vidnaObmana — The River of Appearance
(Projekt 185, 1996/2006, 2CD)
by Henry Schneider,
Published 2007-03-01

In 1996 vidnaObmana recorded
The River of Appearance, which was a
high point of his early compositional style. Employing samples, loops,
electronics, and sparse piano phrases, vidnaObmana crafted melancholic
mixtures of drifting sound washes, possibly tone poems in the literal
sense, though after a bit the songs do tend to blend into one another
and you begin to lose interest. The second disc of this tenth
anniversary reissue does not contain bonus material as we have come to
expect. Instead, the second disc is a complete re-creation of the
original music by Oregon's Dreams in Exile using traditional
instruments. The result is quite interesting and enjoyable. Since
acoustic instruments were used, they breathed new life and vitality
into the music. In fact, I find the second disc to be better than the
original. This is an interesting reissue and worth the price just for
the bonus disc.
Filed under: New releases, Issue 34, 2006 releases, 1996 recordings
Related artist(s): Dirk Serries / Vidna Obmana / Fear Falls Burning