"The astounding thing is, as much as Drumtonic is also serious music, the instrumentalists' mastery and knowledge never overpowers their musicality. The music itself is always in the foreground, sometimes impelling, sometimes repetitive, it gradually unfolds into an undertow that captures both the listeners and the musicians themselves. Ultimately one finds oneself in a place where one would not necessarily have expected with a classically trained ensemble - in an urban space, in a club, in the neon-lit night."
(The daily newspaper "taz", January 2004)
"Improvisation and techno music type of effects meet with traditional music of various cultures, from New Orleans to Europe to Japan. The whole thing dazzles and absolutely doesn't correspond to the cliché of a purely percussion album.
…Claude Debussy already breathed the air of the Javanese Gamelan orchestra in the World Exhibition of 1889 in Paris, ElbtonalPercussion takes this process to its completion."
(JazzPodium 12/03)
"Music of breathtakingly crystal-clear virtuosity."
(Concerto 11/03)
"Their sound spectrum was already remarkable without the use of electronics, now it has become even greater. There is a minimum of one sound in every piece that one has not heard elsewhere. Their music, which is often a composite of all kinds of rhythms, sometimes sounds like Steve Reich on the dance floor and sometimes like the bells of a swinging choir of angels."
(Hamburger Morgenpost, January 2004)
"The percussion engineers from ElbtonalPercussion utilize every opportunity not to fall into the mechanical routine trap… jazz and club dancing, inter-cultural dialogue and improvisation encounter each other in this well-balanced concept in a congenial way."
(Music Manual, Winter Edition 2003)
"This album is not only musically and technically of the highest level, the listener is also taken on a journey of moods that range from meditatively-contemplative, ironically playful to the urge to dance. Luxuriant!"
(Percussion Creativ Newsletter, CD of the Month)
"Based on extended harmonically complex ostinati on marimba, xylophone and vibraphone, the ethno sounds merge into atmospheric worlds, to enable a light cruise of the lively played percussion themes … Drumtonic literally invites the listener to concentrate and abandon themselves to the details in the music and to listen to the multilayered facets of sound."
(Sticks 12/03, CD recommendation)
"It is to be hoped that this CD will be discovered by the clubs to bring ElbtonalPercussion their long-overdue economic success."
(drums&percussion, January 2004)
(The daily newspaper "taz", January 2004)
"Improvisation and techno music type of effects meet with traditional music of various cultures, from New Orleans to Europe to Japan. The whole thing dazzles and absolutely doesn't correspond to the cliché of a purely percussion album.
…Claude Debussy already breathed the air of the Javanese Gamelan orchestra in the World Exhibition of 1889 in Paris, ElbtonalPercussion takes this process to its completion."
(JazzPodium 12/03)
"Music of breathtakingly crystal-clear virtuosity."
(Concerto 11/03)
"Their sound spectrum was already remarkable without the use of electronics, now it has become even greater. There is a minimum of one sound in every piece that one has not heard elsewhere. Their music, which is often a composite of all kinds of rhythms, sometimes sounds like Steve Reich on the dance floor and sometimes like the bells of a swinging choir of angels."
(Hamburger Morgenpost, January 2004)
"The percussion engineers from ElbtonalPercussion utilize every opportunity not to fall into the mechanical routine trap… jazz and club dancing, inter-cultural dialogue and improvisation encounter each other in this well-balanced concept in a congenial way."
(Music Manual, Winter Edition 2003)
"This album is not only musically and technically of the highest level, the listener is also taken on a journey of moods that range from meditatively-contemplative, ironically playful to the urge to dance. Luxuriant!"
(Percussion Creativ Newsletter, CD of the Month)
"Based on extended harmonically complex ostinati on marimba, xylophone and vibraphone, the ethno sounds merge into atmospheric worlds, to enable a light cruise of the lively played percussion themes … Drumtonic literally invites the listener to concentrate and abandon themselves to the details in the music and to listen to the multilayered facets of sound."
(Sticks 12/03, CD recommendation)
"It is to be hoped that this CD will be discovered by the clubs to bring ElbtonalPercussion their long-overdue economic success."
(drums&percussion, January 2004)