River of Appearance

Vidna Obmana | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 7, 1996)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Projekt Records
• ASIN: B000000BDC
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #418,156 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not only one of Vidna's best but one of the best albums ever, June 16, 2006

By 

Brent (Frederick, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: River of Appearance (Audio CD)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars calm, serene, almost untouched, March 14, 2003

By 

Nikolaos (Greece) - See all my reviews

This review is from: River of Appearance (Audio CD)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A RE-RELEASE OF A VIDNA OBMANA CLASSIC, November 5, 2009

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The River Of Appearance (10th Anniversary 2CD Edition) (Audio CD)

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.