Dzyan - 1975 - Electric Silence

Dzyan

1975

Electric Silence

01. Back To Where We Come (8:57)
02. A Day In My Life (4:03)
03. The Road Not Taken (4:54)
04. Khali (4:55)
05. For Earthly Thinking (9:38)
06. Electric Silence (4:30)

Eddy Marron / acoustic, 6- & 12-string guitars, sitar, baglama, tambura, Mellotron, vocals
Reinhard Karwatky / 4- & 8- string basses, 4- & 5- string double basses, Super String synth, Mellotron
Peter Giger / drums, percussion

Recorded and remixed at Dierks Studios, Stommeln, Germany, October 1974.

Dzyan's third and last album, still as a trio and recorded in the Dierks studios and released on the legendary Bacillus label. 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 (a reference to Time Machine artwork cover?), 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 (who'd have thought with such a name, right? ;-), where mellotrons are in the background. The same mellotrons pave the 9-min 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 (my fave) 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. It would be hard for me to choose just one album, meaning that you'd have to discard two choices as good as the one you've taken. So if anything, I'd suggest you start chronologically