Dzyan

One of the more obscure gems of the early-'70s Krautrock scene, Dzyan, from the city of Mannheim in southern Germany, creatively blended elements of rock, improvised jazz, electronics, and ethnic music from Asia into something quite unique. With their name taken from the Indian book of creation, the original group that consisted of Jochen Leuschner, Dieter Kramer, Gerd Ehrmann, Reinhard Karwatky, and Ludwig Baum came together in January 1972 as a studio project. By April, their eponymous first album was recorded and released on the Aronda label and upon completion of the record, Kramer and Baum left the group. The following month, Eddy Marron and Lothar Scharf were added to the lineup and the band played several live gigs over the next several months. After the departure of Leuschner and Ehrmann in November 1972, and Scharf in early 1973, by May 1973, Dzyan was pared down to the trio of Marron, Karwatky, and Scharf's replacement on drums, Peter Giger. This all-instrumental version of Dzyan refined the sound further away from prog and toward jazz and Asian music. Later that year, Dzyan went into the studios of Dieter Dierks and recorded the album Time Machine, which came out in November 1973 on the Bacillus label. The next year, Giger had to leave the band for several months to work as a session player for ECM and also to tour with Eberhard Weber. While he was gone, Mark Hellmann of the Dave Pike Set briefly filled in. Giger returned to a different-sounding Dzyan, as Marron and Karwatky had been experimenting with a wider range of acoustic instruments and delving further into ethnic and experimental music. The trio cut another album, Electric Silence, in October of that year, again recorded in Dierks' studio and released by Baccillus. By the end of 1974, with the departure of the last remaining original member, Karwatky, Dzyan called it quits. The remaining bandmembers, Marron and Giger, went on to form the trio Giger.Lenz.Marron with jazz bassist Gunter Lenz, sounding a little bit like a much jazzier Dzyan with less experimentation.