Hector Zazou has died

[Equipoise]

I know his name won’t mean anything to a majority of people, but please please PLEASE don’t post with a “Hector Who?” or make any snarky comments. I’m crushed and am just passing this along to those who do know and appreciate the loss the music world has just suffered.

As for who he is…

French composer and renowned world music producer Hector Zazou died this morning in a French hospital. He had fallen seriously ill earlier this year and had to cancel several performances during the summer. zazou was 60 years old.

zazou was a legendary figure in contemporary French music. He was born in Algeria, the son of a French father and a Spanish mother. zazou was an open minded musician who was comfortable working with classical, ambient electronic, pop, and world music. Some of the musicians he collaborated with include Björk, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson, John Hassell, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carlos Núñez, Khaled, Lisa Gerrard, John Cale, Siouxsie, Bill Rieflin, Manu Dibango, David Sylvian, Suzanne Vega, Peter Buck, Jane Birkin, and Lisa Germano.

The album “Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Corses” (1991) blended century-old a-cappella songs with shades of contemporary music performed by zazou and occasional collaborators such as Jon Hassell, Manu Di Bango, Richard Horowitz, Ryuichi Sakamoto and John Cale.

The following year Hector’s “Sahara Blue” was released. The album was based on the work of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud and performed by the Sahara Blue Orchestra stars David Sylvian, Bill Laswell, Khaled, Dead Can Dance, Gérard Depardieu among other guests.

Inspired by the musical folk traditions of the Northern Hemisphere, Hector’s next adventure was “Songs From The Cold Seas” (1995), a literal journey through Siberian Shamanism, Scandinavian folk songs, Japanese ballads and Greenland mythology featuring an impressive cast of musicians including Värttina, Tokiko Kako, Suzanne Vega, Björk, Siouxsie and Jane Siberry.

…

Hector zazou’s inventiveness as a producer led him to work with numerous artists among them Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo (Real World Records), Galician piper Carlos Nuñez, Uzbek singer Sevara Nazarkhan (Yol Bolsin, Real World Records), Italian band PGR (“Per Grazia Ricevuta”, released by Universal, was hailed as a masterpiece by the Italian press) and among others.

I first discovered him via the wonderful Sahara Blue, and Songs From The Cold Seas is one of my favorite albums. Since he worked so often with female singers, I played him on my radio show numerous times.

I can’t find most of my favorite songs by him, but this is one (MySpace video link, it opens full-screen but you can downsize it). This is the type of song that DEMANDS to be cranked to the very limit of non-distorted volume. I think it’s one of the coolest songs ever ever EVER!:
“I’ll Strangle You” - vocals: Anneli Drecker (of Bel Canto) (Male voice: Gérard Depardieu) (slightly NSFW because of a dancing bare butt)

Others (not favorites, though I like them):

“Mmmh” - vocals: Melanie Gabriel
“Double Jeu” - vocals: Asia Argento (NSFW! Nude pics of Brigitte Bardot)
“Vísur Vatnsenda Rósu” - vocals: Björk

“IS” - vocals: KatieJane Garside

“Surrender” - vocals: Nikola Hitchcock

“Seven Joys of Mary” - vocals: Katie McMahon

“True Love” - vocals: Barbara Gogan
I was lucky enough to meet Zazou when he supported a group he was friends with called Lanterna (founded by Henry Frayne, who also founded Area with Lynne Canfield, and also Moon Seven Times). As a huge Area, Moon Seven Times, Lanterna AND Hector Zazou fan, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Strangely, Lanterna was booked at a place called Abbey Pub here in Chicago, but they weren’t put in the big room, they were forced to play in the restaurant(!!), so here you had this experimental group, supported by an absolute legend of world music/producing, playing spacey, atmospheric, instrumental music while people were munching on their All-You-Can-Eat Fish & Chips special! It was all very very surreal. Here are some of the pictures I took. Zazou is at the far left in some of the photos, “playing” his Mac.

Sigh. RIP Hector, RIP.
And Hector, why’d you have to die before working with Happy? I just knew you were going to.

[Equipoise]

A few links I meant to add above but got distracted and forgot.

Hector Zazou Wikipedia page

Hector Zazou MySpace page
Hector Zazou web site

Nice (1995) article in Sound On Sound

[FlyingRat]

Songs from the Cold Seas is my only familiarity with Zazou, but what a great album. I first heard tracks from it on the Hearts of Space radio program, and went out and bought it soon after.

Yakut Song (with Lioudmila Khandi; you can hear it in the background of the linked video) is excellent, but it was Oran na Maighdean Mara (with Catherine-Ann MacPhee; sadly, no link) that absolutely poleaxed me. I visited my in-laws in Alaska in winter shortly after that, and there is nothing that better captures the feel of the icy sea and the lowering dusk.

RIP, Hector.

[gaffa]

Damn. He will be missed.

Thanks for the links to articles. I’ll use them as references for the Wikipedia article.

[FlyingRat]

Sorry, I got the URL wrong for Hearts of Space above (the link I posted leads to some New-Agey religious site, not that there’s anything wrong with that!)

The correct link: Hearts of Space

[lissener]

Will definitely be missed; I was just thinking the other day we needed a new Zazou album.