Customer Reviews

The River Of Appearance (10th Anniversary 2CD Edition)

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I have about 15 cds of Vidna Obmana. If you've never heard him before, this is the one to get. It is, in my humble opinion, the best ambient music recording ever made. I had to buy another one I listened to my first one so much. Think about how many recordings it would take to "wear out" a cd. (more like scratch to the point beyond repair) Anyway, the music here is gorgeous, it is original, it is incredibly expressive, it is the album that when I play it for people who've never heard ambient music before, they say, "wow, this is good." It's really an album which has defined me, no joke. I'm a composer, went to college on a music scholarship, and when I heard this, I was blown away. It's the most original thing I've heard since I was a little boy. Nothing, I mean NOTHING before this album sounded like this. No one dared sound like this. Vidna Obmana is a master of sound creation. It isn't really this or that sound that is original in his music, though that does happen, but it's the combination of sounds which stand in their own musical space which create a song or work. I can't say it strongly enough, that if you give this album a chance, it will reward you in ways which are so inspiring, so deeply and profoundly touching.

More melodic than ever, Mr Dirk Series makes a turn back to his first solo works -aestheticaly and structurally- and comes up with this little gem. Tribal elements are present only in one track (in a magnificent way), but it is a positive thing in my opinion, as the "flow" of the album is not unsettled. Sparse piano lines intermeddle with drifting loops/keyboards and with sounds of water (rather a cliche in ambient music nowdays, but always welcome) in a unique way. Add to these a touch of melancholy, more intense than his previous works, and we probably have his best work up to now.

Vidna Obmana (which means "optical illusion" in Slavic) is a Belgian ambient electronic composer named Dirk Serries. He has composed many, many fine ambient works---often in collaboration with other ambient composers such as Steve Roach (Well of Souls, Cavern of Sirens, Spirit Dome), Jeff Pearce (True Stories), Brannan Lane (Deep Unknown), and others.

This is one of Vidna's very best solo efforts, and was composed between 1995 and 1996; he describes it, "The River of Apppearance translates my affection for the calm, serene and almost untouched: and it is definitely one of my most personal albums in years." Separated into eight pieces (ranging in length from 5'15" to 10'23"), the album as a whole is a peaceful, soothing excursion, with instruments (e.g., keyboard) often played "live" over an ambient background.

The 10th Anniversary edition includes the original, as well as a "re-creation" of the original by an Oregon group called "Dreams in Exile."

This is a "must have" release for fans of Vidna, or ambient music in general.

This CD is a nice, long and relaxing excursion into mystical ambient spaces. The mood set by this CD is worth revisiting again and again.

Complex arrangements combining synths, piano, and other instruments resulting in very deep ambient music. A classic. Hard to find this type of dream-filled ambient. Most current ambient tends to be drone work with little to make it stand out between other works. This release, however, is a stand out. Right up there with classics like Steve Roach's Dreamtime Return, although not as tribal. Well worth the money for any ambient fan.