Zs

Northern Spy Records

Zs was founded in 2000 and has existed as a trio, sextet, and quartet, now solidifying into the trio formation of Sam Hillmer, Patrick Higgins, and Greg Fox. While our music has been known variously as no-wave, brutal-prog, and post-minimalist, Zs is primarily concerned with making music that challenges the physical and mental limitations of both performer and listener. Manipulating extended technique, unique instrumental synthesis, and near telepathic communication, Zs aims to create works that envelop the listener and unfold sonically over time, evoking unspoken past, present, and future rites and ritual.

Sam Hillmer (tenor sax), Patrick Higgins (guitar), Greg Fox (percussion)

Press Quotes

“(ZS) …creates conceptual art objects that set form and content against each other – like, say, a perfect birthday cake made out of sawdust, or a perfect hammer made of bird feathers.”  - New York Times

“Zs is a band; it’s also a perpetual itch, an index of unease around the restrictions of genre in New York experimental music.”
- Ben Ratliff, New York Times

“One of the strongest avant-garde bands in New York.”
- Ben Sisario, New York Times

“Zs play meticulous, exacting music in which no note sounds accidental or hastily arranged. It’s a fact worth keeping in mind as they also seem compelled to scramble everything that ‘meticulous’ and ‘exacting’ might mean.”
-Wall Street Journal

“acclaimed New York avant-chamber ensemble Zs [creates] pioneering experimental work…”
-The New Yorker

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