Zoos of Berlin

Detroit's Zoos of Berlin play intelligent, streamlined pop music with elements of indie rock, electronic, and Krautrock audible among their many influences. Since debuting in the late 2000s, the band has crafted an artful catalog of music that is seemingly untethered to time and place. Highlights like 2013's Lucifer in the Rain and 2016 Instant Evening helped expand their audience even as the group continued to foster an identity cloaked in mystique. Zoos of Berlin began the next decade with 2021's Here and There Fading and Riding, their fourth full-length. Zoos of Berlin was formed in 2005 by guitarist and vocalist Trevor Naud and bassist and vocalist Daniel E. Clark; both are veterans of the Detroit music scene, having played together in the upbeat pop combo Red Shirt Brigade, while Naud has also worked with Pas/Cal and Hidden Ghost Balloon Ship. Eager to step out on their own, Naud and Clark teamed up with drummer Collin Dupuis, a musician and recording engineer who has worked with techno legend Carl Craig and records his own experimental music as DJ Indoor Fishing, and soon Zoos of Berlin were up and running. During the group's first few years, additional musicians drifted in and out of the lineup, but with the addition of Will Yates (of the Pop Project and the Javelins) on keyboards, Zoos of Berlin discovered the right formula and began making a name for themselves with their tight but enthusiastic live performances. The group recorded their debut album in a makeshift recording facility set up by Dupuis at Detroit's Russell Industrial Center, and the recordings were later mixed at Carl Craig's studio. Self-released in 2009, Taxis, earned Zoos of Berlin enthusiastic reviews in the Detroit press as well as the national indie music media, winning the group some well-deserved exposure outside their hometown. The Pallister Chant EP arrived in 2011, followed in 2013 by the group's second long-player, the Time No Place-issued Lucifer in the Rain. Meanwhile, the band's members continued to follow their own paths, with Naud releasing an ambient solo project under the name Phineas Olive A. and DuPuis mixing records for artists like Angel Olsen and Lana Del Rey. Zoos of Berlin reconvened in Detroit in 2016 to record the lush Instant Evening, which was released in November of that year. By this point guitarist Matt Howard (Javelins) had joined the group, expanding their ranks to a quintet. Another five years passed during which Naud and Clark released another outing with their ambient side project South South Million. Preceded by a pair of 2020 singles, Zoos of Berlin's fourth album, Here and There Fading and Riding, arrived in September 2021.
© Mark Deming /TiVo