interviews/articles.
Industrial Nation Interview
In 1979, Robin Storey and Ben Ponton founded the anonymous collective known as :zoviet*france:. Their anti-rock star work ethic was hardcore. :zoviet*france: did everything possible to stay anonymous. They left their names off of the liner notes. They turned down offers to appear on compilations for years. They refused to be interviewed. They concentrated on creating landmark experimental albums: Mohnomishe. Shouting at the Ground. Shadow, Thief of the Sun. All classic, albums with Storey's fingerprints all over them.
Storey left the collective in 1991 after a gruelling American tour. He took all of :z*f:'s integrity with him. The handful of post-Storey :z*f: releases never rise above mediocrity. Meanwhile Robin Storey has made over 30 albums in ten years as Rapoon ... and none of them suck.
Robin Storey aka Rapoon has an long musical career with more than 40 albums, plus collaborations released on Staalplaat, Soleilmoon, Syntantic, Caciocavallo, Grace Territori Sonor, amongst other labels and numberless appearances in compilations and collaborations.
In 1979 Storey founded Zoviet France along with Ben Ponton and Peter Jensen and worked together for 12 years until 1992, when he started to work as Rapoon and collaborated with other artists. Apart from being musician, Storey -who lives nearby Newcastle Upon Tyne-, he is a painter and also works on videos doing short films.
Rapoon explores vast atmospheres adorned with textures of diverse sources like female singings of the Middle East, Russian folk music, tribal rhythm, sounds that are deconstruct with analog and digital electronics.
In 2006, alongside Mark Spybey they started to work again after a long period in a project called The Reformed Faction of Soviet France and promptly renamed Reformed Faction, releasing the album ‘Vota’ [Klanggalerie, 2006]. The more recent releases of Rapoon are ‘From Shadows Sleep’ released on the Brazilian Essence Music imprint; ‘Mental Travellers’ [Indiestate 2006] and ‘Church Road’ [Tantric Harmonies, 2006].
1. The Title of your DVD is related to aliens. We can see, as on some of your record sleeves, strange beings, homunculus. You also mentioned them on The alien question CD and you are interested in the SETI project.
Can you tell us how far you are interested in that kind of supposition and research?
1. Visual arts have always been a part of your life, but it seems lately as though they're becoming your primary focus. Are you finding a new balance between painting, film and music, and if so, where do you see your greatest interest as you go forward in your life?
I find painting the greatest challenge at the moment. I make such a bad job of it sometimes. It is unforgiving in its’ clarity. I put off painting, I prevaricate and turn on the computer and make a cup of tea. Anything except going and getting the paint tubes and brushes and some paper and making some marks on it.
1) There’s a mighty telluric force in your graphical and acoustic work. You seem to be strongly bound to the earth, to nature, to your birthplace. Could you explain this relationship?
1.
Perhaps I am just lucky in that I was born and grew up in a place that I loved and
which was very beautiful and dramatic and where there was a genuine element of danger. I learned to respect nature and to be in constant awe of natural beauty.
With the profound mystery surrounding the anonymity of the members of Zoviet France, the emergence of one of its original founders came as a surprise to diehard ZF fans. In the aftermath of a gruelling North American tour in 1991, Robin Storey left Zoviet France, taking with him a broad knowledge of effective-yet-tricky soundloop techniques. While on later albums like Shouting at the Ground, Zoviet France had been shifting into rich dronescapes that seemed to have a fog-like weightlessness, Storey wanted to shift towards an exploration of the rhythmic minimalism of Indian, West African, and Bangladeshi indigenous music. Over nearly two dozen releases as Rapoon, Storey has steadily delved deeper into the mystically charmed arcana of hypnotic rhythms, augmented by extensive use of looped samples, tape manipulation, and ghostly references to the '70s dub techniques of Lee 'Scratch' Perry.
Alchiva and Ochre, from 1993's Raising Earthly Spirits, stand as some of Storey's best work in either Rapoon or Zoviet France, brazenly revealing the dark insistent loops that Storey creates by forcing scratchy vinyl into locked grooves and steadily manipulating it with an arsenal of tricks that he would like to keep secret.
Jim Haynes
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thanks to Aga for use of photographs
For almost 30 years now Robin Storey has been releasing music recognized worldwide as innovative and influential. Firstly as a founder member of the groundbreaking and much lauded band Zoviet France and latterly as the solo musician and multimedia artist Rapoon.
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