Zodiac

Zodiac are at least two bands:

1) Zodiac was a Soviet Latvian Electronic synthpop band from Riga, Latvia. Founded in 1979 and led by keyboardist un composer Juris Kulakovs it were titled Arka (The Arch). In the very same year, while recording their first album, Juris left the band because of musical disagreement with all the rest of members. Keyboardist and composer Janis Lusens took the leadership. In 1980 the band were renamed to Zodiac.

The first line-up were:
Janis Lusens - keyboards and composing
Ainars Asmanis - bass guitar
Andris Silis - guitar
Andris Reinis - percussion
Zane Griva - keyboards

All members were students form Latvian conservatoire with average age of 20. In the beginning Zodiac played instrumental music only. Because of that time sound equipment inapplicabilities for live playings, Zodiac were studio-type band. In 1980 Zodiac recorded their first album - Disco Alliance. It represented the kind of synthesized electronic music simlar to Space, Kraftwerk and Jean-Michel Jarre. Disco Alliance was sold in 20 million copies in USSR.

For some reasons, Andris Silis, Zane Griva and Ainars Asmanis quitted Zodiac and in 1982 Ivars Pilka (bass guitar), Dzintars Sagens and Aivars Gudrais (both played guitars) joined the band. This line-up recorded their second album Music in the Universe, but after recording it Zodiac broke up. Although Music in Universe didn't reach Disco Alliance's commercial success, it was also good appreciated by listeners.

In 1987 Janis Lusens assembled band called Zodiaks (the same Zodiac, but in Latvian). Musically the new Zodiac was quite different from the old style. Now they played synthpop and electronic rock, which quite differed from Disco Alliance and Music in Universe.

Line-up were:
Janis Lusens - keyboards and composing
Maija Lusena - vocals
Zigfrids Muktupavels - vocals and violin
Dzintars Sagens - guitar
Gatis Zvirgzdins - keyboards

As the line-up shows, Zodiaks were vocal-instrumental band. Their biggest success was in 1987 in music festival Liepjas dzintars (held almost every year in Liepaja) where they got the first place. In 1989 Zodiaks released album In Memoriam which contained instrumental pieces only. Later line-up changed again - Gatis Zvirgzdins and Dzintars Sagens (replaced by Aivars Gudrais again) quitted. Zodiaks disbanded in 1991, when one of vocalists - Zigfrids Muktupavels joined another band Bet Bet. Zodiac last rejoyned in 1996 for releasing album Dedication, which was actually reissued In Memoriam.

2) ZODIAC is Industrial/Black Metal/Experimental band from Ontario,
Canada.

Zodiak is a project that is built on various sub genres of music from EBM to Blackmetal industrial all the way through to power noise. Zodiak was formed in the late winter of 2007 which consisted only of Mike and James who many years before had two project together both formerly of The Trinity Project and Stasis. decided to build a project with no limitations a few months later Samantha joined Zodiak. Zodiak consists of Three main members:

Mike Kemp - Programmer, Guitar
James Patz - Vocals , Minor Programmer , Sampling
Samantha Merlin - Vocals.

3) The Zodiac : Cosmic Sounds (also known, less correctly, as either The Zodiac by Cosmic Sounds, or Cosmic Sounds by The Zodiac - the sleevenotes were unclear) was a collaborative concept album on the theme of the signs of the Zodiac. It was issued by Elektra Records in 1967 and featured early use of the Moog synthesizer by Paul Beaver, with music written by Mort Garson, words by Jacques Wilson, and narration by Cyrus Faryar.