A decade on, comm resurfaces with sharpened clarity, blending vintage IDM textures with forward-looking electronics. Reissued via mindcolormusic and drøn‘s Bandcamp, it remains a vivid fusion of modular complexity, analog warmth, and emotional depth—an enduring benchmark in abstract electronic music.
Channeling a distinctively vintage IDM aesthetic
Originally unveiled on CD by Carpe Sonum Records in 2015, this long-anticipated gem finally surfaces on vinyl—revitalized with two never-before-heard additions. Under the drøn banner, Ingo Zobel, Christoph Abert, and Frederik Dahlke have long sculpted intricate sonic terrains rooted in abstract electronics, channeling a distinctively vintage IDM aesthetic with forward-facing momentum.
A decade since its debut, comm returns with renewed clarity via mindcolormusic and via drøn‘s Bandcamp page. The once-hidden contours now shimmer with precision; basslines and bleeps—especially in pieces like “flang” and “modula”—sparkle and twitch like circuitry brought back to life, their edges honed to crystalline brilliance. Heavier segments shift and decompose with rhythmic elegance: “robotik” and “scramble” spiral in acidic disarray, as if exhumed from deep, geological layers—corroded, chaotic, yet undeniably vital.
The original liner notes spoke of a “teeming microverse of simmering percussive patterns, randy oscillators, and hugely inventive modular synth acrobatics,” and that description still resonates. This release remains a stunning artifact from artists who quietly upheld the ethos of analog futurism, where vintage machinery converses fluently in tomorrow’s dialect. “Radiant Haze” masterfully converges precision laser bursts with ambient electronic shimmer, weaving tranquil melodic threads into the very fabric of mid-’90s sonic architecture.
New additions like “spherics” unravel with fractured breakbeats swirling into gravitational whirlpools, while “lithe” closes the journey on a more delicate note, bathed in saccharine ambiance and fluttering pads. Each moment reaffirms drøn’s deft hand at balancing complexity with emotional depth.
Still a benchmark release—one that fuses retrofuturist imagination with a tactile, analog soul—comm endures as a vivid portal into the ever-evolving language of electronic sound.
A few words from Ingo Zobel ::
drøn is all about fun and enjoying the creative process. We just do what comes into our minds, without any forced rules or following trends. When we’re in the studio to make music, it is a very spontaneous thing. We don’t have an album in mind, or a concept. We just do individual tracks and let our mood decide about the outcome of the music. Whenever we want to make an album, we go through our archives and pick the tracks that fit together. So there is no real story behind any of our albums either. All that obviously makes it difficult to write anything specific about comm. I guess we like the idea that the people make up their own “stories,” while listening to the music.
Some other facts about drøn ::
drøn is a German group and was founded in 1997. It consists of Frederik Dahlke, Christoph Abert and me (Ingo Zobel). We already made electronic music individually since 92/93 though. In 1999 we had our first compilation release on the label Elektrolux. Between 2000 and 2002 we released three albums on that label and also appeared on the Space Night TV broadcasts in Germany, which were quite famous in the scene back then. Then we had kind of a break. Because of some legal reasons we released two albums in 2006 and 2007 under a different name, Signalform, followed by another break, which was even longer than the first one. During all those breaks we didn’t stop making music though, we just didn’t release anything. Instead we filled our archives and also worked on other collaborations. In 2013 we finally revived drøn and started releasing stuff again. During the years we released over 10 albums, lots of compilation tracks and also some remixes, on more than a dozen different labels like Touched Music, Mighty Force, Pulse State, mindcolormusic, Science Cult, Ping-Discs, just to name a few.
comm (Reissue) is available on mindcolormusic. [mindcolormusic | drøn]
