Dead Voices on Air

by Jason AnkenyDead Voices on Air was the improvisational panambient project of Mark Spybey, a former member of the pioneering industrial group Zoviet France. A mental health care therapist by day, Spybey began working as DVOA in 1992 in the wake of relocating from his native Britain to Canada; employing processed sounds generated by primitive instruments and childrens toys and eschewing the standard sequencers and samplers, he began sculpting experimental soundscapes, debuting in 1993 with the cassette-only Abrader. Upon signing with the Invisible label, Dead Voices on Air resurfaced in 1994 with Hafted Maul, followed a year later by New Words Machine. Over the next two years, he issued no less than four new LPs — SHAP, How Hollow Heart, Fire in the Bronx Zoo and Spybey:Theriault, a collaboration with French-Canadian composer Jean-Yves Theriault. The double-disc Piss Frond followed in 1998. Two years later, Frankie Pett Presents .. The Happy Submarines was released.