Zut Un Feu Rouge

Zut un feu rouge was formed in Linköping Sweden in 1980 and the five-piece group approached music making in a rather experimental fashion. Different genres of music processed through ears that were attached to musicians on various levels of ability, produced an interesting mix of tightly arranged songs and loosely improvised chunks of sounds. The live performances had a peculiar touch, containing bits and pieces from the literary world, TV and cinema, farming and education. This was often presented in such a way that audiences either felt that they had experienced something extremely playful and spontaneous, or something terribly pretentious and calculated. One reviewer wrote: '…a music that was as highly-strung and ridiculous as the group’s outfits…' Yet another one reported: 'The feeling of being in a fabulously beautiful summer meadow that suddenly turns into a junk-yard, is something that I, for obvious reasons, have never before experienced'. Project experiments Live gigs was just one aspect of Zut’s work. Radio programmes, soundscape explorations and meticulous documentation, were other ways for the group to explore the boundaries of art and society. In terms of recording, Zut did not just focus on the conventional song and record formats. There were other projects such as the debut sound and light show 'Ur hjärtat av Sanningens Tillfällighet' ('From the Heart of the Coincidence of Truth') in May 1980 where they presented many ideas that were going to be developed and refined during the following years. One thing that Zut found interesting was to combine organized and unorganized sounds and musics and to challenge their own as well as other people’s perception of what music really could, or should, be. These experiments were evident in the composition 'En Morgon i en Sovande Mans Vakna Dröm' ('A Morning in the Waking Dream of a Sleeping Man', which was radio broadcasted in 1982, and also in the first Organic Soundscape project the same year where three electric organs became active parts of the ecosystem for three hours. International reputation These unconventional projects got some local attention but it was probably via their records that Zut broke through in independent music circles internationally. Their first medium player was called 'Kafka vs Chaplin' and it contained six compositions. The receptions were mixed: '…boys with an appetite for experiment who, by using equal amounts of melancholy, zest for music playing, quasi-intellectualism, humour, amateurism and innovation, cook up a mush of sound that makes the untrained ear wish it had lost the ability to hear,' was one reviewer’s description in 1983. ‘Kafka vs Chaplin’ also got attention in the UK and had a run on the New Musical Express’ independent chart. Concepts and cassettes The next record was an LP and partly a concept album, a fact that reflected Zut’s 70’s influence and showed their alienation with the hit-oriented 80’s music climate. On 'Who’s Afreud' all of side two was taken up by a story called 'Seven Sleepers of Ephesus' the legend about seven brothers in present-day Turkey who slept for 200 years as refugees in a cave in order to escape religious persecution. The story raised many questions about the power of authority and religion and was also a good way of incorporating Zut’s different members’ interest in painting and drawing as well as history and anthropology. The music included in 'Who’s Afreud' was characterized by an american reviewer: 'There are no histrionics or virtuosic flights of fancy, rather the music is characterized by slightly bent arrangements with an instrumentation that included violin, brass, winds and a standard rhythm section, with oblique melodies with unexpected twists and turns, and piquant, often unlikely harmonies, especially in the understated guitar work.' By 1985, when the LP was out, Zut had gained a following in many corners of the world . The following year there was also a compilation cassette called 'Sweet Zutrospectacles' that included previously unreleased live and studio recordings. 'Composed, but never anal-retentive. A liberal sort of musical sarcasm that will have you grinning andsneering, too,' one music magazine wrote. Up to now The members of the band subsequently went on to other projects and there was no more Zut activity apart from a couple of one-off concerts in the late 80’s. However, now, 25 years after their first appearance the band has decided to meet the demand for their deleted music and has compiled a cd that includes the above-mentioned vinyl records plus some unreleased live, jam and radio material. Six of the record’s 26 tracks are previously unreleased numbers and some of the other material is edited differently. The record is called 'Explain this country' and was officially released in January 2006. Releases: Kafka vs Chaplin (Mp BAR 8301) Who’s afreud (Lp BAR 8501) Sweet Zutrospectacles Cassette BAR 8605 Explain this country CD BAR 0502 Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.