Hymn to the Immortal Wind

MONO | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 24, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Temporary Residence
• ASIN: B001Q8FS9S
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,349 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #96 in Music > World Music > Far East & Asia > Japan

Editorial Reviews

Just in time for their 10-year anniversary, japan's mono return with their fifth studio album, the absolutely massive 'hymn to the immortal wind'. Recorded with steve albini, the music is naturally majestic, with mono's trademark wall of noise crashing beautifully against the largest chamber orchestra the band has ever enlisted. While "hymn" continues to mine the cinematic drama inherent in all of mono's music, the dynamic shifts now come more from dark-to-light instead of quiet-to-loud. The maturity to balance these elements so masterfully has become mono's strongest virtue - save for perhaps their uncanny ability to sound every bit like a plane crashing into a beethoven concert.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Hymns to the Immortal Wind" - Mono, March 26, 2009

By 

Mick V. Nicholas (Allentown, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hymn to the Immortal Wind (Audio CD)

There truly is a lot to be said about this release from Mono. First of all, if you are familiar with Mono's music at all, you know that it is instrumental, soft, and full of rich layers of sounds from a slew of different instruments ranging from melodic violin and piano work to intensely dramatic guitar screams and distorted, punchy drums. This particular piece has a delightful balance of both sides of the spectrum. Each individual song on this album has its own identity but moves to the next song with great fluidity which gives these songs a purpose to be put on an album together and gives this album a symmetry and uniformity that does not constrict but rather acts as a comfort for the listener. The music on this album seems to go from devastating and dark in tone to gradually becoming hopeful and light until the very end when the music seems to explode into contemplative major keys with the beautiful intensity of the guitars and drums balancing perfectly until an orchestra of violins triumphantly finish the album.

This is a magnificent piece of art. The liner notes are filled with beautiful illustrations and snippets of text to go with each song. They add more dimension to this release when paired with the music.

The entire package is an experience and you will definitely get your money's worth when you purchase this album.

I highly recommend this for fans of Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, Russian Circles, and/or Red Sparowes.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, May 20, 2009

By 

Řystein Bye (Norway) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hymn to the Immortal Wind (Audio CD)

Just fantastic! This is post rock at it's best. If you like GYBE and Mogwai, your will certainly love Mono. This is not an album of endless guitar noodling with no development. These guys know how to compose, arrange and play music. Every track starts typically tender and fragile in post rock fashion, builds up layer by layer, and ends in gigantic proportions. Truly beautiful, haunting and melancholic.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime and Hopeful, June 8, 2009

By 

G. Mosley "Itinerant" (Georgia United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hymn to the Immortal Wind (Audio CD)

I found MONO through they're poppier label-mates, Explosions in the Sky, and began with the ominous "You Are There." If that is their masterpiece so far, "Hymn to the Immortal Wind" is a masterpiece of a different sort. Where the darkness of "You Are There" can overwhelm one, "Hymn to the Immortal Wind" offers enclosed pieces that each offer a spiritual movement. Sometimes the mood is despairing, and sometimes the music leads us to abnegation or an elevation in death or the unknown, but the apocalypse that MONO always describes is not always horrific, not always unjust, not always misery, and "Hymn to the Immortal Wind" offers music that leads an active listener through several visions.

The CD is also a must-have for the incomparable artwork. Temporary Residence records is wonderful, and they went all out on this release. The CD booklet is gorgeous. MONO is instrumental, for those who have never heard the band before, and extremely moody and powerful, and the artwork in the booklet offers us several parables, prose poems that are themselves of serious literary merit.