SPKR/Artists/ZuArtikel

Zu - Ferrum Sidereum ab 12,99 €

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:50:11 +0200

Das italienische Jazz Metal Trio ZU legt mit "Ferrum Sidereum" ein instrumentales Doppelalbum vor, das fest in ihrer Tradition steht, Genres gemäß ihren musikalischen Absichten frei zu kombinieren. Ihre Musik verbindet die Komplexität des Progressive Rock, die Rauheit des Industrial und die Präzision des Metal mit der Energie des Punk und der Intelligenz des Jazz. Das Ergebnis ist eine klangliche Reise, die ebenso intellektuell wie instinktiv ist, die sich damit jeder einfachen Kategorisierung entzieht und dennoch unverkennbar ZU bleibt. "Ferrum Sidereum", was aus dem Lateinischen übersetzt "Sterneneisen" bedeutet, bezieht sich auf meteorisches Eisen, das in der Antike eine tiefe spirituelle Bedeutung hatte und in speziellen Artefakten wie ägyptischen Ritualgegenständen enthalten ist – mit dem Meteoriteneisendolch des Tutanchamun als bekanntestem Beispiel oder in einigen tibetischen dreiflügeligen "Phurpa"-Klingen. Das Eisen von den Sternen bildet die elementare Grundlage für ZUs andersweltliche Erzählung auf diesem Album. Das Trio verbrachte über ein Jahr damit, dieses 80-minütige Epos durch unermüdliche Proben und Live-Studioaufnahmen in Bologna zu verfeinern. Es stellte sich bald heraus, dass die Tracks episch sein müssen und Raum zum Atmen brauchen, um sich nicht an die heutigen, von Algorithmen gesteuerten Normen anzupassen. Das letzte Teilchen dieses musikalischen Puzzles fügte sich ein, als der dreifache Grammy-Gewinner und Toningenieur Marc Urselli über einen gemeinsamen Freund großes Interesse daran bekundete, das nächste Album von ZU zu produzieren. Dies stieß bei der Band sofort auf Gegenliebe. Die Italiener hatten zwar nie zuvor mit einem Produzenten gearbeitet, aber bereits erkannte, dass sie bei der Erschaffung eines 80-minütigen Albums kompetente Unterstützung sehr gut brauchen konnten. Die Band und der Produzent schufen ein Gleichgewicht zwischen roher Intensität und raffinierten Verfeinerungen der Produktion sowie passende Texturen. Das Ergebnis ist ein zeitgemäßer, reichhaltiger und immersiver Sound, der "Ferrum Sidereum" auszeichnet. ZU wurden 1999 gegründet und veröffentlichten noch im selben Jahr ihr Debütalbum "Bromio". Ihre Zusammenarbeit mit dem legendären FAITH NO MORE und MR. BUNGLE Frontmann Mike Patton auf ihrem 2009er Album "Carboniferous" hatte eine große Wirkung auf den Bekanntheitsgrad der Italiener. Durch einen spontanen und organischen kreativen Prozess haben ZU erneut einen frischen und innovativen Sound geschaffen, der viele Facetten des musikalischen Erbes des italienischen Trios nahtlos miteinander verbindet und sich dabei bei den Genres Progressive Rock, Metal und Industrial bedient. "Ferrum Sidereum" lädt geradezu dazu ein, ein faszinierendes neues musikalisches Universum zu entdecken!

Tracklist:
01. Charagma
02. Golgotha
03. Kether
04. A.I. Hive Mind
05. La Donna Vestita Di Sole
06. Pleroma
07. Fuoco Saturnio
08. The Celestial Bull and the White Lady
09. Hymn of the Pearl
10. Perseidi
11. Ferrum Sidereum

Zu - Terminalia Amazonia ab 13,99 €

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 12:26:59 +0200

¬You might see it in the stars or the root of a tree. It can be the flickering fluorescent light in the corner of a room or dew settling on a leaf in the early morning hours.

It is overwhelming, yet barely there.

Terminalia Amazonia, the new, subdued and momentous instalment of Zu, is the sound of a long, slow journey in pursuit of a moment. For the past four years the band’s members have regularly visited an undisclosed indigenous village on the Ucayali River close to the border between Peru and Brazil. They’ve immersed themselves in the local Shipibo-Conibo culture’s ancient knowledge, teachings and rituals, some of which stretch back millennia.

“What you hear on Terminalia Amazonia is the integration of worlds: the ancient shamanic songs of the Shipibo-Conibo tradition and our own search for sound and frequencies,” says Massimo Pupillo. The heart of the Shipibo-Conibo culture is rooted in their spiritual, physical, and cultural relationship to the Amazonian rainforest, and Zu’s work started as a series of nightly field recordings of the culture’s ceremonial healing songs, known as Icaros.

Five minutes into this 72-minute album, the listener will sense, intuitively, where it is coming from. Its tone and pace are those of human breath, vital, vulnerable, slowly revealing a lush, humid space that is sacred to the few who have journeyed there.
Playing only vintage analogue synthesizers (EMS Synthi, OSCar, Roland System-100M, ARP 2600, Octave-Plateau Voyetra-8), Zu project dense, spectral layers of sound through damp rainforest atmosphere, weaving through sheltered gulleys and out into open glades, mottled with streaks of scattered light. Spontaneous and elaborate, grounded and transformative, the sound conveys its shamanic intent, so immersing the listeners in the present moment that their surroundings will melt away.

“In the Amazonian tradition nature and man are not separated,” Pupillo says when describing the ceremonies they attended. “The Shipibo medicine men address the Noya Rao, a master plant. It is a tree considered a true teacher, and they sing their devotional songs to the powers of this and other plants, of the earth and of the stars. For them, the chants create a connection with a world beyond the visible one, a world of spirits.”

As I listen, I can’t help but to think of the threats that the Shipibo and their ancestral territories are now facing: the extensive fields of ash and cinders, eating their way into the green-leafed world. The advancing deforestation, oil spills and contamination of their rivers and waterways.

The Inca Empire never conquered the Shipibo and they resisted colonization by the Spanish priests who appeared in the rainforest over four centuries ago. But the forces of global economy have left the villages on the Ucayali River more vulnerable than ever before. In this, Terminalia Amazonia hides a secret sadness.

Still, Pupillo emphasizes that this is not an anthropological, ethnographical, or even a political project. First and foremost, Terminalia Amazonia presents a personal story of descent and ascent, the burden of dreams and the need for new discoveries: “it contains a subjective narrative, shaped within our own Western, Mediterranean consciousness. There has been enough appropriation and exploitation of Shipibo culture by outsiders and we don't want to add to that. We don't want to wear another people's clothes. The band is Italian and our psyche is and will always be rooted in Mediterranean mythology. The descent and the way back to the surface will for us always be connected to Demeter and Persephone, the Eleusinian mysteries that shaped the form known as tragedy,” he says.

Tragos, the goat, will always be at the door.

By entering this ancient space, Zu have found a place to mourn the past and nurture the ability to welcome the change that inevitably accompanies the future. It took time for them to return, because to be lost is also to be fully present, and to be comfortable living with uncertainty and mystery. “This is music made by four people who grew up together and have stood next to each other for what is now a lifetime,” says Pupillo. “It is the result of a deeper connection, going beyond our experiences as a band. In a sense it is about survival.” Yes, perhaps that is what Terminalia Amazonia is all about.

It is overwhelming, yet barely there.

Tore Engelsen Espedal, June 2019

Zu - Jhator ab 13,99 €

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 12:27:12 +0200

Stubbornly free from genre classification, Italian trio Zu have been proud to follow their own musical pathways for some twenty years now. Throughout their highly diverse career the band has cultivated the art of collaboration, joining forces with luminaries such as Mike Patton, Damo Suzuki, Mats Gustafsson and Nobukazu Takemura. Their new album - and first on House of Mythology - is no exception, featuring guest musicians such as Jessica Moss of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Kristoffer Lo of Norwegian pop sensations Highasakite, among others.
"Jhator" is perhaps their most ethereal venture yet, and a bold new trajectory for musicians and label alike - a pensive, mind-expanding foray into abstraction and wonder, rich in cinematic ambience and transcendent, transformational power. Consisting of two extended pieces, this is a work that connects Zu to their antecedents both spiritual and musical, whilst forging forward in the manner of no-one but themselves.