Dead Zone (album)

Dead Zone
Studio album by Merzbow
Released	August 20, 2011 (2011-08-20)
Recorded	March 12, 2011 (2011-03-12) at Munemihouse
Genre	Noise
Length	67:50
Label	Quasi Pop
Producer	Masami Akita
Merzbow chronology
Yaho-Niwa (2011) Dead Zone (2011) Surabhi (2011)

Dead Zone is an album by the Japanese noise musician Merzbow. The album was released in an eco-pack and is limited to 500 copies.

According to Masami Akita, this album was originally called Flax, inspired by its used in a vegetarian diet. But, while the album was in recording stages, the 2011 Japanese Earthquake struck and the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents just after that. It then came to Akita's attention that it was going to be the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the theme of the album was changed to nuclear accidents and the connections between Fukushima and Chernobyl.^[1] The CD is dedicated to the worldwide anti-nuclear movement.^[2]

The album photos were taken at Prypiat, located in the Chernobyl dead zone.

I was in Chernobyl zone with 2 my friend who were doing fotos. It wasn't really easy to get everywhere in 10 km restricted zone , so we were traveling on military car with 2 guards, very limited in time. The lost city Pripiat' is most intersting place, but it on 99% already occupied by wild trees, almost impossible to get exess deeper in the city without special wear/gear. Most of the houses already broken and there's a constant danger for 5 or 9-floor buildings to be fallen soon. Anyway, we did some fotos in Pripiat & Chernobyl.

— Edward Sol^[3]

Track Listing

All music composed by Masami Akita.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Blade of Oblivion"	29:47
2.	"The Spirit Indulges in the Sadness"	15:51
3.	"The Wandering Light"	12:51
4.	"China Glass"	9:23

Notes

Mixed at Munemihouse on March 12, 2011, the day of the first explosion of Fukushima Nuclear power plant (reactor building 1).

Personnel

• Masami Akita – performer
• Ira Solomykina – photography
• Pavel Shevchuk – photography
• Alexander Khaverchuk – photography

References

1. ^ Batty, Roger. "Calm Before the Storm". Musique Machine. http://musiquemachine.com/articles/articles_template.php?id=229. Retrieved May 26, 2011. 
2. ^ Dead Zone information on Discogs
3. ^ Dead Zone on the Merzbow blog