Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Included here....
Almond Blossom Day (2000)
Chai & Roses (1987)
Divan I Khas (1984)
Konya (1997)
Tabris (1991)
Tantra Drums (1998)
Al Gromer Khan (aka Aloysius Gromer) earned the right to use the name "Khan" by
demonstrating master proficiency on the sitar. Tantra Drums is a set of ethnic e
lectro-tribal ambience based on the ritualism of an ancient Shakti cult. Tantra
contains dark and exotic rituals and deep spirituality. Modern culture has basta
rdized the term, so Khan has composed, arranged, and performed these soundscapes
in modern poetic parlance in order to preserve both the erotic and spiritual me
anings. The music is deep and hot. Khan's atmospheres surround the rhythms; his
sitar compliments the atmospheres. The ethnic overtones complete his soundworld.
Deep listening is a must for this lush and full soundscape. The CD will appeal
to fans of Mo Boma, David Parsons, and Omar Faruk Tekbilek. Fans of Middle Easte
rn and Far Eastern ambient fusion will find this important. Casual fans will fin
d it interesting.
Outstanding for tantra or meditation, July 8, 2005 By Dr. Bill "Professor, spiri
tualist, mammal" (Charlottesville, VA USA)
The unique aspect of this album is the underlying steady beat... a single rhythm
extending from beginning to end, and at a perfect pace for breathing meditation
or tantric lovemaking. In fact, this album is so well crafted for those purpose
s that it's hard to imagine using anything else. I've not found its equal (thoug
h Al Gromer Khan's "Tantra Drums" is in the right ballpark). If anyone can recom
mend a CD with a similar, slow, steady, visceral beat and well suited to meditat
ive or tantric practice I would love to hear it. Until then, BUY THIS CD!
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Al Gromer Khan & Amelia Cuni - Monsoon Point
Born in Bavaria in 1946, Alois Gromer has lived in England, India, and Morocco,
which broadened his musical tastes and performing style. He attended a recital b
y sitarist Vilayat Khan and was so moved that he dedicated his life and art to t
he study of the sitar. After studying with master sitarist Imrat Khan, Gromer be
came a member of the Khan-i-Gharana dynasty in 1975 and added the Khan name to h
is own. His contemplative, contemporary approach to music made him popular in th
e arenas of radio and television scoring, as well as with progressively minded a
rtists like Deuter, Amon Dnnl, and Florian Fricke of Popul Vuh, with whom Khan c
ollaborated. Solo outings like Mahogany Nights, Space Hotel, and Kamasutra drew
critical acclaim for their supple blend of technique, tradition, and technology.
1999 saw the release of Music From an Eastern Rosegarden;
Almond Blossom Day followed a year later and mid-2000 saw the release of God Per
fume II. Sufi was issued a year later.
Though his sitar talents take a back seat on this album, Al Gromer Khan creates
the appropriate nocturnal ambience on Mahogany Nights with synthesizers, vibes,
marimbas, bells, and unique percussion touches like African logs. Khan's sitar a
ccents rather than dominates pieces like "Taj" and "Night of the Scorpion," and
the overall effect is spacious and exotically melodic. Mahogany Nights is a good
, gradual introduction to Khan's talents as a composer and sitarist.
Al Gromer Khan discography
1970 Divan I Khas
1974 Hesse Between Music (Wergo CD) ? Al Gromer Khan/P.M. Hamel/J.E. Berendt
1976 Yoga (High Tide) ? 1993 ? Al Gromer Khan/Popol Vuh (Florian Fricke)
1980 Uranus Venus (Warner Bros.) ? Al Gromer Khan/Mario Strack/Ute Lenz/ J÷rg Ever
s
1981 Zuban (Major Music LP/Isis MC) ? Al Gromer Khan/Mario Strack
1984 Divan I Khas [Visions of a Mogul Prince] (Isis MC + LP) ? Al Gromer Khan/Ma
rio Strack
1984 Hymns of Secret Glory (Aquamarin MC) ? Al Gromer Khan/Klaus Wiese
1985 In High Places (Aquamarin MC) ? Al Gromer Khan/Klaus Wiese
1986 Kama Sutra: The Original Music of the Indian Sex Ritual (Eversongs CD) ? Al
Gromer Khan/ J÷rg Evers
1986 The Neuschwanstein Tapes (Aquamarin MC) ? Al Gromer Khan/Kai Taschner
1987 Chai and Roses (Aquamarin MC) ? Al Gromer Khan
1987 The God Perfume (Aquamarin MC) ? Al Gromer Khan
1989 Khama Sutra 2
1989 Music from an Eastern Rosegarden (Aquamarin CD/MC) ? Al Gromer Khan
1990 Der Tigerbericht (Sheema Medien 2 CD Set H÷rbuch & Musik) ? Dietrich Wild/Al
Gromer Khan ? 2004
1990 Mahogany Nights (Hearts of Space CD/MC) ? Al Gromer Khan/Stephen Hill
1991 Kama Sutra II (Musicolor/Araba CD) ? Al Gromer Khan
1991 Tabris (Musicolor/Araba CD) ? Al Gromer Khan
1992 The God Perfume II [mp3] [ape](Aquamarin CD) ? Al Gromer Khan
1992 Utopia (Aquamarin CD) ? Al Gromer Khan
1993 Beautiful Marva
1993 Beautiful Marva (Aquarius CD) ? Al Gromer Khan
1994 Attar ? Musik als Parfnm (Wergo CD) ? Al Gromer Khan
1994 Konya (Bluestar Music CD) ? Al Gromer Khan
1995 Monsoon Point (New Earth Records) ? Al Gromer Khan/Amelia Cuni
1996 Black Marble and Sweet Fire (Hearts of Space) ? Al Gromer Khan/Kai Taschner
1996 Space Hotel
1997 Konya
1997 Marco Polo/Tan Dun (SONY/Opera) ? Al Gromer Khan/Soloist
1997 Space Hotel (New Earth Records) ? Al Gromer Khan
1998 Tantra Drums (New Earth Records) ? Al Gromer Khan
1999 Almond Blossom Day (Aquamarin CD) ? Al Gromer Khan
1999 Kamasutra Experience
1999 Kamasutra Experience (New Earth Records) ? Al Gromer Khan
1999 Music From An Eastern Rosegarden
2000 Almond Blossom Day
2000 Kamasutra
2000 Sufi (New Earth Records) ? Al Gromer Khan
2000 The God Perfume II
2001 Lexus: Future Miniatures (Intuition Wergo) ? Al Gromer Khan
2002 Future Lounge (New Earth Records) ? Al Gromer Khan
2002 Indian Music (RASA Music) ? Al Gromer Khan
2004 Chai & Roses (RASA Music) ? Al Gromer Khan
2004 Savoy Tea Time (RASA Music) ? S?bastien Illiano/Al Gromer Khan/Raed Khoshab
a/Kai Taschner
2004 Tantra Electronica (New Earth Records) ? Al Gromer Khan/Emin Corrado
2005 The Alchemy of Happiness (RASA Music) ? Al Gromer Khan/Klaus Wiese
2006 Turya (RASA Music) ? Al Gromer Khan
Al Gromer Khan - Mahogany Nights.
Though his sitar talents take a back seat on this album, Al Gromer Khan creates
the appropriate nocturnal ambience on Mahogany Nights with synthesizers, vibes,
marimbas, bells and unique percussion touches like African logs. Khan's sitar ac
cents rather than dominates pieces like 'Taj' and 'Night of the Scorpion', and t
he overall effect is spacious and exotically melodic. Mahogany Nights is a good,
gradual introduction to Khan's talents as a composer and sitarist.
Al Gromer Khan ~ Sufi
Al Gromer Khan (aka Aloysius Gromer) has built many soundscapes from his cross-c
ultural virtuosity. For Sufi, he relies heavily on Indian acoustic instruments a
nd contemporary electronics. The CD is based on the intense poetry of the Sufi a
nd the purity of their spirituality. Khan was deeply influenced by the teachings
of Ustad Vilayat Khan and his demonstration of how a small fragment of music be
gets new realities. He embraces Sufism that works from direct experiences and al
lows it to affect his music -- deeply. This gentle soundscape is very subtle. Th
e atmospheres are vacuous and large; Al Gromer Khan's sound design is flawless.
The music builds and collapses upon itself continuously. Deep listeners will be
fascinated by the depth of the journey. The unique soundscape will appeal to fan
s of David Parsons, Jalan Jalan, and Angelo Riccardi. It was a finalist in the N
ew Age
Genre: New Age | Ethnic Fusion
1. Khanqah
2. Moderate Mast Near Motor Station
3. Zikr
4. Futura
5. Hal-Fez
6. Tanyet
7. Ya Aziz (Ambient-Adagio-Alap)
8. The Crowning Of H.S.
9. Dargah
Mahogany Nights
01. Taj 24:47
02. The Abdullah Tree 03:03
03. Night of the Scorpion 07:23
04. Kob-i-Noor 09:35
05. Mumtaz 06:04
06. Moghul Lace 06:07
Turya (2006)
This Ambient music is based on many years of experimentation with simple melodic
cycles on different levels of emotion.
The aim is to re-awaken a familiar state of feeling that has been covered throug
h layers of thought. In terms of melody the transition from stage three to stage
four and from stage four to stage five seems important. The fourth note represe
nts - not symbolises ? the female aspect which is thus fecundated in terms of th
e spirit: the original tantra.
TURYA aspires to go to the place where music originally comes from. TURYA is not
composed music in the old sense. At the same time it is based on decades of res
earch, practise and sifting. Ordinary music produces outer intensity while TURYA
seeks inner intensity . The two types are reciprocal in their relationship. Thi
s inner intensity is experienced as a kind of magnetism, sanctifying ordinary ci
rcumstances and objects. TURYA¦s music takes place inside the music. It does not r
equire confirmation through trends.
AGK 8. April 2006
¦In India there once lived a saint who was known for his goodness¦. The sentence bot
h elated and depressed me on account of my own limited capacity. I turned on the
television and switched from channel to channel. A lady in an American movie wa
nted to know: "What¦s that supposed to mean?" I switched channels. "I¦ve no idea" an
swered the man in the talk show. I switched back: "Yes" the lady in the movie sa
id. "No" answered the man in the talk show after I¦d switched channels again. What
is happening to me? I went to the kitchen, put the kettle on and started thinki
ng about money - some people owned portfolios. "... shares took a drastic nose-d
ive to-day " someone on the telly said. So I turned it off. That¦s when it started
, during an early winter invasion in November that felt like a reversed spring.
Through layers of wet snow in the field over by the beeches shone bright green l
eaves, that same juicy green that creepers show in April when they announce blis
sful May. But this was November and there was nothing to look forward to on that
day other than getting a log-fire going in the evening, till the stove-pipe tur
ned burning red. And the peace. All of a sudden there was this ¦other condition¦: re
lief and contentment. A feeling rather than a scientifically measurable term, gr
atitude that youthful ambitions didn¦t work out and one didn¦t end up in cobwebs of
obligations. Success seemed to imply hindrance to the advance of the soul. The ¦fe
eling¦ consisted mainly of the absence of certain elements: pop music, mechanical
noise, people... A term I read in a novel once, came to my mind: ¦Misanthropologis
t¦. I had to laugh, things were put into reverse, what had been interesting before
was now boring, what was important was now unimportant and what used to be righ
t was now wrong. A reciprocal element appeared in many things: as one thing impr
oved, another deteriorated. `The Reciprokal System¦ I called it. (One has to give
names to things at a certain age). I was, however, oblivious of the fact that th
is apparently unspectacular state would later on lead me into certain dilemmas.
I was convinced that somehow it had to do with Vilayat¦s sitar music. The playing
finger of his right hand danced up and down like the sting of the scorpion. It w
as around the time when Indian music went out of fashion. Even the Catholic Chur
ch had intervened: We have instructions from above not to allow your music to be
performed here anymore. I didn¦t ask: from how far above...? Next, muscle men rep
laced thin hippie boys in fashion shows. Cars with wide tyres and boom-boom appe
ared. Refined sentiments were regarded a weakness. Little smiles between strange
rs went, too. The term ¦soul¦ was subtly discredited and it wasn¦t long till I wanted
nothing more than my peace and quiet. Vilayat Khan had been like opium or heroin
: in the end I always relapsed - the soul had no knowledge of a better, a richer
watering place. After forty thousand hours of practice and thirty-five years la
ter there is still hope that the sentiments that stem from this music may help m
e break through to a life of ordered neglect.
1 Tardeo
A reminiscence. Fragments of a melody that I used to practise in a small room in
Bombay, India, sometime in the
early seventies of the twentieth century. As these fragments resound a time warp
occurs, and sounds, odours,
weather, people reappear ? it seems that thirty years have not really passed sin
ce then. The impression is blissful,
precious, but lasts only a split second. It is perhaps for this reason that I ke
pt this piece so short
2 ¦Stamboul Train¦.
This title is a quotation for two reasons: firstly, there is Graham Greene¦s novel
. It inspired me to call a chapter of
my novel ¦The Paisley Handicap¦ after it. The trip by train to Istanbul was undertak
en by my wife Ute and myself
in 1987. The chapter in the novel is pure fiction - only Abdullah is real. The p
iece is based on a Turkish folk or
dervish song, that we heard on the radio in Turkey. There have been a number of
earlier versions of this piece that
I discarded, versions that, in my opinion, lacked the metaphysical balance. This
version from 2003 satisfied me.
3 The Quiet World of Shree Nityananda.
Again several versions were made until I settled for this one. It represents an
India without noise, stress and
competitive money-oriented thinking, that once existed. I still experienced this
India in my younger days. Before
my mind¦s intuitive eye the life and times of great Yogi and sorcerer Nityananda a
ppear. Shree Nityananda
never said very much to anyone but who apparently gave inner peace to many.
4 Kubra
The intention here was to slow down the listeners frequency of thinking instead
of creating excitement. This style
of composition was favoured by Florian Fricke (of Popol Vuh ? fame), a much unde
restimated German composer
of the 1970ies. I had the good fortune of working with him on a number of projec
ts, including film music for
Werner Herzog. Kubra contains two sitars - one male, one female - in a dialogue,
they are accompanied by an
incongruent simple drum beat.
5 Die Heiligsprechung des Helmut S.
The German word ¦Heiligsprechung¦ points toward a declaration of sainthood. In this
case, however, the meaning
and the context of the word and the person concerned are left ambigously open. C
ertainly holiness concernes
persons who have not the slightest interest in being ¦certified¦ by theologicians or
made public. To me theology
has always seemed to be the slightly ridiculous attempt to assess exalted states
of consciousness with the means of
ordinary ones.
6 The Paisley Handicap
This stems from the early nineteen-nineties, a time when I thought that I had a
clear vision of the music of the
future. It is one of my ¦structural¦ pieces, one that is supposed to incorporate man
y genres of music. The mezzo-
soprano part is performed by Martina Koppelstetter.
7 Turya
The title track aims at the ideal of transforming and purifying any situation or
object exposed to its sound.
Dispite its very simple form, this piece is the result of a long and tedious wor
k process, one that includes the
exploration of different subtle emotional states with their specific landscapes,
plus the sifting
and comparing of the effect of the music at different times, places, moods, plus
the reaction different people
showed. Turya is an Indian word, meaning the transcendental state.
Konya (1997)
1. Konya
2. Anahat 841
3. Eastern
4. Konya
Utopia (1993)
1 Utopia 15:43
2 Denia 6:47
3 Numa 5:50
4 Cherry Blossom 5:45
5 Mikado 3:41