Giger Lenz Marron - 1977 - Beyond

Giger Lenz Marron

1977

Beyond

01. Beyond 8:32
02. Quinar 5:58
03. Flying Wheel 4:39
04. Alyrio 5:29
05. Antep 7:39
06. Blues For Chaturlal 7:03

Double Bass, Electric Bass – Günter Lenz
Drums, Percussion – Peter Giger
Guitar, Baglama – Eddy Marron

Formed by former Dzyan members Peter Giger and Eddy Marron, along with jazz bassist Günter Lenz, this super trio offered a more jazz oriented yet similar music to Dzyan, but with a jazzier feel. Without the electronics and weirdness of Dzyan, their music centred around Peter Giger's flowery percussion and Eddy Marron's multi-guitars and ethnic saz, and was much more jazz-fusion based. Giger.Lenz.Marron dabbled with unusual time signatures and lots of experimentation with Eastern musics and off-beat rhythmic structures.

Beyond wase released on Giger's his own Någarå label, and stylistically speaking, pick up right where the Dzyan vehicle left off. There are differences. Just like Dzyan, you will hear searching group improvisations, hints of Eastern rhythm and instrumentation, druggy, reverb-laden guitar forays, and plenty of crossover from the above. But Giger Lenz Marron has fewer pedestrian handholds, less that is familiar, and seemingly no rules except for limitations imposed by the instruments themselves. It's like the ingredients of a Dzyan album, but set in a different project removed from whatever restriction was imposed by the group moniker. Although not a major pit stop on the timeline of such prolific musicians as these, the GLM trio interests me for its freedom of form as well as its connections to several trends that first emerged ten years prior. It proves that jazz is a many faceted thing that will continue to be wrought anew by the creative hands and minds that shape it.

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

Dzyan - 1973 - Time Machine

Dzyan

1973

Time Machine

01. Kabisrain (7:59)
02. Magika (8:45)
03. Light Shining Out Of Darkness (3:13)
04. Time machine (17:47)

Eddy Marron / acoustic, 6- & 12-string guitars, baglama, vocals
Reinhard Karwatky / bass, double bass, Super String synth
Peter Giger / drums, percussion

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. It was recorded in the Dieter Dierks studios and released on the very collectible Bacillus label.

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.