Dzyan

Dzyan was a progressive-rock band from Germany, formed in january 1972. Their first album, Dzyan (Aronda, 1972), featured the line-up of Dieter Kramer on guitar, Jochen Leuschner on vocals, Gerd Ehrmann on saxophone, Ludwig Braum on drums and Reinhard Karwatky on bass. The quintet soon dissolved and Karwatky formed a new trio with the same name (Eddy Marron on guitar, Peter Giger on drums). Time Machine (Bellaphon, 1973) contains four complex jams that offered an unusual hybrid of acid-rock, progressive-rock, world-music and Canterbury-ian jazz-rock, and ranks among the masterpieces of German progressive-rock. The 17-minute Time Machine and Kabisrain are varied and inventive, while displaying skilled interplay. Magika is furious and chromatic in the tradition of avant-jazz. The trio expanded the instrumentation on Electric Silence (Bellaphon, 1974), adding sitar and mellotron. The influences of Popol Vuh and of the ECM school turn the trio towards introspection, emphasizing the exotic elements (Khali) and the jazz fuel (Electric Silence, The Road Not Taken). The two longer tracks, Back To Where We Came From and For Earthly Thinking, are like yin and yang, the former almost a zen meditation and the latter a lively suite. Giger and Marron, joined by Gunter Lenz, released Giger, Lenz & Marron (Niagara, 1976).