Z'EV

Born Stefan Joel Weisser in Los Angeles in 1951, Z’EV was an American poet, percussionist, sound artist, instrument builder, and theorist who linked images, nature, and spirituality with sound to explore its visceral dimensions. From 1969 and 1970, Z’EV studied world music traditions at California Institute of the Art, where he also began writing visual and sound poetries. After moving to Bay Area in late 1976, Z’EV was largely associated with the electron music group, Rhythm and Noise, till 1988. Adopting part of his Hebrew name, the interdisciplinary artist began performing under the name Z’EV in 1978. Meanwhile, he developed his own movement-based performance technique that he referred to as “wild-style,” a term derived from graffiti. This practice involved Z’EV’s self-assembled instruments made of industrial materials such as stainless steel, titanium, PVC plastics, and heavy chains, which were used to create original percussion sounds. In 1980, Z’EV put together a multimedia piece, Seven Tenses of Cinema, with Grahame Weinbren, Roberta Friedman, and Earl Howard at The Kitchen. He then later performed a solo percussion work at The Kitchen’s Aluminum Nights celebration in 1981 and went on to tour the United States with support from The Kitchen’s Touring Program. He also presented a solo evening at The Kitchen entitled FORMATIONS in 1983. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Aluminum Nights along with The Kitchen’s 40th Anniversary, Z’EV returned and performed a double bill with the Bush Tetras on Aluminum Music in 2011. During the 2000s, Z’EV became increasingly interested in electronic percussion and mixing digitally processed live sounds with images and audiovisual poems. Regarded as a pioneer of industrial music, Z’EV collaborated with musicians, dancers, poets, performance artists, and visual artists, including the British goth-rock band Bauhaus, Dutch house-music producer DJ Dano, and American composers Glenn Branca and John Zorn, among many others. Z’EV ultimately produced more than 70 albums and multimedia works. For more information, please visit http://www.rhythmajik.com/zev-bio-1978.html

Aluminum Nights