Gayle Ellett, Mike Henderson, Aaron Kenyon, Chuck Oken, Jr, & Henry Osborne.
Influences
Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Allman Brothers, and the music of our youth: the 1970's.
Sounds Like
Djam Karet LIVE at the Crescendo Festival in France 2009
"The Gypsy And The Hegemon"
Djam Karet LIVE at the Crescendo Festival in France 2009
"The Sky Opens Twice"
"PSYCHE 69" - Djam Karet with VJ Franz K - LIVE at The Immersion Festival
THE BLACK DAHLIA MOVIE (now re-titled as: THE DEVIL'S MUSE)
Directed by Ramzi Abed
Music by David J (of Bauhaus) and Djam Karet
SWIMMING IN THE BIG SKY - The First Spacewalk - by our fan Ed White
Music by Djam Karet
"8:15 NO SAFE PLACE" by our fan Rock-O-Saurus/aRPi (The Netherlands)
Music by Djam Karet
..
AWARDS:
"Number 2 Independent Album Of The Year" ROLLING STONE magazine
"Critic's Choice Award" BILLBOARD magazine
"Number 2 Album Of The Year" ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN magazine
"Number 1 Album Of The Year" GAGLIARCHIVES
"Number 3 Album Of The Year" SEA OF TRANQUILITY
"Number 6 New Age Album Of The Year" PULSE! magazine
"Top 10 Album Of The Year" DEEP LISTENING magazine
"Top 10 Album Of The Year" EXPOSE' magazine
"Top 20 Album Of The Year" PROGRESSOR
REVIEWS:
"Pink Floydian dreamscapes intersect with the jagged complexity of King Crimson and the improv-guitar happenstance of the Grateful Dead" ROLLING STONE magazine
"Never less than exhilarating in its virtuoso interplay, while never succumbing to jam band histrionics'' BILLBOARD magazine
"Hose down your living room, or your furniture will be burned to a cinder by the intense guitar playing of Gayle Ellett and Mike Henderson" GUITAR PLAYER magazine
"The greatest undiscovered band in the world! Rivals the glory days of Pink Floyd" ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN magazine
"The most important band of the last decade" EXPOSE' magazine
"One of the best damn ROCK bands on the planet" AURAL INOVATIONS
"One of the best bands in the genre" THE WAILING WELL
"One of the most satisfying and imaginative recordings to emerge from the ambient genre in the past decade" SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
"Some of the most exciting and intense progressive music of the last 20 years" PROGARCHIVES
"The ultimate Jam band...just a little ahead of its time" RELIX magazine
"Guitars crunch, slash, crash and bang through a bundle of hard driving prog rock cookers. Think 1973 and King Crimson" KEYBOARD magazine
"The writing, arranging and performances are of the highest order. Highly Recomended" RECORDING magazine
"The near telepathic chemistry displayed by these four musicians was dead-on, and they proved themselves masters of their chosen instruments. This is one of the major releases of the year" PROGRESSION magazine
"They can burn the paint right off your walls" WHOLE EARTH REVIEW
"If you yearn for top-drawer, metal tinged prog chockful of classic synth textures, spacey yet incendiary dual guitars, and tight drum and bass grooves - this tasteful and well produced CD is for you" GUITAR PLAYER magazine
"They will dazzle you with breathtaking instrumental performances" SPACE.com
"Djam Karet seems to be a benchmark that bands of this ilk are measured against" SONUS WEST RECORDS
"One of the finest bands in the progressive rock business. Highlights abound throughout, the band's rich legacy continues to unfold with each subsequent release" ALL ABOUT JAZZ
"These guys never cease to amaze or entertain me" MUSIC STREET JOURNAL
"Emerson, Lake and Palmer never really grooved as wel as Djam Karet do" DUTCH PROGRESSIVE ROCK PAGES
"Unearthly voices speak to each other, as strange animal sounds provide a counterpoint to the chiming melody" THE UNION
"They hit the bullseye again with yet another progressive masterpiece" MWE3.com
"A must have for any lover of good musicianship" MUSIC EXTREME
"Their music has a sweeping, epic sound very much in the classic tradition." ALL MUSIC GUIDE
"Progressive" in the purest sense of the term" SEA OF TRANQUILITY
"The music of Djam Karet is still innovating and the universe called Djam Karet is still expanding. It's always a pleasure to review their music" PROGVISIONS
"Djam Karet is a highly sophisticated outfit and their music crosses many boundaries and they do it with ease. They are the best instrumental band in America" KYND MUSIC
"Djam Karet have done a masterful job of moving their trademarked sound in yet another developmental direction. Their sound is easily identifiable being a mixture of psychedelic, symphonic, industrial and ambient. Highly recommended" PROGRESSIVE EARS
"A band with more than 20 years of existence shouldn't need any introductions. Their 15 studio recordings talk for themselves and those who are very much into instrumental progressive music surely already have listened to music from this band" PROG-PT
"This is real barnstormer with a fluid and spacy sound perfectly balanced against a fusiony, raging guitar attack" RATE YOUR MUSIC
"The new release by Djam Karet features tightly performed and well thought out pieces that derive from the classics" MAELSTORM
"Djam Karet continues on with the band’s tradition of producing some of the best instrumental progressive rock ever written. On Recollection Harvest, Djam Karet shows that they do what most bands of the genre don’t, they’re still progressing, creating adventurous instrumental progressive rock music. They simply do not rest on their past laurels. What other band can honestly say that? That being said, I give this album a high recommendation" PROGNAUT
"If you're looking for modern guitar soundscapes to carry on the traditions of "Meddle" or "Lark's Tongues In Aspic", check this disc out" JAMBANDS.com
New Live Shows For 2009:
Djam Karet played 3 LIVE GIGS this summer!!
For the first time in 7 years, Djam Karet performed LIVE! Those in attendance got to see the group that ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN Magazine called “The greatest undiscovered band in the world. Rivals the glory days of Pink Floyd”. They played music from many of the 14 CDs they’ve recorded throughout their 25-year career together, most of which had never been performed live before. Each show featured over 2 hours of music.
The first show was at The Hip Kitty, a nice jazz bar in Claremont, CA. It featured Djam Karet playing over 2 hours of music. This was the first gig in 7 years.
The Hip Kitty, Thursday, August 6th, 8:00pm, 2009: They have a full service bar and fondue lounge. Price: FREE
Djam Karet was the head-lining act at this year’s Crescendo Festival 2009 in Saint Palais, France.
The Crescendo Festival, Saturday, August 22nd, 9:30pm, 2009: Featuring music by Djam Karet and 8 other international groups. This is a three-day Progressive Rock festival held for the past 10 years at the beach on the beautiful west coast of France. Price: FREE
"The Immersion Festival", featuring Steve Roach, Djam Karet, and Loren Nerell was held on October 17th 2009, from 4pm to Midnite, at the Da Center in Pomona, California.
This was a FREE show, and was a one-of-a-kind event. An eight-hour interactive melding of musical tribes in celebration of sound and music, art and visuals, emerging from the moment in a unique relaxed space. The Immersion Festival will be presented as an environment of continuous sound worlds and interwoven musical performances.
The Da Center For The Arts is located in Pomona, just a half-hour drive outside of Los Angeles.
For more info, head on over to: www.ImmersionFestival.com
DATES:
Djam Karet and also Ukab Maerd
Thursday, August 6th, 8:00pm, 2009
Hip Kitty Jazz and Fondue Lounge www.HipKittyJazz.com
502 West First St.
Claremont, CA. 91711
909-447-6700
FREE
Djam Karet and 8 other groups.
Saturday, August 22nd, 9:30pm, 2009
Crescendo Festival www.Festival-Crescendo.com
10 Chemin Des Colombres
17420 Saint Palais sur Mer
France
FREE
The Immersion Festival www.ImmersionFestival.com
Djam Karet, Steve Roach, Loren Nerell
Saturday, October 17, 5:00pm, 2009
The Da Center For The Arts
www.DaCenter.org
252-D South Main St.
Pomona CALIFORNIA 91766
909-397-9716
FREE
Djam Karet BAND BIO: Djam Karet was founded in 1984, and has released 14 albums so far (see the Discography below). The California-based instrumental group has often been called America's greatest undiscovered band. Compared by the press with King Crimson, Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, Ozric Tentacles and Porcupine Tree, they are credited with breathing new life into Progressive rock, leading the way to the genre's future growth. Impressively, such high praise comes from widely divergent sources; Djam Karet has been written up in mainstream music publications such as BILLBOARD and ROLLING STONE, and in prestigious musician-oriented publications such as ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN, KEYBOARD, CD REVIEW, and GUITAR PLAYER, and also in numerous magazines, fanzines and webzines published for the indie/non-commercial rock communities. They have also scored numerous TV shows on ESPN, ABC-TV and other networks, as well as many small film projects and commercials. RELIX Magazine recently noted that Djam Karet, "has always been the ultimate jamband...just a little ahead of its time." EXPOSE' asserted that Djam Karet was "Arguably the most important band of the last decade, and certainly the most unique" and placed the band "at the forefront of their instrumental genre". Put simply by NEW AGE VOICE: "Djam Karet is no ordinary band. They gobble up myriad influences...including New Age, fusion, hard rock, electronic music, world, blues, even surf music...and metamorphose them into fascinating musical hybrids. They have never made the same album twice." With the release of their newest release, Recollection Harvest, Djam Karet makes their strongest statement yet, and shows the world their uncompromising drive and vision.
Djam Karet was founded in 1984 by guitarists Gayle Ellett and Mike Henderson, bassist Henry J. Osborne, and drummer Chuck Oken, Jr. They chose as the band's name an Indonesian word (pronounced 'jam care-RAY) that translates loosely as "elastic time". Early Djam Karet was a proto-"jam band" whose live, totally improvised performances on the southern California/LA area college circuit featured a free-form mixture of guitar-dominated instrumental rock and textural Eastern drone music, as on their 1985 release No Commercial Potential. Djam Karet's mode of working and repertoire gradually expanded beyond improvisation to include compositional elements, field recordings, and studio work. In 1987 the band released The Ritual Continues, which was chosen "Number 2 Album Of The Year" by ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN magazine. Two years later, they released Reflections From The Firepool (now available from Cuneiform Records), which received ROLLING STONE's accolade of " Number 2 Independent Album Of The Year".
In 1991, the band released two separate CDs at the same time: Burning The Hard City and Suspension & Displacement which "show-cased the band's two extreme split personalities...The former was a bone-crushing excursion into heavy power rock with anarchistic guitar solos, and the latter was a brilliant diary of dark, eerie ambient soundscapes." (EXPOSE'). Three years later in 1994, Djam Karet released the CD Collaborator, with guests musicians: Jeff Greinke, Kit Watkins, Marc Anderson, Steve Roach, Carl Weingarten, and many others.
As the 20th Century drew to a close, Djam Karet signed with Cuneiform Records, and entered a period of unprecedented creative productivity that only accelerated as the 21st century dawned. It began working on new releases for Cuneiform, initiated a program to repackage and reissue its back catalogue on Cuneiform, and began playing live on the festival circuit. Live shows were performed at Day Zero for 1999's ProgDay (San Francisco); at NEARfest 2001, progressive rock's premier US showcase; ProgWest 2001 (Claremont) and at 2002's ProgDay (North Carolina). Throughout the years they have also contributed music to 10 compilation releases, both here and in Europe. Many of those tunes are available nowhere else.
When Cuneiform released its first Djam Karet CD in 1997 titled The Devouring, INNERVIEWS noted that Djam Karet is "back with a vengeance, one hell of an album". SPACE.com applauded their expanded sound featuring more keyboards: "As if the band's earlier music hadn't already scorched the ceilings of heaven, this new sonic incarnation burned like a stellar nova." In 1998, Djam Karet performed on the West and East Coasts, recordings a live album for Cuneiform titled Live At Orion, released in 1999, that was applauded as "one of the best live recordings that I've heard" and was chosen as "Top 10 Album of 1999" by EXPOSE' Magazine. The band began to do more work in the studio, resulting in the 2001 release of New Dark Age (Cuneiform) and also the Limited Edition CD release Ascension. Numerous critics called New Dark Age Djam Karet's best to date. In the words of PROGRESSION: "This may be the best Djam Karet recording yet, which is a mouthful, considering that the band's now-voluminous output is amply studded with gems. Their brilliant synthesis of abstract mind-trip and concrete butt-kick is at an all-time high here. Sonically, ...it is simply masterful. This is one of the major releases of the year."
Around the same time as New Dark Age's release, and complementary to its work with Cuneiform, Djam Karet launched a series of self-released CD-Rs, reissues and limited edition CDs for its fans. Within two years, the band had self-released numerous CD projects, including recordings made at New York City's The Knitting Factory, an on-air performance recorded at KCRW-FM, and other archival performances. Out of this creative renaissance arose A Night For Baku. As a distillation of their musical visions across 20 years, A Night For Baku is indeed a diamond in Djam Karet's oeuvre, a true Djam Karet "classic", and featured the addition of new band member Aaron Kenyon on bass. The title derives from Japanese folklore: the Baku are mythical inhabitants of the dream world, valiant warriors who devour nightmares as the spoils of battle. The CD features Djam Karet using more keyboards and electronics, and collaborating on one track with Electronic musician Steve Roach, who worked previously with the band on Collaborator.
It is this new line up as a quintet that created Recollection Harvest, their best and most melodic album yet. Actually two albums on one CD, Recollection Harvest is divided into two chapters. The first-half is filled with their most melodic and jazzy music released so far, with a strong focus on composition and tight arrangements, Mellotrons and soulful guitar melodies. The second-half, titled Indian Summer, features a collection of compositions colored with beautiful acoustic guitars and analog synths, and showcases their more atmospheric side. Together, this release demonstrates the broad and varied world that is Djam Karet. A group that is constantly and consistently growing and expanding their own unique universe.
Discover for yourself the music that is Djam Karet.
Discography
Major Releases:
2005: Recollection Harvest
2004: Live At NEARfest 2001
2003: A Night For Baku
2001: Ascension
2001: New Dark Age
1999: Live At Orion
1998: Still No Commercial Potential
1997: The Devouring
1994: Collaborator
1991: Suspension & Displacement
1991: Burning The Hard City
1989: Reflections From The Firepool
1987: The Ritual Continues
1985/2004: No Commercial Potential...And Still Getting The Ladies
Hello dear friends, Thanks for the friendship & very kind words,very much appreciated ! It is always a big pleasure to listen to your musics, there is a big osmosis between the musicians of the band and a lot of sophistication in your compositions.
You can get more Edhels tracks by following the picture's link ! you are welcome ! EDHELS
Wow... now that's an impressive set of keyboards! Looks like you have some kind of older Moog at the top.
I picked up the harmonium from a Krishna Temple in Houston. They had a "traveling harmonium" that was a little more expensive with nicer inlays/wood work. Plus, it was collapsible! But I went for the standard issue as it sounded just as fine.
Thank you so much for taking time to listen to our music. We're so proud you like our song Heartquake! Soon there will be more progressive tracks on our page, we'll be really pleased to get your comments about them. Please come back to France soon! You Rock! All the best from Witty alley Julien
How are you, Djam Karet? Haven't checked in on you lately, so I swung by to say "HI" &hope you are feeling well! Listen, I have another track up on my page, "Attack Of The Mushroom People." You can hear it right now, if you'd like at: www.myspace.com/psychedelicpablo adios! Pablo
Wow...just saw you were coming to Europe.. Damn.. I have always wanted to see Djam Karet... Can't make it to France that weekend though. I hope you have a great concert and that someone records it and makes it available to the rest of the world who can't be there...
