Entheogenic is a musical project consisting of Piers Oak-Rhind and Helmut Glavar that crosses musical style boundaries. According to the two members, the music mixes "coloristic electrophonics" with "impressionistic orchestra-like sound".
The use of both eastern and western vocals, tribal sounding instruments, as well as an array of synthesizers built the foundation of the Entheogenic sound. Their epic soundscapes manipulated through sound effects and catalystic sonic experimentations have a semi-classical feel to them. Entheogenic also records and uses a large amount of "natural samples" - water, human voices, animals, etc.
According to some people, Entheogenic was one of the two major psybient projects (the other being Shpongle) whose experimentation influenced the psychedelic electronic scene. Entheogenic's first release "Entheogenic" is a concept album that recounts the tale of an Ayahuasca journey, with layered trance melodies and texturally rich arrangements. Three labels bid for the release: the former UK based Flying Rhino, the German based Cosmophilia and the Spanish 3D Vision. The album was released on 3D Vision Records.
In 2003, their second album "Spontaneous Illumination" released on c.o.r.n. recordings was the first psy-chill album ever to make it to number 1 in the German Chill-out charts. Their first two albums were noted for their epic thematic lengthly tunes. Both albums feature the work of Sound Engineer Glenn Schick (Morcheeba, Ludacris etc.) In 2005, "Dialogue of the Speakers" (Chillcode Records), continued the success of its predecessor, and went straight to Number 1 in the German charts, where it remained for 24 weeks. "Golden Cap" (Chillcode Records) was released in 2006. G.C. was received by their now quite large following with a love-hate attitude.
History edit:
Background edit:
Entheogenic was formed in 1999 by producer, engineer, songwriter Piers Oak-Rhind and Helmut Glavar. The duo met while working for Emagic (a former producer of music-studio software and hardware such as Logic, acquired by Apple Inc. in 2002). The name Entheogenic is derived from the term Entheogen coined in 1979 by a group of ethnobotanists and mythology scholars to describe psychedelic substances used in a religious or shamanic context.
Entheogenic on the German "Chill-Out" Charts edit
In November 2003 Entheogenic's second album, Spontaneous Illumination, released on the German label C.O.R.N. Recordings, was the first psy-chill album ever to make it to number 1 in the German charts, where it remained Number 1 for 8 weeks. Spontaneous Illumination stayed in the Top 10 for an additional 12 weeks.
