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Reviews

Vidna Obmana + Capriolo Trifoglio + Diego Borotti — Landscape in Obscurity
(Hypnos hyp1914, 1999, CD)

Vidna Obmana / Serge Devadder — The Shape of Solitude
(Multimood MRC 027, 1999, CD)

by Mike McLatchey, Published 1999-11-01

Landscape in Obscurity Cover artThe Shape of Solitude Cover art

Vidna Obmana has been prolific this year, collaborating with various musicians and continuing to reissue his early albums on the Memories Compiled series. The two titles here are recent collaborations, both revealing divergent and enterprising new directions. Landscape in Obscurity clocks in at 68:40 and is an extraordinarily innovative suite featuring synths, recycling, and tapes which include selected performances by flute and sax players Capriolo Trifoglio and Diego Borotti. This is ambient music of fathomless depth, on the surface the atmospheres are melodic and uplifting, clouds of sound that waft through tunnels and chambers. Melding in with the waves of synth chords are the heavily treated sax and flute lines which meld flawlessly with the plush musical texture. While ambient music often has long chordal drifts, the presence of flute and sax lines intertwining amongst varying layers of the sound creates unearthly harmonies and tonal complexity that is unusual for the style. It is a great success, an album that lends itself to repeated listenings. Where Vidna took the lead on Landscape, he seems to be in more of a background role to Serge Devadder’s guitar playing on The Shape of Solitude. The majority of the eight tracks on here feature a heavily treated and dense guitar sound, unconventionally played, backed by effects, treatments, and recycling. The results are quite mixed along the album’s length, some of the tracks like “Evenings Prophecy” seem disconnected and rambling, while pieces like “The Plain Truth” show more interesting and experimental guitar tones. As the album reaches the 15-minute “A Stinging Memory of Shared Skin,” the music reaches some very spacious moments, the guitar becoming less noticeably prevalent. The album’s finale is rich and in far more familiar territory for Vidna Obmana, a piece of warmth called “Leaving This Place Again.” Perhaps not one of Vidna’s most coherently successful works, but definitely worth the effort.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 18, 1999 releases

Related artist(s): Dirk Serries / Vidna Obmana / Fear Falls Burning

More info
http://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/landscape-in-obscurity-20th-anniversary-edition
http://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/the-shape-of-solitude

 

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