:zoviet*france: formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1980 around Ben Ponton, Peter Jensen and Robin Storey, closer to an artists’ collective than a band, its members sharing a house in the city’s West End. The first cassette, Garista, appeared the same year. The work sits across industrial, ambient, drone, noise and musique concrète, and through the eighties moved towards a dark psychedelic drone drawing on folk music from the global south.
They built many of their own instruments, and the sleeves came wrapped in roofing felt, tin foil and tarpaper. Robin Storey left in 1992 and has recorded as Rapoon since, who played the 2026 edition of this festival.
