Hector Zazou Dies at Age 60

A legend in contemporary French music and a composer/producer renowned for fusing elements of classical music with electronic and avant-garde, Hector Zazou (myspace) passed away yesterday of an unnamed illness he had been battling for some time.

Half French and half Spanish, Zazou was born in Algeria in 1948 and released a cacophony of albums from 1976 to 2008's Corps électriques and his upcoming release In The House of Mirrors on the label Crammed.

Zazou collaborated with the likes of Björk, Suzanne Vega, Peter Gabriel, Siouxsie Sioux, Brian Eno and Peter Buck, making use of everything from Indian slide guitar to Japanese ballads to flamenco piano to Celtic choirs and Scandanavian folk songs (source).

The music world is sorry to see him go.

By Simone Snaith