ABOUT
Indianapolis-based Zach Frizzell is the man behind the prolific zakè project, whose warm drones and analog textures have yielded dozens of albums – both solo and collaborative – across a broad spectrum of atmospheres and tonalities. He is also the founder of Past Inside the Present, a renowned record label and artistic collective “in search of the world’s most inventive and engaging quiet music”, as well as its sister imprints, Zakè Drone Recordings and Healing Sound Propagandist.
From the sweeping, melancholy resonances of his Orchestral Tape Studies series, to the slow swells that typify his work with kindred souls like marine eyes, City of Dawn, and Tyresta, Frizzell creates a distinct sonic environment with every effort, unifying them with a balance of classical training and adventurous experimentation.
Among his catalog, there are striking contrasts: Remembrance (2022) is unique for its brevity and sunrise gentleness, while Veta (2024) patiently unfolds with the ominous loom of an approaching squall, and the travelog Carolina (2021) nests its open-sky drift in a set of evocative, naturalistic field recordings. These variations highlight the influence of intuition on his compositional process, as each mood is established by the careful addition and subtraction of layers to achieve an organic flow.
When forging musical alliances, Frizzell consistently unveils different dimensions of the zakè universe, bringing his artillery of analog synths and tape manipulations to new sonic territories. His list of partnerships is a who’s-who of modern ambient, including ASC, Benoit Pioulard, bvdub, Lucy Gooch, James Bernard, Drum & Lace, Markus Guentner, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Chihei Hatakeyama, Jonas Munk, and many more. He views each record as a means of processing lived experience, and as a marker of time; this is perhaps best exemplified by Silentium (2024), an anthology of 21 collaborative pieces created during a protracted period of r
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