pitch speeds from 0 - 78 rpm), a few tape decks, echo-plex, and a fire-damaged organ to generate a scraping mid-range rumble over which he barked out a cyclical stream of fragmented vocal elements. While the noise elements definitely predate / parallel some of the early noise constructions from Merzbow, the vocals are what keep this record interesting -- as Z'EV would rant and mumble as if caught in a manic fit of Tourette's Syndrome, before catching one interesting phrase in a lock groove for a four or five repetitions ("and you don't know my problem - and it's like crash grass - it's like crash glass - it's like crash glass - and it's uh a clean cut") before continuing on the strange vocalizations. While the noise elements from all of the tracks retain a very similar timbre, the vocals offer the major differentiation for Uns. Fortunately, this piece has ample room between the numerous (99?) tracks for the audience to catch its breath before Z'EV picks up with another semi-comprehensivle ramble. This holds up quite well under the test of time, inspite of / because of the fact that Uns sounds like any of the totally flyin' speed freaks that buzz around the 16th & Mission Bart station.

STEFAN WEISSER / CONTEXTS & POEXTENSIONS / Subterranean Records reviewed by Dean Suzuki OP "Q" May/June 1983

If you like art in the extreme and out on the edges, buy this. "Poextensions," which can be played at any speed (sure wish I had 78 and 16 rpm), sounds like an electric/concrete sound piece, comes with "Contexts," a set of 12 visual or concrete poems not far from the Fluxus aesthetic. This package is signed, numbered and dated by the artist, Weisser, who also goes by Z'EV and Uns, depending upon his activities. He proves that his vision is wide as it is intense.

STEFAN WEISSER / EDITEDITIONS / Subterranean Records reviewed by Blake Edwards @ godsend online

Stefan Weisser is the persona of Z'EV (the amazing and innovative solo percussion artist who you should've already read about in your *Industrial Culture Handbook* days) who does audio poetics, and Editeditions is a deceptively simple voice manipulation project. The first side, "Indefensible Position" features loops which sound like bottles being knocked over and a few bleats of what appears to be a sax behind particles of one side of a conversation. The phrases are simply repeated (you can hear the tape recorder rewind here and there), which contribute to a neurotic sense of musing/postulating/bewilderment. Side two, "You think that was not an attack" is a manipulated recording of an argument with Doro Franck, and also features minimal sound loops (as if they were arguing while doing the dishes or setting dinner) with slightly different takes of the argument in each channel. As with side 1, phrases are repeated and crop up through the piece, which give the final form an enjoyable non-linearity. Additionally, since the phrases are contextual but not always chronological, and the repetition is only of snippets of conversation, Weisser creates an array of tension, from the almost-comical to the actually dramatic. (But this recording is worthwhile if only for Weisser's drawling of the word "aspersions" [uh s-p-u-u-ur zhuns].) Definitely a critical marker in the evolution of a sound performer, this recording comes on clear vinyl with no labels in an edition of 500.