After the wonderful "Yr" (released with the help of our friends at Blade Records) and "Allein... Unter Menschen" (a remastered CD-R version of one of his early tapes), this is the third Dronæment album released by Afe. Needless to say that we're very proud about this.

"Ezoterick Muzick" was inspired by repeated listenings of indian traditional music and is a successful attempt at creating meditative / relaxing ambient music.

The disc opens with "Morning", a track with a droney background mainly topped with bells and birds sound. Treated samples of indian strings instruments fade in and out along with voices and assorted discreet noises.

"Ezoterick Muzick I", first part of a trilogy, consists of a minimal but very effective repetitive tone which is quite mind-altering. With its reveberting droning, "Ganga" is a classic Dronæment track, almost undisturbed in its flooding, with the only added flavours of a few voice samples and percussions.

"Ezoterick Muzick II", starts right from where part I ended, adding a simple percussive pattern and effects to the basic floating tone. Coming at half of the album, "Trip to Surja" is built on a rhythmic pattern programmed on an old drum-machine. Its pulsating beats and oscillating synth lines have a shiny mood, just like looking at the sun keeping your eyes closed.

Beginning with field-recordings of birds, bells and water sounds backed by a synthesizer, "Yamuna" is another Dronæment classic. A sitar and other various samples / ambiences also appear along the road.

With its twelve minutes, "Mathura" is the longest track of the album, showcasing more field-recordings and samples in a consolidated way. "Ezotherick Muzick III" apparently closes the disc with pulsating synth sounds but there's still time for an unexpected surprise...

(Labelinfi)

Reviews

#1 “Fields I” was a true revelation to me and the best possible introduction to the music of Marcus Obst and Dronaement. Here was an album capable of applying the mechanics of cross-over to the field of sound art and the result was downright mindbuggling: A surreal and dense collection of interconnected collages, arriving on the wings of love but with the courage of shaking things up if need be. While “Ezoterick Muzick” is not really a true sequal in name, it is very much so in spirit.

Having said that, it is also, at least on a first listen, slightly more intrsopective and withdrawn than its predecessor. Don’t be fooled, though, Marcus’ past as a fan of punk still shines through:“Morning” opens with that distinctive and always welcome symbiosis between pulsating drones, twinkling mobiles in the evening wind and excitedly chirping birds which suddenly seem to sing by notes and Obst celebrates “Trip to Surja” as a four to the floor psychedelic acid trip with an analog didjeridoo pushing the beat forward. You can expect the artist to be smiling on “Ganga” as well, a winking salute to the echo-chambers of dub. The wide stylistic range, which characterises Dronaement as one of the few artists from his line of work who truly think different, has stayed. There are references to Krautrock and the early years of the electronic pioneers from Berlin abound, even though the intriguingly organic cosmic signals come in the much more digestable format of a pop song, instead of the 20-odd-minute excursions, which were en vogue in the 70s. The field recordings which were clearly center-stage on “Fields I” (a bit self-explanatory, ain’t it) have now moved to second tier and it is this feat which stamps “Ezoterick Muzick” as a more closed and secluded effort. Things change a bit in the final three-piece of the album, though, when the sounds of nature become an instruments in their own right again and engage in a dance with deep strings and powerstation-like rumblings.

As the titles already suggest, Obst has gone to India for inspiration, even though the album is kind of enough of sparing us with yet more sampled sitar songs. At its core lies an implicit desire to break free from the rules and assembly-line mentality of the post-industrial society. It is this dream and its unfettered realisation that connects all those different Dronaement works. It is also what makes “Ezoterick Muzick” a more than worthy newcomer in his discography.

By Tobias Fischer@tokafi Mag

#2 There appears to have been a resurgence of interest in minimalist tonal music recently, punctuated by Touch’s (re) release of Phil Niblock’s masterful "Touch Three" last month. There seems to be a distinct distancing by many artists from the overtly “digital” sound of the recent ten years or so, and a move towards something more organic, a move that perhaps anticipates a phase shift, the slow rejection of software based music making, and the re-introduction of “real” instrumentation.

Dronaement approach the genre constructing a tonal framework, fused with occasional field recordings, at times sounding like (and I’m sure they won’t be offended by the comparison) an early Zoviet France, or more recent material by Z'EV. Much of the material here is peppered with classic ZF referents…minimal tonescapes, ethnic (particularly Indian) instrumentation, all interlaced with gongs, drums and rhythms.There is a trilogy of pieces woven into the whole album at various stages, all carrying the title of "Ezoterik Muzik", and all interlinked by a common theme. The first four tracks on this eight track CD could be part of the same piece – the structure is essentially the same, with competent use of sidereal shifting tonal layers, threaded with bells, birdsong, and a spattering of pseudo-ethnic paraphernalia. Overall this gives the general impression of an other-worldy , blissed out head–trip, inspired by Indian classicism.

'Trip to Surja' shifts the mood and pace of the previous four tracks, injecting the proceedings with an ambulatory dance piece that strangely reminds me of Monolake, although still retaining the dreamy,ethnic mood of the whole album. 'Yamuna', and the subsequent 'Mathura', transport us once again to an Edenic soundscape, the sound of softly running water, bells and tone-shifts, that occasionally lapses into the cliched new ageism of what has often been referred to as “meditation” music, yet somehow it manages to uphold the integrity of the whole album without overtly becoming a tool for meditation.

Dronaement’s main protagonist, one Marcus Oberst has been active since 1997, and with one or two successful projects under his belt (most notably a collaboration with Sebastien Roux’s Rabbit’s Sorrow project), has created a CD that can be approached from several perspectives. It would cheapen his work simply to tag it as “relaxation” or “meditation” music, although, yes- it would fit snugly into the rack displays of the hippy trippy shops of Glastonbury, it also manages to be infused with a dignity and creativity widely appreciated by fans of contemporary experimentalism, and “serious” art music.

ECM for aural pressure


#3 „Dronæment is a "brand name" which in my estimation always stands for thoughtful ambient albums usually offered for retail in highly original and well-designed packaging. Ezoterick Musick is no disappointment on either count; the music is wonderfully executed, and the CDR comes in a sturdy, colouful cardboard sleeve slightly taller than your average CD, in a short run of only one hundred and fifty copies.

Marcus Obst is Dronæment and he is said to have gained inspiration for this project by immersing himself in the music of India - especially that of a more meditative nature, evening ragas and all that, I suppose. The result is a soothingly optimistic sound with a dash of Subcontinental spice laid out across a generous banquet of samples and field recordings.

And while the predominant mood may indeed be characterized as meditative, this record manages to convey a raft of emotions. The downright jaunty "Trip to Surja" gains its unique sound from having been programmed into a superannuated drum machine, while "Yamuna" is repose itself after a long journey on foot, at a monestary by a riverside, the air filled with the sound of bells and whirring prayer-wheels.

One of his best.“ Posted by Stephen Fruitman for sonomu

#4 As we first notice with the nice artwork and some titles of the songs, the new album by Dronaement is inspired by Indian culture and more precisely by Indian meditation music. The pace and repetition of the minimal rhythm section with ethnic instruments is added to the layering of sampled field recordings which is a constant in many of Obst's works. "Ezoterick Muzick" is similar to Storey's experiments with ethnic sounds and loops (late Zoviet France/early Rapoon) and the mind expanding synthlines have a deep connection with Tangerine Dream's and Popol Vuh's first works and maybe this album is even a tribute to some Kosmische masterpieces inspired by South-Asian culture (or hippy heritage...) like "Lord Krishna Von Goloka" by Cosmic Courriers feat. Sergius Golowin or the even more obscure "Crawling to Lhasa" by Kalacakra. For the cosmic travellers all over the world.

Andrea Vercesi@chaindlk.com