DZYAN

Founded by multi-instrumentalist and composer Reinhard Karwatky in late 1971, Dzyan were an ethnic-inspired progressive jazz-rock band from southern Germany, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Area. 'Headquarters' was based in the county town Gro§-Gerau, near Frankfurt/Main; the domicile of Karwatky. The group consisted of Jochen Leuschner (vocals/percussion), Reinhard Karwatky (bass/sounds), Gerd "Bock" Ehrmann (tenor sax), Harry KrŠmer (guitars) and Ludwig Braum (drums/percussion).

The musicians, from a wide variety of creative genres, had already known each other from various band projects, jam activities, jazz workshops, and recording sessions (AFN Frankfurt/Main, Union-Studio/Munich, EMI Studio/Cologne a.o.). Reinhard Karwatky studied classical music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Mannheim, Dr. Hoch's Conservatory - Music Academy Frankfurt, Academy for Musical Arts Darmstadt (contrabass, trumpet, piano, counterpoint, composition). He also played: guitar, violoncello, sarangi, sitar, rebec and synthesizer. Besides his fondness for classical music, he also took a great interest in contemporary music and electronic sounds. During this time he increasingly focused privately studies in ethnomusicology, and delved deeply into world religion and metaphysics. In-depth elaborated studies led him to the eastern philosophy, ancient wisdom religions and to esoteric – The Secret Doctrine – “The Book of Dzyan", (Madam Blavatsky's famous transcribed messages from beyond, the "Tibetan holy book", heart of the trans-Himalayan sacred books of ‘Kiu-te’, the divine mysteries of the universe and the journey of the pilgrim-soul through the ‘Ages of Man’ …) Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) was born of Russian nobility. She claimed to have seen a manuscript of the Book of Dzyan while studying esoteric lore in Tibet. The work had originally, according to Blavatsky, been written in the sacred language of Senzar, the secret sacerdotal tongue. The Book of Dzyan (comprising the Stanzas of Dzyan) formed the basis for ‘The Secret Doctrine’, one of the foundational works of the theosophical movement, by Blavatsky in 1875. HPB did much to spread eastern religious, philosophical and occult concepts throughout the Western world. The present-day New Age movement is to a considerable extent based on the teachings of Blavatsky. References to the “Stanzas of Dzyan” exist in the fictional fantasy works of H. P. Lovecraft, and have been expanded upon by other writers who have worked within the Cthulhu Mythos. “Dzyan” transcribes the Sanskrit “dhyana”, meaning mental constancy, spiritual meditation, wisdom and divine knowledge. Jochen Leuschner was also seriously involved in "The Secret Doctrine" of Blavatsky's "Esoteric Occult World Ledger" and in that spirit strongly impressed of the archaic manuscript "THE BOOK OF DZYAN"; both musicians decided to use the Tibetan "Stanzas of Dzyan" as an inspiration and substructure for the compositions/songwriting of the debut album.

Karwatky "adopted" the name Dzyan in late ‘71, this was the 'origin' of the group Dzyan. In November 1971 he 'nailed' an exclusively recording contract with the Aronda label. The band recorded their debut album in February 1972. Beginning of march their eponymous first album was mixed, graced with an impressive artwork, and released in April on the minor Aronda label. DZYAN "Mach 1" made an exploration in long space-rock improvisations relied on jazz grooves and weird elektro-acoustic sounds, creatively blended elements of different styles from Zappa-esque jazz - flashes of Zappa's Hot Rats to facets of "Court" King Crimson, full-blown early fusion ala Nucleus, Magma and Soft Machine influences and even some Van Der Graaf Generator-styled prog-rock, mixed with ethnic mystical elements, some experimental cosmic moments, punctuated by strange gothic songs, into something quite unique. Compositions are brightly showing the technical 'skills' of the musicians, vocals are great, with a very wide range and sometimes 'multi-tracked' for harmonies, or backed by sax and the addition of almost early Chicago horns in places; there are awesome bass lines, fine guitar works, and remarkable sax solos, also the rhythm section, drums and acoustic percussion are obvious notably, as well as the expressive, dynamic drumming.

The first line-up did not survive the album's release. Not lasting beyond the production KrŠmer and Braum left the group. Harry Krämer studied classical guitar with Prof. Heinz Teuchert at the Dr. Hoch's Conservatory - Music Academy Frankfurt, and he is still active, until the present time, as a guitar teacher. Ludwig Braum finished his studies of classical music with the orchestra state examina and a drummer/percussion master diploma at the Academy for Musical Arts Darmstadt. By this time, he became a regular member of the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, Koblenz, where he is still active as a principal drummer of the percussion section.

When the original group eventually disintegrated, Karwatky drafted in Eddy Marron (ex-Jochen Brauer Sextet and Vita Nova, classical trained guitar virtuoso, studies of concert guitar at the State College of Music Heidelberg-Mannheim) and the Darmstadt born and based drummer Lothar Scharf (Volker Kriegel Trio, worked as solo timpanist with the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra, he had studied classical percussion at the Academy for Musical Arts Darmstadt and at the Berlin State School of Music and the Performing Arts). This left the vocalist, sax player and bassist from the original stand up along with the new members to keep Dzyan alive. The revamped band, the 'new' Dzyan quintet played lots of live gigs over the next several months (these were also Dzyan's first live performances). The SWF invited the group in October 1972 for a recording-session in the U1 Studio, Baden-Baden (LP/CD LONG HAIR LHC 87, LHC 88).

After the departure of Jochen Leuschner and Gerd "Bock" Ehrmann in November 1972, Dzyan was pared down to the trio of Karwatky, Marron (he took over the lead vocals) and Scharf. This line-up also played several gigs. Just a few months later after his departure from Dzyan, Jochen Leuschner founded with some musicians from the 'art nouveau' city of Darmstadt the rock-formation "Hardcake Special". The group released in 1974 their self-titled album on the Brain-label (Metronome), produced by Frank Dostal. In the same year Leuschner launched his business career at CBS Records, Frankfurt/Main. According to various positions within the company, Leuschner became in 1984, at the age of 35, the youngest managing director (CEO) within the CBS Records Group, worldwide. He successfully managed the German CBS Records/Sony Music Entertainment a total 17 years. At the end of 2001, he left the company on his own request. Leuschner is living nowadays near Friedberg (Hessen). Gerd Ehrmann played mainly acoustic-jazz with Ju?rgen Wuchner, Wolfgang Wu?steney, Michel Eicken a.o. Since the mid-seventies he is working as a social worker in Frankfurt/Main. Scharf left the Band in early 1973 (he joined "Virgo" with Bobby Stern) and was replaced by the much more original drummer and percussionist Peter Giger, a world beat and heavy jazz drummer from the legendary "Albert Mangelsdorff Quintet". By May 1973, the 'new' Dzyan trio consisted of Marron, Karwatky and Scharf's replacement on drums, Peter Giger. In early summer 1973 Karwatky got in touch with Peter Hauke (well-known German producer, founder of the Bacillus label), some time later, after successful contract negotiation, Dzyan signed in June '73 an exclusively record deal with Bellaphon for the legendary Bacillus label. Later that year, end of August 1973, the second and seminal album TIME MACHINE was recorded at Dieter Dierk's mythical studio in Cologne/Stommeln, produced by Peter Hauke, released in November on the Bacillus label recorded and mixed by great engineer Dieter Dierks. TIME MACHINE graced with a full psych artwork was a ‘ground-breaking’ album by a nearly new sounding band. By the time of their second album's recording, the group was completely different, organised under a trio form, with only bassist Karwatky (who was the ‘mastermind’ and main writer anyway) remaining from the previous ‘original cast’. The sound of the group remained jazz-rock but veered much more towards experimental jazz, features astonishing manifestations of very inventive organic fusion with free rock riffing. Down to a three-piece, Dzyan mutated away from vocal prog rock of the first album to explore further jazz and ethnic tonalities with far more spaced-out and exotic improvisations to an unusual hybrid of acid-rock, with serious jazz chops approaching Mahavishnu-land; psychedelic mind expansion towards introspection in zenmeditation.

TIME MACHINE offers virtuous and unorthodox musicianship with a high and very own esthetic quality. The album ranks among the masterpieces of German progressive-rock. Existing in a no-man's land between jazz and rock, and as a pre-curser to the post-rock crowd of the '90s, Time Machine was well ahead of its time. After the recordings the band continued their live gigs in Germany and abroad (Jazz-Festival Frankfurt, German-Pop-Meeting, 1974, rugahalle/Essen a.o.).

In April 1974, TIME MACHINE was released in USA on the Cosmic-label, NYC. While Peter Giger worked on other commitments as a session musician for ECM and on tour with Eberhard Weber, ex-Dave Pike Set drummer Marc Hellmann 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. In late summer ‘74 producer Hauke and 'mastermind' Karwatky chose again the legendary 70s surrealist Helmut Wenske ("paintings from inner space") to create a cover for the 3rd album and it was ”fucking awesome! ...”. The trio cut another album, again recorded at Dierk's studio, in October of 1974, and released on the Bacillus label. Their third and final album, ELECTRIC SILENCE is recognised for its daring world beat elements, and totally acidic album cover art. Dzyan refined their sound even further into improvisation and exotic sounds, mixed with weird experimentations and mysticism. ELECTRIC SILENCE offers other-worldly music of incredible beauty and strangeness, influenced by the music of Asia but taking it into far more original realms. Multi-instrumentalists Marron and Karwatky experimented with sitar, saz, tambura, mellotron, synthesizers, bass-violin, and a mysterious invented instrument called "super-string", all merged in an extreme melting pot of styles, ideas and fertile imagination, interacting into psychedelic world-groove”; while Giger, bursting with creative power and virtuosity, holds it together with his fantastic drumming. From the weird opium-den trance-soundtrack of “Khali” to the more funky "For Earthly Thinking”, to the even wilder tracks like "The Road Not Taken", Dzyan crafted one of the finest and most unique works of the Krautrock era.

ELECTRIC SILENCE, an amazing work on its own, rhythmically adventurous and unique jazz-prog, is indeed one of the landmarks in experimental rock, a masterpiece. The album was released in USA on the (soon-defunct) Passport label. Late in 1974, Reinhard Karwatky, the last remaining original band member, founder and 'name-proprietor’, decided to leave the group. Dzyan called it quits. This concluded the story of Dzyan. After the breakup, following the end of Dzyan, Marron and Giger went on to form the fusion-trio "Giger-Lenz-Marron", joined by jazzbassist Gu?nter Lenz; sounding
a bit like a jazzier Dzyan with less experimentation and none electronic sounds (Giger-Lenz-Marron: "Beyond" nagara LP 1977 and "Where The Hammer Hangs" nagara LP 1978).

In 1976 Eddy Marron moved to the Netherlands. He was teaching guitar and jazz rhythms at the Royal University of Music Den Haag and at the University of Music Cologne.

In 1990 he published his book "Die Rhythmiklehre”. Nowadays he is still active as a maestro guitarist and teacher. Peter Giger founded in 1975 the label "nagara records" and published his solo percussion LP: "family of percussion", 1977 solo performance at the Berliner Jazztage, founder of the FAMILY OF PERCUSSION (FOP) with Trilok Gurtu, Doug Hammond and Tom Nicholas . . . He is considered today as a pioneer of world music. 2002 Giger moves to Ticino (Switzerland).

Karwatky composed the first German Jazz-Rock-Symphony "Resurrection" [premiere: 1975, Staatstheater Darmstadt]
"Ode To Africa" 1st World Music Symphony [premiere: 1976, Staatstheater Darmstadt] (with Peter Giger and Christoph Haberer, percussions).

Other works: "Liturgical Colours" for Symphonic Strings and Contrabass solo, "Homage To Mahatma Gandhi" for Symphony Orchestra and Choir, a.o.

Reinhard Karwatky is working as a record producer, sound engineer, composer and arranger.

Also available:
LP Dzyan: Mandala SWF-Session 1972, LHC 87
CD Dzyan: Mandala SWF-Session 1972, LHC 88
LP Dzyan: 1. Album, LHC 80
CD Dzyan: 1. Album, LHC 89
LP Dzyan: Time Machine, LHC 91
LP Dzyan: Electric Silence. LHC 92

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Titel LP (LHC 87)

Side A
1. RESURRECTION * (Karwatky) 9:49
2. DRAGONSONG (Leuschner, Karwatky) 11:33
(Bonustrack) 3. MANDALA – TRANSMIGRATION (Karwatky) 2:08

Side B
1. STEEL’S ELECTRIC (Marron) 6:30
2. DADDY GROOVE (Karwatky, Leuschner) 8:43
3. SAZ (Marron, Karwatky, Leuschner) 8:08

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Titel CD (LHC 88)

1. RESURRECTION * (Karwatky) 09:49
2. DRAGONSONG (Leuschner, Karwatky) 11:33
(Bonustrack) 3. MANDALA – TRANSMIGRATION (Karwatky) 02:08
4. STEEL’S ELECTRIC (Marron) 06:30
5. DADDY GROOVE (Karwatky, Leuschner) 08:43
6. SAZ (Marron, Karwatky, Leuschner) 08:08
(Bonustrack) 7. CELESTIAL CITY (Karwatky) 04:23