Drøn - Comm

After a mere handful of striking releases on the Elektrolux family of labels, the enigmatic music of German trio Drøn finds a home on Carpe Sonum, and what a blazing debut it is. Mastered by the inimitable Atom™ (aka the ever-morphing Uwe Schmidt, founder of the Rather Interesting label and frequent FAX/Namlook collaborator), Comm recalls nothing less than the electrifying, halcyon days of the 90s, where were birthed the kind of mutant IDM/electro hybrids that Drøn spin ever-so-compellingly. A teeming microverse of simmering percussive patterns, randy oscillators, and hugely inventive modular synth acrobatics, Comm might well be the finest yet from a trio of unsung innovators carrying the torch of a bygone era well into the future.

The members of Drøn—Christoph Abert, Frederik Dahlke, Ingo Zobel—make it abundantly clear that spontaneity is a key ingredient in successfully realizing their intricate, multi-spatial beatstorms. In a studio housing a cat's cradle of more than 250 synth modules, they 'conceptualize' without actually devising a concept; for them, the font of sonic creation resides in a "dynamic process that is very mood-dependent, where nothing is planned beforehand, and ideas are allowed to process naturally and flow freely". After considering numerous iterations, the end result, and it’s attendant ‘concept’, “emerges on its own” and with an identity forged out the effort “not to copy ourselves, which ensures that every album is different from the one before.”

Far from understating the case, the whipsnapping tableau adorning Comm speaks for itself. How much Atom™`’s overlording has influenced the outcome is not known, but it’s safe to say that his imprimatur runs like a jackal across the proceedings. Throughout reams of juicy squelch and some of the most evocative analog arias unheard since the heyday of labels like GPR, Focus, Satamile, and, yes, Rather Interesting, Drøn have forged what might well be considered a modern classic in expert knob twiddling.

1. Crosslink, 2. Flang, 3. Alph, 4. Modula, 5. Robotik, 6. Rolling Hills, 7. Sdace Cerew, 8. Scramble, 9. Sternengleiter, 10. Deep Storage, 11. Terminal, 12. Intercomm Meeting, 13. Radiant Haze, 14. Observer