Release | Zennez Records 2023
Catalogue number | ZR2023019
Producer | Mark Alban Lotz

Studio | Power Sound Studio Amsterdam, The Netherlands 26 & 27 May, 2022
Recording engineer | Fieke van den Hurk
Mix & Master | Micha Kanter, The Hague, November 2022 and March 2023

Cover photo | Visarute Angkatavanich
Mark Lotz Trio photo | Vijay Slager
Artwork | Frauke Erichsen

Many thanks to Eelco Topper, Remigijus Kazukauskas and Chris Weinheimer.

This record has been financed with the help of the Sena Muziekproductiefonds and the Lotz Of Music Foundation.

Listed as Recommended New Release at NYC Jazz Records Magazine August 2023.
The New York City Jazz Record has been nominated “Best Jazz Publication” for 17 years! (2006, 2007, 2009-2023) alongside Down Beat and JazzTimes. “Simply the hippest journal about jazz in New York that has ever been published” says saxophonist Joe Lovano.

CultureJazz (France)
“This is a musician who makes no compromises.”
“Music that’s conducive to rambling, with a rhythmic tendency towards the obsessive, hard-hitting climaxes and zones of appeasement to great effect.”

Jazz Portugal (Portugal)
“Mark Lotz’s return to more avowed jazz is a vibrant, energetic record that sets alarm bells ringing.”

All About Jazz (USA)
“These ten tracks make a real good soundtrack for a really sweet trip. The music rides high and cascades like the seconds, the minutes, the hours of the psychedelic experience itself.”

Jazzhalo (Germany)
“Instead, Lotz and his trio colleagues, {cut} show where the musical journey can lead even without drugs of consciousness. And that is very convincing.”

JazzAndMo (Belgium)
“Fascinating compositions and improvisations. This is not just a tight trio. It is a true symbiosis. Brilliant!”

Jazzflits (The Netherlands)
“All three own a balanced sense of both melody and rhythm. This lends all the songs their power, because everything in them is right: a smooth, organic groove, fine melodies, and catchy compositions. Lotz deploys his highly expressive flute playing optimally, without it becoming a display of instrumental technique. Everything is in the service of musicality and storytelling, where you cannot sit still for a moment.”

Moorsmagazine (The Netherlands)
“A magnificent musical trip.”

Soundtrack Of My Life (USA)
“This album is a breath of fresh air, great fun to listen to, and a mind-expanding musical experience”.

Salt Peanuts (Norway)
“This new trio sounds like a tight unit that has established its organic, immediate, and urgent dynamics.”

Music Frames (The Netherlands)
“Their interplay interlocks like an adventurous puzzle.”

Jazznu (the Netherlands)
“The life we lead as human beings is contained in the performance of the ten compositions Lotz put together with such care. You may cite the philosophy behind them, but the music is so strong that it transcends even the person of Timothy Leary. Turn on, tune in, drop out, turn on, tune in, and drop out so.”

Los Angeles Jazz Scene Magazine (USA)
“Mark Lotz is one of the world’s top jazz flute players. Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out is a stimulating set well worth checking out.”

Fluit (The Netherlands)
“The energy splashes out of the speakers. A fine trip with the Mark Lotz Trio.”

La Habitation De Jazz (Spain)
“The trio functions as one man.”

Nieuwe Noten (the Netherlands)
“Extremely entertaining.”

Citizen Jazz (France)
“Close-knit trio, whose spirit has travelled in an inspired way.”

Jazzmania (Belgium)
“Like a painter, Lotz plays with colours and tones. And to do that, he doesn’t need to have soaked up any acid beforehand – all he needs is talent, hard work and inspiration.”

On the compositions & improvisations

1. Push
This track is inspired by the Vegetative Invertebrate Circuit No. 1.
About the bio-survival level during infancy. Basic attitude of trust or suspicion, the infantile fear & love. There is just one movement here: forward & survive. This track does.

2. Beat The Drum
This track is inspired by the Emotional-Locomotion Circuit No. 2
About the metamorphosis from crawling to walking. When the child begins to move around and leverage emotional power over others. When stimulated it triggers dominant, aggressive behavior or submissive, cooperative behavior. The driving 12/8 feel and the melodies fitting into that beat evoke that energetic feel I get from that circuit.

3. Dance The Monolith
This track is inspired by the Laryngeal-Manual Symbolic Circuit No. 3
On our modes of artifact-manufacture and conceptual thought. Building a mental map. This is what that tune does. It starts off with just a little melodic cell and developing it further building an architectural structure.

4. Lust
This track is inspired by the Socio-Sexual Domestication Circuit No. 4
The fourth circuit kicks in with the production of sex hormones and concerns the orientation towards socio-sexual roles. This track is about Lust. Celebrating live while being very dominant, full of energy and having fun!

5. Relax And Flow
For Hermento, John and Paul
After the fourth track we need some relaxation right? It is inspired by John Lennon/Paul Mc Carney’s tune ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.
It borrows its beat from Yusef Lateef’s ‘Nile Valley Blues’ and also contains hints of Hermento Pascoal’s ‘El Uovo’.

6. Bring Delight
This track is inspired by the Neurosomatic Circuit No. 5
Circuit No 5 is designed to be used in zero-gravity and is about reprogramming previous mistrust or constraints to adopt a looser, more adaptive perspective. A hedonic turn-on occurs, a rapturous amusement. I tried to capture the joyous quality and lightness – as if flying – as well as to have this ‘human’ element in there.

7. Consciousness
This track is inspired by the Neuroelectric Circuit No. 6
Circuit No. 6 is about recognizing the synchronicity of all phenomena. It makes communication with ‘Higher Intelligences’ possible. The mysterious quality of this drum feature and the fact that drums function as morse-code was the inspiration from this circuit.

8. Isabel
For Isabel Cabanillas de la Torre
Since starting gigging with our trio this tune made part of our repertoire. Isabel was a female artist and activist who got murdered by a femicide in January 2020. I felt sad and furious hearing about her horrible and unnecessary death. This composition reflects the sweetness and bouncy energy of Isabel but also sadness and love.

9. Up!
This track is inspired by the Neurogenetic Circuit No. 7
About DNA memory coiling back to the dawn of life. Evolutionary forecast to immortality and interspecies symbiosis. People are now traveling to other worlds. Transcendence is no longer a metaphysical concept. It has become reality. The fast forward beat, it’s energy and the excessive use of the whole-tone scale follow this feeling of energetic excitement of an ‘up’ movement.

10. Trance Out
This track is inspired by the Neuro-Atomic Metaphysiology Circuit No. 8
The goal of this neuro-circuit is nothing less than fusion with galactic and quantum consciousness. Leary writes “We expect that humanity will be instructed in the reception of nuclear signals by higher intelligences after leaving the planet.” The two melody lines and repetitive parts in this composition were inspired by this. I felt that especially the sound of the Indian Bansuri and little use of sound effect fit this circuit well.

Trance Out has also been recorded during Corona in duet with Zack Lober for the immersive theaterplay ‘June, Taipei, Taiwan.