Troum for Progressive Electronic

Troum are the German post-industrial duo of Stefan Knappe (aka Baraka (H)) and Martin Gitschel (aka Glit(s)ch) and the continuation of Maeror Tri, which disbanded in late 1996. Knappe (a psychologist who wrote his thesis on drone music) and Gitschel formed the group in 1997, the same year their former Maeror Tri partner Helge Siehl established his own project Tausendschoen, taking their appropriate band name from the Old German word for "Dream" (with their website additionally suggesting the backronym "Tiefenmusic Reaching Our Unconscious Minds"). Knappe and Gitschel process their vocals, guitars, bass, accordions and any instrument on hand into an infinitely-sustained electroacoustic haze, forgoing synthesizers, samplers or software: under the influence of Zoviet France, Throbbing Gristle and the Hafler Trio alongside more effects-oriented rock like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and Sonic Youth, Troum take Maeror Tri's post-Göttsching guitar experiments to new heights (though Knappe admits little familiarity with Ash Ra Tempel).

With a heightened sense of composition compared to Maeror Tri's more-improvised approach, Troum have released roughly two-dozen LPs along with many singles and EPs across a number of different labels such as Equation Records, Beta-lactam Ring and the band's own Transgredient Records (itself a sublabel of Knappe's seminal Drone Records, in operation since 1993). Troum's sonic bedrock is a droning dark ambient defined by albums like Ryna (1998) and Mort aux vaches: Sen (2000), but have increasingly incorporated different styles into their approach, experimenting with percussive ritual ambient on Eald-ge-stréon (2009) and 2001-2003's Tjukurrpa trilogy, adopting a symphonic and post-rock approach to their 2010-2013 "Power Romantic" trilogy, and returning to the noisier industrial of their Maeror Tri days with their most recent works Acouasme (2015) and Vorbei Der Tod (2020). Troum have also collaborated on tracks or full-lengths with like-minded artists Sky Burial, Yen Pox, Aidan Baker, Voice of Eye, Monocube and raison d'être.

Contrary to other ambient artists who plumb the depths of outer (and inner) space, Troum insist their music is anything but escapist, its melancholy expressing a necessarily political desire for a different world; as Knappe explained, "The music we do is based on a kind of dualism: on one hand there's the wish to regress, the yearning to go back to very early and basic states of existence... on the other hand... it expresses also the yearning to change reality into a more human place, to show what could be."

Along with Aidan Baker and Yen Pox, Troum will also appeal to fans of Hall of Mirrors, Asianova, Mathias Grassow, Oöphoi and Rapoon.



"Mare Idiophonika" (2010)
https://troum.bandcamp.com/album/mare-idiophonika-cd-2010

"Grote Mandrenke" (2012)
https://troum.bandcamp.com/album/grote-mandrenke-2012

"Mare Morphosis" (2013)
https://troum.bandcamp.com/album/mare-morphosis-cd-2013

"Mnemonic Induction" (2002) collaboration with Yen Pox https://malignantrecs.bandcamp.com/album/mnemonic-induction

"Eald-Ge-Streon" (2009)
https://troum.bandcamp.com/album/eald-ge-streon-2009-cd-do-cd-do-lp

"Nihtes Niht" (2013) collaboration with Aidan Baker https://aidanbakercollaborations.bandcamp.com/album/nihtes-niht

"Sigqan" (2003)
https://troum.bandcamp.com/album/sigqan-cd-2003

"De Aeris In Sublunaria Influxu" (2015) collaboration with raison d'être https://raisondetre.bandcamp.com/album/de-aeris-in-sublunaria-influxu

"XIBIPIIO. In and Out of Experience" (2017) collaboration with raison d'être https://raisondetre.bandcamp.com/album/xibipiio-in-and-out-of-experience

"AIWS" (2007)
https://troum.bandcamp.com/album/aiws-cd-2007

"Ryna" (1998)
https://troum.bandcamp.com/album/ryna-first-album-1998