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------vidnaObmana
- Memories Compiled 2 |
| STYLE |
|
Minimal, floating
synthetic ambience - 30 brief tonal atmospheres in all.
Disc one: Near The Flogging Landscape, is the more substantial
of the two. Layered synths and wafting melodies weave among
deep wistful pianos, reverberating drops of percussive sound,
distant bells or simply open air. Refined on Gentle Clouds,
the second collection on disc two has been well described
as "beatless formless masses of soft sound". Here
VidnaObmana has chosen a more limited range of voices and
released them like coloured pastel smokes into the air.
Slow, ephemeral washes unfold one upon the other with the
least clutter imaginable. |
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| MOOD |
|
The mood is
serious throughout, but the ethereal, airy nature of most
pieces stops the collection from becoming sombre. Near The
Flogging Landscape unfurls a desolate hypnotic, nostalgia,
feeling like the warm touch of the sun on a winter's day.
For me this is the more beautiful of the two collections,
tranquil yet just a little uneasy. Refined on Gentle Clouds
has a more deeply reflective demeanour, pulling the listener
into deep introspection where occasional dissonant tones
and glassy discords bring a gravity to the constant drifting
classical restfulness. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
Very
tasteful artwork, completely in keeping with the musical content
- serene warmth with a vibrant, twisting chill in the air.
vidnaObmana's own blue-grey toned photography fills all of
the graphic panels. The images focus on what appear to be
classical ruins on a cold but bright day, veined across with
the shadows of branches. Track titles for Near The Flogging
Landscape include Between Changing Gloom, In Winter Calm and
Above The Mellow Earth. Refined On Gentle Clouds contains
Float Through Nights, Found Silence, Over Clouds. |
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| OVERALL |
|
These
two collections were originally released as cassette only
albums on Violet Glass Oracle Tapes and on the Direction
Music label. The recordings were made between 1989 and 1991
and were remastered around 1997-8. The main difference between
the two CDs is one of density rather than mood. Near The
Flogging Landscape is more involved, the layers more distinct,
whereas Refined On Gentle Clouds has a more restricted palette
of sound. Both discs enjoy the same melancholy, vaporous
indolence fading in and out over a large number of short
pieces. |
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| WHO WILL
LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
Beatless
ambient lovers looking for something with a serious neo-classical
emphasis. Music for thoughtful moments - optimism for cold
December. vidnaObmana creates a beautiful emerging, shimmering
sense of loss that wafts the listener into a weighty serenity. |
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------Steve
Roach - Darkest Before Dawn |
| STYLE |
|
Darkest Before
Dawn is a single track, long-form ambient composition intended
to play continuously. This is truly minimal electronic ambience
- no beats, no rhythms, no melodies. Not fully void of pattern
though; the music rises and falls like imperceptibly rolling,
billowing mists within a strictly limited tonal palette.
The variations in sound are slow and hard to organise in
the mind, seeming for all the world like a dense, unchanging
sonic haze, yet in reality the shifting drone substance
of the piece ebbs and flows, thickens and disperses constantly.
This incredible recording was created entirely on one most
heavily processed guitar, live, with no revisits to the
final except to master the CD. |
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| MOOD |
|
Like peering
into an abyss, or gazing up at the vast night sky, Darkest
Before Dawn has a resonant immensity about it. Initially
the mood can feel dark and foreboding, but with constant
play, gradually the darkness warms, becomes familiar and
the chords start to feel open, ethereal, relaxing. There
is no doubt that the tonal shades are thick and murky -
monstrous bass washes warp and twist below shrouded waves
and haunting swells - but colour is not absent, merely subdued
and so very, very deep. There is a sense of isolationism
but not loneliness - having said that, this is a CD that
will shape itself within whatever mental environment you
provide for it. |
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| ARTWORK |
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Plain
black with simply "DARKEST BEFORE DAWN
--STEVE ROACH" laid near the base. Little more
on the reverse except the words "74 minutes" across
an infinity symbol. Solid black inner cover and behind the
CD - inside the booklet we have (in my opinion) the closest
imagery to the music, the photographic equivalent to a colourfield
painting ..... the upper 70% in black merging into grey, but
not colourless grey. No text, no credits, no detail to complicate
the surface - view it as a three-dimensional field, stare
at it until it breathes, heaves - now it approximates the
sound. Steve says "The late visual artist Mark Rothko
painted huge pieces that were like the feeling of the inside
of the booklet..while the music was not directly from this
place, for years I have felt a connection to the pure, deep
quiet place in his work. |
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| OVERALL |
|
Despite
the initial fade in and eventual fade out, there is no real
beginning or end to this CD - come in at any point and you
would notice no difference. Initially I was somewhat over-awed
by the daring harmonic sparsity, but with time I've found
myself lingering within the sound, reluctant to emerge.
It seems almost strange that music with so little apparent
structure could sound so personal and yet this is pure Steve
Roach. Steve's website says "Created September, 2002.
This minimal, immersive sound environment can be considered
a prelude to MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES." That's
good news. |
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| WHO WILL
LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
Pure ambient fans who enjoy sonic minimalism, with variations
so subtle as to be almost subliminal. Those wanting to capture
the timeless, elusive, mood of the tenebrous pre-dawn, and
to keep it caged and restless. There are doubtless those who
want to like this album because it's clever or because it's
so different to the mainstream. Then there are those who will
tap into it, find the right place for it and invest it with
meaning. |
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------Thom
Brennan - Mountains |
| STYLE |
|
In contrast to a number of Thom's
later releases, this is quite a rhythmic ambient collection.
Here carefully constructed melodies carried by guitar or synthesisers
linger among deep drones. Nodding, pulsing or mechanical rhythms
roll below the music drawing most of the pieces onward. Chimes,
metallic rings and tiny bells punctuate some of the pieces
whilst long, drawn out strains of strongly effected guitar
add an air of melancholia. Steve Roach produced this album
and contributed musically to 'The Burning Temple'. |
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| MOOD |
|
The
mood is overwhelmingly one of drama and space. The fascination
with landscape (that will increasing become a focus for Thom)
is emerging already and provides a root for much of the tone
of 'Mountains'. There are a number of oriental inferences
in choice of voices, scales and titles. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
Of
all of Thom's albums, this one has gone through the most cover
permutations; it was originally released back in 1987 as a
cassette only version. We've found five variations from the
original black and white of the MP3.com release to the current
vibrant Raingarden Music version shown above. Text on the
CD is functional with appropriate credits and details of Thom's
website. |
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| OVERALL |
|
Thom's
first album hints at the abstract sound that would follow
on further releases - sheets of smooth ambience sweep across
sequenced synths like clouds over the landscape. The powerful
title track opens with voluminous banks of sonic mist shot
through with piercings of bright strings, gradually a deep,
rolling sequence sets in below and shoulders the softer ambient
structures. Midway the throb of the rhythm breaks down and
dies as dissonant tones enter bringing with them an otherworldliness
that changes the mood - and suddenly it's as though we've
climbed high enough to emerge above the cloud, looking down
on a silken ocean of undulating vapour. Finally the rhythmic
sequence re-enters, faster this time, driving the track to
the end. There are six tracks on this album all of which have
been digitally remastered at the Rain Garden in 2002. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
If
you are familiar with Thom's pure, floating ambient CDs,
this album lets us see where it all began. There's more
melody and structure to hang on to than in later pieces,
however, the trade-mark ambient haze and velvet drones are
all present, interspersed with hints of the Far East and
repeating sequences.
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------Maple
Bee - Chasing Eva |
| STYLE |
|
Chasing Eva is primarily
a female vocal album built around guitars and other live instruments,
bound together with quirky electronica and crisp programmed
beats. This is an album with a very contemporary sound both
vocally and musically. Melanie Garside (AKA Maple Bee) uses
her voice creatively - in whispers, confiding, intimate -
close-up, spoken, distant, passionate and just plain good
singing. |
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| MOOD |
|
The richly textured
gothic aesthetic of the cover art appropriately sets the mood
for Chasing Eva. There are brooding songs here with a dark
edge, gentle mellow acoustics, words strung across sampled
noise and imaginative sound effects and tracks with a chorus
line that will have you hooked and singing along. Maple Bee
clearly enjoys sound - her compositions are never too busy,
each element luxuriates in its own space be it a recorder,
pitch-shifted white noise, flanged guitar or layered whisperings. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
The
sumptuous artwork is of a high standard - all twenty pages
of it. There are plenty of photographs (presented as Polaroid
snaps) and some interesting background information to browse
through. Lyrics are cleverly laid out across worn scraps of
paper taped to flaking walls, weathered woodwork and rust.
Track titles indicate the range of emotional material explored:
Moth Touch, Sadness Landed, Got Her Way, State of Waiting,
Cocooner. If you like something to look at whilst you listen,
this package delivers. |
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| OVERALL |
|
Melanie
Garside herself is certainly busy musically; she works with
the Mediaeval Baebes, is bassist with Queenadreena, handles
guitar & vocals with Vertigo Angels and has even contributed
her voice to Conjure One's 'Pandora'. Her solo CD Chasing
Eva is no less whole-hearted for this though; here we have
a double album of twenty-two tracks with hardly a weak moment
between them! Happily Maple Bee is working a musical vein
much deeper and more challenging than the mainstream trash
that fills most radio stations. She is not afraid to experiment
with her dream-like lyrics, widely varied vocals and even
in producing some "weird noises on odd machines". |
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| WHO WILL
LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
Maple
Bee will draw the post-rock, electronica generation that enjoys
an individual approach to the female voice. If you like emotive
songs, strange noises, guitars, loops and programming - this
CD is a great choice. I'm sure this album will appeals to
fans of Harland, Delerium, Collide and the like. |
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------Brannan
Lane - Piano Dreams and Nightscapes |
| STYLE |
|
Ambient master Brannan Lane presents
here seven pieces of restful musical abstraction. The first
two tracks, Piano Dreams [Pt.1] and [Pt.2] contain some of
the most beautiful and dreamy piano music you will ever hear;
like lustrous sonic globules deep within an ocean of thick
heady ambience, notes rise to the surface, burst open and
reverberate hanging heavily in the living atmosphere. Other
tracks feature slightly percussive melodies and gentle sweeps
of sound, or synthesised chimes tinkling up and down chordal
patterns. An ambient album definitely, but with plenty of
absorbing detail to focus on should you choose to do so. |
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| MOOD |
|
Soporific,
languid, heavenly - in places the musical colour is so deep
that it threatens to permanently tint the air in your room.
The noises of insects and environmental sound feature strongly
as aspects of the audio canvas upon which Lane paints his
moving nightscapes. The mood is mostly shadowy, but invitingly
so - somewhat lighter perhaps on Moonlit Reflections where
the tone is almost playful, like ripples on water; spacious
and vast on Daze Gone By. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
As is often the case, Brannan's own photography
adorns the album cover - hazy, green and abstract, as soft
and suggestive as the music. The colours chosen are exactly
the hues filling my mind as I listen, the titles most apt
- Piano Dreams, Fallen Nightscapes, Moonlit Reflections.
The inside cover is functional, pointing us to Brannan's
website where more of this liquid nectar sound can be acquired.
|
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| OVERALL |
|
Piano
Dreams and Nightscapes has a lot of ambient space but isn't
totally minimal. The loose melodies are engrossing, the
openings between notes luxuriously lingering. Tracks are
presented in themed pairs leading us onward to the final
single piece Daze Gone By. This conclusion to the album
is, at just over fifteen minutes, the longest piece by far
and carries the music further off into electronic abstraction.
Incidental sounds associated with the night and Brannan's
carefully crafted ebb and flow of tones create a powerful
drug that can float seductively in the background or just
as easily fill your senses as a complete listening experience. |
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| WHO
WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
Ambient
lovers who enjoy melodic elements within the sound. Insomniacs,
lullaby seekers or anyone wanting something to complement
the night. This is music to fall asleep to, to dream, create
or just to think to.
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------Cybertribe
- Eons of Dignity |
| STYLE |
|
A fairly dense
global fusion with emphasis on sounds from the Indian sub-continent
and the didgeridoo. Rolling, breakbeats with a tribal edge
underpin subtle musicianship and although this is essentially
an instrumental album, soaring Asian vocals intermittently
pierce the mix, low spoken voices murmur occasionally among
the drones & washes and the sounds of a child peek out
from behind smooth musical structures.
Flutes, sitars, guitars and pianos all find a comfortable
place in John Deere's creation. |
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| MOOD |
|
Although the beat
tempos are generally in the mid to low range, Eons of Dignity
has an upbeat mood, tracks are optimistic and warm - looking
skyward seeking a higher plane. There is a trance-like repetition
employed throughout many pieces that adds to the tribal mood
the Cybertribe cultivates. The use of guitar in some tracks
suggests some rock roots somewhere deep under the ground. |
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| ARTWORK |
|
Bathed
in gleaming blues, purples and cyan, the whole package has
a dark synthetic feel to it. The polished metal idol, standing
unblinking in the shadows on the front cover hints at the
ethnic spices that flavour the music; the rest of the imagery
is mainly abstract and ambiguous. A quote from Huxley claims
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing
the inexpressible is music". Track titles suggest a quest
for the mythical or the mystical - To The Moon, Corridor Of
Dreams and Cascade Of Light. John includes a brief explanation
of the project on the inner sleeve, where we learn that he
is man of more projects than simply this one. |
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| OVERALL |
|
Cybertribe's
sixth CD is a sound combination of electronic beats, restful
instrumentation and the traditional aboriginal didgeridoo
sounds of Marshall Whyler morphing steadily below. The interweaving
of sound tends to downplay the sounds of individual instruments,
presenting instead a tightly bound sonic fabric where the
chordal structures and harmonies take the front stage. Eons
Of Dignity is a consistent vision, where all of the tracks
work as a united entity, a distinct ambience runs throughout. |
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| WHO WILL
LIKE THIS ALBUM |
|
This
is a CD for the global fusion enthusiast who likes light percussion
and what is now becoming known as the "lounge" approach
to composition. The didgeridoo is present throughout most
of the album, but it doesn't dominate, likely this album will
appeal to new age fans who like modern beats and a hint of
restrained trance music. |
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