Zodiac (band)

Zodiac (Zodiak, Russian: Зодиа́к, Latvian: Zodiaks) was an disco/synthpop group that existed in the 1980s in Latvia, then a part of USSR. The band was extremely popular in the USSR and has been credited by critics as the Soviet answer to the French band Space who were popular at the time.

Biography

Zodiac was formed by Jānis Lūsēns, then studying composition at the Latvian State Conservatory in Riga. The other four members of the group were also students of various faculties of the same conservatory.

Zodiac's first vinyl record "Disco Alliance" (Russian: Диско альянс, Latvian: Disko alianse) was released in 1980 on the monipolist Melodiya label, during the band members' studentship. A significant part of the group's success was that the album was produced by Aleksandrs Grīva, one of the best sound engineers of the country,Who|date=May 2008 also the father of band member Zane Grīva. The music featured a lot of then-unusual synthesized sounds and effects together with more conventional disco elements while in whole remaining very melodic, atmospheric and easy to understand.

The second album "Music in the Universe" ( _ru. Музыка во Вселенной) released two years later was much inspired by a meeting with cosmonauts in the Star City, Moscow and their tales about space flights. The music of the album featured many rock tones and parts, became even more atmospheric and somewhat less conventional.

During that time the band also performed the music of Viktor Vlasov for the films "Zhenskiye radosti i pechali" ("Woman's Joys and Sorrows", 1982) and "Ekipazh mashiny boevoy" ("The Tank Crew", 1983), the soundtracks for the both films were released on a vinyl record "Music from the Films" ( _ru. Музыка из кинофильмов) in 1985. The music of the group was also used in the documentary film about the cosmonaut artist Aleksei Leonov "Zvyozdnaya palitra" ("Star Palette", 1982).

The last album "In memoriam" was composed and produced by Jānis Lūsēns alone and released in 1989. The album was dedicated to the ancient and modern cultural and natural heritage of Latvia. The sounding of the album turned from disco to light techno/synth pop while gaining a lot of fine classical music features that gave it a very unusual Baroque/Romantic taste, together with some ambient influences of Jean Michel Jarre.

"Disco Alliance" and "Music in the Universe" were released together on compact disc by Mikrofona Ieraksti (which represents EMI in the Baltic states).

In early 2000s russian electronic duo PPK recorded a remix of Zodiac's composition "Zodiac" from Disco Alliance album. This remix, titled "Reload", entered the charts in a number of territories. Fact|date=May 2008

Discography

All the albums are equally known under their Russian and English titles and had both spellings on their original covers.

* "Disco Alliance"/"Диско альянс" (1980)
* "Музыка во Вселенной"/"Music in the Universe" (1982)
* "Music from the Films"/"Музыка из кинофильмов" (1985)
* "In memoriam" (1989)

Line-up

Since the group rarely performed live every new album had a new line-up except the producer Jānis Lūsēns.

"Disco Alliance":
* Jānis Lūsēns - ARP Omni, ARP Odyssey, celesta, production
* Zane Grīva - piano, ARP Omni, vocals
* Andris Sīlis - guitar
* Ainārs Ašmanis - bass guitar
* Andris Reinis - drums
* Aleksander Grīva - production

"Music in the Universe":
* Jānis Lūsēns - piano, Yamaha SK-50D, production
* Aivars Gudrais - guitar on tracks 2-4, 6
* Dzintars Sāgens - guitar on tracks 1, 5, 7
* Ivars Piļka - bass guitar
* Andris Reinis - drums
* Aleksander Grīva - production

The line-up on "Music from the Films" is unknown, the original CD cover has only the following info:

* Viktor Vlasov - composition
* Aleksander Grīva - producing, sound engineering

"In memoriam":
* Jānis Lūsēns - synthesizers, piano, production
* Zigfrīds Muktupāvels - vocals, DDD-1, violin
* Dzintars Sāgens - computer, guitar
* Guntis Zvirgzdiņš - synthesizer
* Maija Lūsēna - vocals on track 4
* Normunds Šnē - oboe on track 3
* Aivars Gudrais - guitar on track 5
* Ivars Piļka - sound engineering

External links

* [http://www.myspace.com/zodiacdiscoalliance ZODIAC tribute MySpace profile]
* [http://zodiac80.narod.ru The Zodiac fan site (in Russian)]
* [http://www.popsa.info/bio/008/008b.html An article about Zodiac (in Russian)]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085481 Ekipazh mashiny boevoy at IMDB]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252111 Zhenskiye radosti i pechali at IMDB]
* [http://pesniretro.com/zodiak Photographyes and singles "Zodiak"]