ZONE NULL, PHASE I - REVIEWS
Zone Null - Phase I: Taking the bass to unknown places - epic, long form electronic improv from the Berlin-based duo.
Pounding into January with the irrepressible Ruptured Records and a debut album, Phase I from a new collaborative project Zone Null, featuring bassist Tony Elieh and electronic composer/performer Burkhard Beins. Elieh has long has been a pivotal contributor to the Beirut alt rock scene having been a member of the seminal noughties band Scrambled Eggs, while Beins's focus on percussive electronic music has made him a renowned figure in the outer-sonic world. So this sound making partnership between the two artists arrives with plenty of anticipation and a tingle of curiosity.
From the first lacerating moments of Trastrizas it's clear that Zone Null's Phase 1 is a weighty proposition. This is high intensity, free form electronic improv music which evolves into an epic noise ceremonial. Beginning with grizzling fuzz bass rips, catapulting chord pulls and elemental shards of voice from third contributor, vocal artist Sarmen Almond, you wonder whether the piece will find some equilibrium. When the plunge comes you are taken into a cavern of deep bass harmonics then through a sound tunnel where pulses emerge and darker voices groan. The scenarios curdle together as Trastrizas flows on until we seem to reach air. A distant riff trundles forward with hypnotic constancy while a chink of melody rings zither-like. Almond’s extraordinary vocal imagery is key to the impact of this track, a voice of inner expression, shamanic, visceral and closing with a full soulful wail as the piece disintegrates. Having met her while they toured in Mexico, Beins and Elieh sensed the added dimension her input could bring to their Zone Null soundscape. They were right. There is something powerfully alchemic about this combination, it’s as compulsive as Dis Fig’s recent encounters with both The Body and The Bug.
From here the focus shifts slightly to the interactions between Elieh and Beins. Their premise for Zone Null was to explore the possibilities of restricted musical hardware, each using a bass guitar and electronics then connecting the elements through improvised interaction. That may sound restrictive but the soundscapes the pair create don’t lack scope, dynamic or momentum. These pieces may explore the long form but their inner tension keeps the listener locked into every twisting minute.
Of all three pieces on Phase I Anthracite settles most readily. The pulse is more prolific here, a hypnotic march, one bass line springing off the main riff to make harmonic patterns. Taking a more layered approach on this piece, Zone Null allow their sequences to intermingle. They spontaneously build a wall of sound for their distorted fretwork to gnaw at ferociously without puncturing the flow. Ingeniously even the most mundane component grabs the attention with some persistent electronic crackles carefully varied by intensity and timbre. Eventually the track’s whole progression slowly becomes compressed into a closing drone which quivers with a Lawrence English level of micro-tonal detailing.
The throbbing There Will Be Poems which concludes Phase I thrives on Burkhard Beins percussive sensibilities. It's as if a massive industrial machine is chugging into motion with a nod maybe to psychedelic seventies kosmische. When the piece pauses it almost pants for breath, enters into a less stable, disintegrating state then revives in a pressurised gush of white noise. As hypnotic industrial techno goes There will Be Poems shows no restraint until the stuttering, glitchy coda stills to a sombre bass line.
With Phase I Elieh and Beins take the bass guitar to new territories with a level of invention last heard on Farida Amadou's stunning When It Rains It Pours but as with that album there's more than ingenuity to engage you here. Zone Null's intense long form improvisations shape absorbing dramas which you can never quite unravel and that's the music's intoxicating secret.
- John Parry, Backseat Mafia -
Founded in 2008, Beirut's Ruptured label sheds light on the musical underground of the Middle East and North Africa. Its first two releases of 2026 offer thrillingly unique glimpses into this rich musical landscape, with Mi3raj and Zone Null presenting works of heart-bruising spoken word, and pulsating sprawls of bass and electronics respectively. Mi3raj's Callings Of The Owed features contemporary poetry by Cairo based Mohamed Tarek Moussa, accompanied by Abdelrahman Shaat's frequently uncanny and off-kilter production. Shaat's skulking and shadowy production renders the pieces universal - ghostly tales of displacement and unease that transcend language. At times, Moussa's vocals sound stretched to breaking point, even as the accompanying track rattles along below, a persistent and uncaring presence when stacked against a desperate vocal.
Zone Null present a more immediate and abstract proposition with Phase I. Led by the bass and electronics of Burkhard Beins from Germany and Tony Elieh from Lebanon, their sparse music arrives in squiggles and rough
sketches of melody. Three tracks skitter and skate along with a pulsating heartbeat at the centre of each. Trastrizas feels like a forward draft of motion which is only fully processed in its final moments, when the traditional music stops and yet we hear its rhythmical wheels spin in the melody's absence. Sometimes hyperventilating vocals spur the piece along. For the most part, it's a frantic rush that Zone Null conjure, rather than Mi3raj's unease.
The music also occasionally buzzes, as in the first few minutes of Anthracite. Moving slowly, each chord change lends the piece further weight. As the track unfolds, it becomes a much more recognisable creature, albeit a lumbering and slow-moving one, and by the time we arrive at final track There Will Be Poems the constantly shifting tides of static and bass stings feel oddly familiar.
Ruptured's work becomes more vital every day in 2026, but it's a disservice to the unique voices of these artists to recommend a listen for that reason alone. Listen instead because you won't find anything else like it.
- Rosie Esther Solomon, The Wire -
Phase I ist nach zwei Appetizern der Startschuss von ZONE NULL: Burkhard Beins und Tony Elieh, sein Partner auch in Marmalsana und bei 'Machine Learning', angedockt an Sawt Out (→BA 117). Beide an Bassgitarren & Electronics haben sich mit 'Transformation' schon vorgestellt auf 'eight duos' (→BA 126). Angesagt sind eisendrahtig touchierte, verzwirbelte und surrend verzerrte Klänge, mit dem Bass als Tablebass und jeder Menge Effekten. Dazu und zu Krimskramsgeräuschen stößt die mexikanische Vokalalchemistin Sarmen Almond mit dadaistisch verhackstückten, bibbernden, hechelnden, dämonischen Lauten und heulendem Sang gleich bei 'Trastrizas', das nach zehn seiner 19 Min. krabbelig und mit gleißender Kontur in Bewegung kommt. Mit dunklem Tritt und getupften, gezupften Akkorden setzt 'Anthracite' ein, beides repetitiv. Links bebend und mit hell-dunklem, Wellen werfendem und pfeifendem Saum, rechts als stoische, tickernd übertönte Tonfolge. Nach der Hälfte der 23 Min. ergibt sich eine Art dröhnender Einklang der Spuren, rechts aber mit harfigen Schraffuren und dunkel brummend, links als sausendes, helldunkel schwankendes Beben. Rechts kommt dann ein wieder repetitiv gezupftes und immer bassigeres Motiv hinzu, links ein Klappern und Oszillieren. 'There Will Be Poems' hebt mit pumpendem Loop und platzenden Tropfen an, als schneller, drahtig und tickend beklopfter, sirrsurrend umschweifter Dampflokgroove. Immer weitere kleine Tropflaut- und Streifenmuster akzentuieren den Tausch von Blut gegen Poesie. Dessen hastiger Drive klart metallisch auf, gerät aber zu rauen Impulsen rhythmisch ins Stottern und frisst sich fest. Danach fegt fauchender Wind allen Noise wie Spreu hinweg, und sonore Basszweiklänge sowie monotone Basstupfen sind King.
- Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy -