Zeus B. Held

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Zeus B. Held
Zeusbheld-studio.jpg
Background information
Birth nameBernd Held
Born (1950-08-24) 24 August 1950 (age 72)
Germany
Occupation(s) musician
Producer

Zeus B. Held is a German music producer and musician, known for his work in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He was involved with several artists of the krautrock, disco, and new wave era, such as Birth Control, Rockets, Gina X Performance, Dead Or Alive, John Foxx, Fashion, and Men Without Hats on their successful album Pop Goes the World . [1]

Contents

Besides being an experienced producer and sound creator, his musical education on piano and reed instruments made him also a well-respected arranger. Spending 6 years as keyboard player and multi-instrumentalist with the German prog-rock group "Birth Control" (6 LPs) gave him experience as a touring musician. After these years on the road he worked as producer, session musician, programmer, and engineer in German and French studios before moving to London in 1982.

Career

His production “…combines electronic Teutonic sounds with a soulful sensibility for melodic expression…”. (NME, June 1982) After writing and producing the groundbreaking album by Gina X Performance Nice Mover, (followed by three more Gina X albums), his first UK production credits were with Fashion and Dead or Alive, [2] [3] he produced Pete Wylie's Sinful album and an album by Men Without Hats for Polygram US which yielded a number one in many European countries and a US Top 20 hit with "Pop Goes The World". This was followed by two albums with Transvision Vamp on MCA with a top five single and a number one album. He produced the album Freaky Trigger (1989) by the scottish group Win. Zeus went on to write and produce two successful albums with Nina Hagen ( Nina Hagen in 1990, [4] and Street in 1991), Udo Lindenberg's Casanova , National Velvet, Spear of Destiny, and two albums with Marc Parrot.

He has produced and co-written an album with South African group Shikisha, an EP with Victoria Wilson-James, and recorded and produced an album with Hawkwind – Distant Horizons .

In 1995 he wrote and recorded the music for a worldwide advertising campaign for Swatch. His 1987 'E Reg' remix of Gary Numan's "Cars" hit the British charts again as the 'Premier Mix' in March '96.

After extended travelling round the world he produced his own two projects: No Sweat , a jazzy hip hop album with diverse guest singers and assorted samples and involving his collected samples "Inma Wiru", his Australian project under the banner of "Digital Dreaming", distributed by Warner Music. During his long stays in Australia Zeus also toured and recorded with Aboriginal Singer and Guitarist Frank Yamma and his band.

In 1999 he co-wrote Nina Hagen's single "Der Poetenclub" which also features the voice of Falco (of "Rock Me Amadeus" fame). His production and arranging skills led to intensive work on audio-visuals and soundtracks, one of which was a British film shown at the Cannes 2001 festival, Mad Dogs.

Since 2003 he has divided his time between working in his Freiburg, Germany-based studio and his London KGBeat studio and production setup. From 2005 Zeus he also worked with "Jazz & Rock Schulen Freiburg", where he created and realised the 3-year project "EuroPop", which was a musician's networking, events (EuroPop Festival in Neuf-Brisach) and education program founded by the European Union. His musical ventures saw Zeus writing for and playing with big bands and orchestras.

The 2011 retrospective album, Voice-Versa, is a compilation of compositions involving the usage of a Sennheiser vocoder which Zeus acquired in 1978, featuring solo material as well as edited tracks by Gina X Performance and Rockets. The release of his remixed and remastered Australian album Dream2Machine on the Broome-based label Desert Ocean Productions in late 2013 also marks Zeus' continual creative collaboration with Jim Lampi and his multimedia approach to music and the arts.

His solo adventure Logic of Coincidence, released June 2015 on Les Disques du Crepuscule, is an album of electronic music which features US cult author Luke Rhinehart's voice and readings on two tracks. A remix of one album track by "Dream Control" marks the start of Zeus' collaboration with former Tangerine Dream member Steve Schroyder. In August 2017 Dream Control's first album entitled "Zeitgeber" is released on Planetware Records. In October a special edited vinyl version of this album was released on U.S. label Medical Records.

Currently Dream Control is working on a film project which should be released in early 2021. In 2019 Zeus teamed up with Krautrocklegend and Guru Guru band leader Mani Neumeier to record an album of adventurous tracks under the name of Mani & Zeus "The Secret Lives". Released on Düsseldorf label Bellerophon Records in September 2020 it had some great response by the media. In October 2020 Zeus was awarded with the City of Cologne's Holger Czukay Prize in “appreciation of life's work” for his writing and production work with "Gina X Performance".

Discography

Albums

Singles

Remixes and additional productions

Music for audio-visuals and campaigns

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References

  1. ↑ Barclay, Michael; Jack, Ian & Schneider, Jason (2011) Have Not Been the Same, ECW Press, ISBN   978-1550229929
  2. ↑ "Top Single Picks", Billboard , 21 August 1982, p. 67. Retrieved 20 August 2014
  3. ↑ Chin, Brian (1985) "DanceTrax", Billboard , 23 March 1985, p. 57. Retrieved 20 August 2014
  4. ↑ Hardy, Phil (1995) The Da Capo Companion to 20th-century Popular Music, Da Capo Press, ISBN   978-0306806407, p. 111
  5. ↑ "Zeus – Europium", Contemporary Keyboard, GPI Publications, 1980, vol. 6, p. 86
  6. ↑ Barr, Tim (2013) Kraftwerk: from Dusseldorf to the Future With Love, Ebury Press
  7. ↑ Clarke, Donald (1998) The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Penguin Books, p.344
  8. ↑ Middles, Mick & Smith, Mark E. (2008) The Fall, Omnibus Press, ISBN   978-1847724168

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