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Posts tagged Dzyan
Dzyan – Electric Silence (1974) (@256)
24 Feb 2010
(Review from progarchives.com)
Dzyan’s third and last album was recorded by the same trio and released in 1974. Graced with a grotesque cartoon-like artwork, the album remains very much in the line of the previous two albums, even if they return to shorter track format resembling their debut album.
Opening with the reflective 9-mins “Back Where We Came From”, “Electric Silence” starts very strongly with Giger’s marimbas and gongs, preceding Marron’s slow increasingly-present guitar wails before Giger takes it over again. By the half of the track, the group is now in full flight with Karwatky’s bass giving a “Nucleus” base on which both Giger and Marron can expand and improvise. Indian music is the main influence of “A Day In My Life”, just as on the previous album Kabisrain. Closing up the first side is “The Road Not Taken”, which is downright dissonant and comes close to atonal music if it was not for Marron’s guitar wailing like an Indian sitar.
The flipside starts with an Indian-laced “Khali”, where mellotrons are in the background. The same mellotrons pave the 9-min “For Earthly Thinking”‘s intro over dissonant wooden block percussions first and steel drums second, then ensues a wide improvisation with only Karwatky staying wise and providing a base, thena drum solo ending in total sonic chaos with both Marron and Karwatky also going nuts. Closing with the album’s title track where the “Mahavishnu Orchestra” impressions return, reminiscing of the previous’ album title track. Compared with their previous works his album does have a more ethnic feel (mostly Indian), but aesthetically- speaking it is just as Dzyann-esque as their previous two.
Just as excellent as their first two albums, “Electric Silence” closes Dzyan’s recording career with an impeccable album and rounding up a very even discography where all three albums are equal in quality.
Line-up:
- Peter Giger / drums, percussion
- Reinhard Karwatky / electric & double bass, superstring, Mellotrone, synthesizer
- Eddy Marron / guitars, sitar, Zaz, tambura, mellotrone, voice
Track List:
01. Back To Where We Come From – 8:59
02. A Day In My Life – 4:04
03. The Road Not Taken – 4:55
04. Khali – 4:56
05. For Earthly Thinking – 9:38
06. Electric Silence – 4:30
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Dzyan – Time Machine (1973) (@256)
23 Feb 2010
(Review from progarchives.com)
As Dzyan’s first album was more or less a studio/one-time project, the first line-up did not survive the album’s release. So the group was reduced to a very-different trio with only Karwataky remaining from the previous one. In came Giger on drums and percussions and Eddy Marron on guitars. Graced with a full psych artwork representing their tree-bordered paths, this album is one of Germany’s most acclaimed instrumental jazz-fusion album.
Made of three tracks, the first side starts on the superb 8-min ethnic-sounding Kabisrain with a distinct Indian influence. The following almost 9-min Magika is much harder to swallow/ingest as it starts out on a wild drum intro, and it never really lets up until its end. The tracks often veers dissonant and limit atonal, but does remain accessible (more so than Crimson’s Moonchild or Providence) to most and in its second part the guitar does take the track into more conventional improv grounds, but still remains uneasy reminding some of Nucleus’s Belladona works. The third (and much shorter) Light Shining Out Of Darkness is quite a change as it veers Flamenco-jazz in a way that Metheny or DeLucia would not disown. Easily the album’s most accessible track.
A sidelong monster title track with its 18 minutes fills the flipside. The track can be seen as a manic Mahavishnu Orchestra meeting a brass-less Nucleus. If the track remains relatively on the subject, avoiding useless lengthy soloing, it does not avoid some lengths especially that Marron’s guitars are the only fronting soloing instrument. However the track veers around the 1é-min mark and presents a very repetitive riff that makes the last 6 minutes a bit minimalist, but also a bore.
While Dzyan’s second album is well in the line of their first album, it is more “concise”, precise and urgent than the debut album.
Line-up:
- Reinhard Karwatky / bass, keyboards
- Peter Giger / drums, percussion
- Eddy Marron / guitar, sitar, saxophone
Track List:
01. Kabisrain – 7:59
02. Magika – 8:45
03. Light Shining Out Of Darkness – 3:13
04. Time Machine – 17:47
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Dzyan – Dzyan (1972) (@256)
22 Feb 2010
(Review from progarchives.com)
Named after the Indian sacred book of creation, this (at first) studio experiment recorded very quickly their first album (within two months of their creation) and it was released in April 1972. Graced with an impressive artwork, the quintet’s album develops an impressive sung jazz-rock that embodied almost every aspects of the genre, but there is a general Canterbury feel pervading through the album.
Dzyan’s jazz-rock spectrum ranges from the full-blown early fusion ala Nucleus (the opening Emptiness) to the much rockier Dragonsong, the electronic and cello Hymn and the very vocal Bud Awakes (where the group shows an excellence sense of harmony).
The first side of the albums holds two major tracks (one of which is slightly ethnic-sounding and strange: Wisdom) sandwiching a short one and is clearly my favourite. The excellent Fohat’s Work (not really Gong here, although the sax) is maybe the album’s most accessible track with clear-cut solos, while Dragonsong has vocals that can resemble Wyatt’s in Soft Machine’s “Third” or “Rock Bottom”, but this dramatic piece can be considered like the highlight of the album as Bock’s sax reminds of Malherbe and Karwalky’s bass lines are driving the track at 100 MPH cruising speed. Comes a short Wyatt-esque interlude and then the album closes on the “Rocking Back To Earth”, indeed making come back from a great fusion trip as the artwork indicates.
This debut is their most accessible and a good introduction to the band.
Line-up:
- Ludwig Braum / drums, percussion
- Gerd Ehrmann / saxophone
- Reinhard Karwatky / bass
- Harry Kramer / guitar
- Jochen Leuschner / percussion, lead vocals
Track List:
01. Emptiness – 9:43
02. The Bud Awakes – 3:01
03. The Wisdom – 10:32
04. Fohat’s Work – 6:35
05. Hymn – 1:23
06. Dragonsong – 7:32
07. Things We’re Looking For – 1:56
08. Back To Earth – 4:19
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