Hector Zazou: 1948-2008

The world lost one of its most renowned producer/arranger/composers when Hector Zazou died Monday morning after falling ill earlier this year. He was 60.

Zazou was born Pierre Job in Algeria and took his new surname from a post-war French subculture. Open to a wide variety of musical traditions, Zazou did avant-garde work with classical, electronic, pop, rock and folk, collaborating with a host of other talented musicians, including Björk, Nico, Laurie Anderson, Peter Gabriel, Peter Buck and John Cale.

Once quoted as asking "If music cannot change the world, what use does it have?" Zazou's output reflected his grandiose hopes. He put out over 20 albums in his lifetime, scored Carl Théodor Dreyer's silent film La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc and released Corps électriques just this January. In The House Of Mirrors, a project with musicians from India and Uzbekistan, comes out this month.

Said French journalist Jean-François Bizot, "in England they have Peter Gabriel, in America they have David Byrne and in France we have Hector Zazou."

Related links:
Hector Zazou on MySpace
YouTube: Hector Zazou & Björk - "Vísur Vatnsenda Rósu"
Sound on Sound: Hector Zazou - Sounds from the Cold Seas

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