Zentone

Zentone is the meeting of two major formations from the French independent scene, Zenzile and High Tone, who joined forces in the mid‑2000s for a collaborative project conceived as a collective exploration of their working methods, artistic affinities and approach to creation. The idea grew from a shared desire to break down the barriers between their respective approaches — each emerging from a long trajectory that began in the 1990s — and to create a common space where the two groups could build, deconstruct and reassemble ideas in real time. The first volume of the project, recorded in 2006, takes the form of a work halfway between an open session and a laboratory, in which each formation contributes its own way of structuring, improvising and developing motifs. The second volume, released in 2021, rests on the same principle of layered construction, with a constant dialogue between the two entities that pick up the thread where it was left fifteen years earlier. Zentone thus stands as a parallel chapter in the histories of Zenzile and High Tone — an experimental terrain that accompanies each group’s evolution while retaining the project’s original spirit: a collaboration based on the circulation of ideas, collective studio work and the intention to let a form emerge that belongs neither entirely to one nor entirely to the other. Across these two volumes, recorded at different times but driven by the same approach, Zentone documents the encounter of two trajectories that intersect, respond to one another and continue to sustain a rare artistic dialogue within the French scene.