ART ZOYD STUDIOS, THE ORIGINS

Founded in 1969, Art Zoyd started out as a progressive rock band, influenced by the music of Beefheart, Zappa and others. This first group, founded by poly-instrumentalist Rocco Fernandez, recorded their first (and only) 45t, Sangria, on Chant du Monde-Opaline Records. With the arrival of Gérard Hourbette and Thierry Zaboïtzeff in 1971, Art Zoyd took a new direction. In 1975, after the departure of the founder, they took over the destiny of the group and radically changed its direction, charting new paths. Henceforth, no more drums or guitar, but a four-piece ensemble: 2 violins, bass, trumpet, which would form the basis of the group for several years.

Art Zoyd toured with the group Magma (1976), then joined the international collective founded by drummer Chris Cutler: Rock in Opposition with Fred Frith, Art Bears, Univers Zero, Stormy Six, Etron Fou Leloublan, Zamlas Mammas Manna... From 1980 to 1984, Art Zoyd toured all over Europe and became a leading figure in "new music" (or "Art Rock" or "Avant-Rock"...).

COMBINING MUSIC AND VISUAL ART
In 1983, choreographer Roland Petit spotted them at a televised concert and commissioned them to create a full-length ballet: The Marriage of Heaven and Hellpremiered at the La Scala Festival in Milan. With Art Zoyd on stage, the ballet was revived for thirty performances in France, including twelve at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris.

It's a revelation that this music, so radical in its developments and choices, can appeal to heterogeneous crowds unaccustomed to dissonant harmonies and rhythmic shocks of a new kind, mixing amplified instruments, electric instruments, tapes, vocals...

From now on, the desire is to combine music and visual art. An alliance of music with living art such as dance or theater, or with images such as silent cinema or video. Art Zoyd created film scores such as Nosferatu (1988) and Faust (Rome - 1993) and Benjamin Christensen's Häxan (Queen Elisabeth Hall - London 1995). The success is astonishing. Nosferatu is still performed, more than fifteen years after its premiere, as are Häxan and Faust until 2001 and 2003.

The ensemble tours Europe extensively, as well as the USA (Lincoln Center Festival, New York), Hong Kong, Australia (Adelaide Festival), Japan (1997 and 2002) and Mexico (1996, 1999 and 2003).
Art Zoyd continues to be called upon for various events - including the inauguration of Stockholm's Globe Arena - and also produces incidental music.

AT THE CROSSROADS OF NEW ARTISTIC ENERGIES
In 1997, following the departure of Thierry Zaboïtzeff, Art Zoyd embarked on an important new phase in the group's development.
Art Zoyd opened its studios to outside creators and composers, and joined forces for three years with the Orchestre National de Lille to launch the Dangereuses Visions project, combining symphony orchestra, musical technology and images. Luc Ferrari, Gérard Pape, Thierry de Mey, Heiner Goebbels, Pierre Vasseur, Helmut Oehring, Christophe Maudot, Eric Sleichim, Granular Synthesis, Gérard Hourbette, for the music and Granular Synthesis, dumb type, Michael Saup, Lydie Jean-Dit-Pannel, Hagen Klennert, Geert Mul, Safy for the images, take part in these "adventures" of a new kind. Over 20,000 spectators attend these concerts (Lille, Créteil, Maubeuge, St Pölten, Mexico).
From 2000 onwards, Art Zoyd continues the enterprise and joins forces with the Belgian Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles for a new long-term project entitled Expériences de Vol, in order to found a Transfrontalier Centre de Production et Création Musicales, welcoming composers and artists in residence. The pieces (27 creations to date) are created on stage, then recorded in the studio by musicians from Art Zoyd and Musiques Nouvelles (2 triple Cds). This center extends the studio's activities to production, including support for multiple projects (creative assistance, composition competitions, training, internships, projects with amateurs, etc.).

In 2001, Art Zoyd created and recorded Metropolis, based on Fritz Lang's film, for the new, fully restored version. Metropolis is a kind of "meta-music" resulting from the superimposition of music by several composers: Gérard Hourbette, Patricia Dallio and Kasper T. Tœplitz, who joins the group as associate composer.

That same year, Gérard Hourbette also composed music for Karole Armitage's choreography Le Chat de Schrödinger for the Ballet National de Nancy. Art Zoyd is now focusing more and more on research, in particular into lutheries and interfaces (sensors, theremin, real-time...), involving composer Kasper T. Tœplitz in this research as well as various assistants and developers linked or not to other studios and institutes. Art Zoyd created for Lille 2004 European Capital of Culture, Armageddonthe first operetta for robots, with roboticist Louis-Philippe Demers and Musiques Nouvelles. In 2006, a project with a video creation by Dominik Barbier was born, Le Champ des Larmes. This work, an electronic oratorio, features music by Kasper T.Tœplitz and Gérard Hourbette.

In 2007, Art Zoyd created Eyecatcher - The Man with the Cameraa dramatic fantasy about ancient modernity, combining Cécile Babiole's computer-generated images with Vertov's silent films, and the instruments of today and yesteryear: Theremin, Ondes Martenot, Stroh violin (Music by Gérard Hourbette, André Serre-Milan, Laurent Dailleau and Jérôme Soudan).

In 2008 Art Zoyd created The Fall of the House of Usher based on the film by Jean Epstein, at the Musée du Louvre in Paris (music by Gérard Hourbette, Kasper T.Tœplitz, Patricia Dallio and Didier Casamitjana).
Then Kaïro, a spoken opera based on Kiyoshi Kurosawa in 2009, from which Les Particules noires will be extracted in 2010 (music by Gérard Hourbette).
2011 will see the creation of À demi endormi déjà, a musical tale for young audiences based on a text by Célia Houdart and drawings by François Olislaeger (music by Gérard Hourbette and Sébastien Roux) and "Les Rives du futur", a pyrotechnic concert with Groupe F (music by Gérard Hourbette and Jérôme Soudan).
In 2013, Trois Rêves non valides, a multimedia show with three digital scenographies by Serge Meyer, Christian Châtel and Pierrick Sorin, based on the universe of Philip K. Dick.
In 2014, Vampyr, ciné concert based on Dreyer's film, (Music by Gérard Hourbette).
In 2016, Art Zoyd celebrates its 44 1/2 a project by Gérard Hourbette and Thierry Zaboitzeff, at the Festival RIO and the Phénix Scène Nationale, and creates the ciné concert Hôtel électrique/ Voyage dans la lune, before resuming its prospective activities and creations: Near Death Experience, first project in the Immersion Dante collection, (music by Gérard Hourbette, virtual spaces by Laura Mannelli) before starting production of an immersive show on the same theme, Inferno around Dante's Divine Comedy.