Album Notes

Denoted as “Some of the most devastatingly glamorous music to appear on record since...?”, this release marked out Zone as mavericks with their own already integrated take on the past and future – from punk to the Pyramids – that would develop further still into a body of work as unique as it is post-modern, earthy and electric.

Journey Through A Body was the title of an infamous Throbbing Gristle bootleg. It is also a most apt description of Zone's Sword Of The Sun. Zone are a Welsh group who generate the most elemental noises this side of a volcanic eruption and organise them into great blasting pieces like "Stopping The World" (it's all over within seconds) or into deep reverberating tone patterns capable of agitating less than secure structures to the point where they collapse ("To The Centre Of The Cyclone"). Impressive party tricks you'll agree. But what really makes Zone's record so exemplary is their compositional range. Some pieces take shelter under a great yawning umbrella of noise electronically expanded from a single source, while others tap nervous energies to fuel pulsing rhythm workouts. The sort of record Tarkovsky's Stalker might dance to.

The name 'Sword Of The Sun' was taken from the title of a chapter from Italo Calvino's book 'Mr.Palomar'. The particular section of writing which inspired it's use, reads:-

"When the Sun begins to go down, its reflection takes form on the sea: from the horizon all the way to the shore a dazzling patch extends composed of countless swaying glints; the sun’s reflection becomes a shining sword in the water...

Matter becomes receptive to light, is differentiated into living tissues, and all of a sudden an eye, a multitude of eyes, burgeons, reburgeons."