Customer Reviews

Hymn to the Immortal Wind

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This Japanese group made some very loud, very heavy, incredibly emotional instrumental rock before this album. But then they added strings to make the arrangements even more lush and dramatic, and, in my opinion, a new pinnacle was set for the post-rock crowd. This album can be the soundtrack to the most inspiring or most heartbreaking memory you've ever had, depending on your mood. Absolutely, hauntingly crushing, yet undeniably beautiful. That's best of the decade material for sure.

Some reviews complain that this album feels too obvious, or simple, or cliche for a Mono album, and there is certainly some truth and reason to those arguments. Almost every song or album from this band feels like it could be the soundtrack to a film, a beautiful slow paced film, but a film nonetheless. Hymn to the Immortal Wind feels like a movie soundtrack more than any other Mono album. I understand the complaint, because this is supposed to be a piece of music experienced on its own, and if it feels like it should be attached to a moving image, then perhaps, some might argue, that the music is lacking because it is not a fulfilling audio experience.

But I've always felt that Mono is a band whose music deliberately conjures images during the listen. In this case 'Hymn to the Immortal Wind' is Mono's most effective and affecting album to date. Previous albums (none of which I have any complaints for) all feel like a string of related but separate thoughts; whereas 'Hymn to the Immortal Wind' feels like one long complex thought, and because of this, like a movie which consists of several scenes which all contribute to a larger thought, the album lends itself to a cinematic interpretation.

If you can't get past that, you can't get past that, but I assure you, you are letting your own shortcomings get in the way of experiencing a beautiful album.

Give it a couple of listens. Turn the lights down and the music up. Close your eyes. Enjoy.

Okay, I'm new for vinyls but I don't know why I just get addicted for collecting vinyls. This album probably is the best album from Mono and my favorite song is Follow The Map. It's just so exciting listening to your favorite song from one of your favorite artist.
The sound quality is just pure superb and the packaging is worth to glare for a couple of hours.. Just try to listen to this vinyl while you close your eyes and let your mind wander..

If you enjoy soundtracks (and I mean the actual scores used for films, not the compilation of a series of songs by various artists), then you will likely love this album from Mono. I heard it at a music store and the score was amazing. With no vocals, you can just sit back and enjoy the melody. I searched out the other albums and they don't seem to be anywhere near as good as this one. Luckily, the music is also available in MP3 format, so if you want a good sample of what the music is, I really love "Burial at Sea". Hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

I'm definitely a fan of this band. Their previous releases have taken my breath away many times. They're sort of a cinematic band, everything you listen from them could fit in beautiful scenes from art cinema. This album is not an exception. You can feel how it takes you into a diverse motion of landscapes, scenarios and dialogues. But I come to admit that far from this they seem to have approached the top of their career, as if they wouldn't change anything for the future.
I really like the album but it just makes me feel I have heard those sounds before, not talking about dreams but it actually sounds like You Are There. I think 'You Are There' is one of their best appreciated records but it's not one to be followed as a formula. The problem in 'Hymn to the Immortal Wind' is that it's a lack of new things. They're becoming very predictable and the resources are the same from previous works. String arrangements are present along the record. The production is impeccable but it's kind of robotic.
I prefer thinking that this album is an extension of their previous long play. But it doesn't mean they will not move into new dynamics for their further work.

I wanted to think one of my post rock faves were still graciously avoiding stagnation, and for a while on the front side it's still easy to see why the group has largely skirted criticism despite predictability- sheer earnestness. Alas compositional bloat has seemingly gotten the best of the group in the guise of stringed support, distorted crunch, and general playbook beautifications that seemingly do nothing more than shallowly outline Mono's prior attacks.

I have been a fan of Mono's ever since I first listened to Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined. So when I first heard that Hymn to the Immortal Wind was being released I couldn't wait. On Mono's prior releases their music went from very quiet to crashing walls of sound. This album switches it and gives a sense of going from light to dark instead. Hymn to the Immortal Wind is one of Mono's more impressive works with adding a a full 28 piece orchestra behind their music adding a vast array of instrumentation. The tympani, flutes, cellos, glockenspiels, and organs are all adding into the mix. I would recommend this album along with all of their other work to fans of Post-Rock and Classical music. Mono has been compared to bands such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Explosions in the Sky but I think Mono takes it one step further than them and goes beyond the genre to make their music truly out of this world.