Sundaze 1742

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Vidna Obmana is a pseudonym used by Belgian composer and ambient musician Dirk Serries. The name Vidna Obmana, a phrase in Serbian, literally translates to "optical illusion" and was chosen by Serries because he felt it accurately described the music. Obmana's music has often been characterized as anamorphic and organic. He uses the techniques of looping and shaping harmonies, minimizing the configurations to a few notes.....N'Joy

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Belgian producer Dirk Serries, aka Vidna Obmana, is a prolific composer of deep ambient and electro-acoustic music, utilizing slow, shifting electronic figures and sparse environmental recordings to construct long, minimalist, often extremely personal textural works. Taking his nom de plume from the Yugoslavian for "optical illusion" (a concept which carries much weight in his composing, as well), Serries has released material through a wide range of different labels, including Projekt, Amplexus, Extreme, Hic Sunt Leones, Syrenia, ND, and Multimood. Born and raised in Antwerp, Serries began recording experimental noise musics in the late '80s, working solo and in combination with artists such as PBK, exploring the more abrasive side of electronic composition. Beginning with the release in 1990 of Shadowing in Sorrow, however, (the first part of what would come to be known as Vidna's ambient Trilogy) Serries began moving toward an almost isolationist ambient aesthetic, exploring themes of calm, solitude, grief, and introspection in long, moving pieces which tended to chart similar ground as American space music artists such as Robert Rich, Michael Stearns, and Steve Roach (Serries has since collaborated with both Rich and Roach). The first two movements of the Trilogy -- Sorrow, as well as its follow-up Passage in Beauty -- were self-released by Serries in 1990 and 1991, with the third volume, Ending Mirag, appearing the following year on the American ND label. The album was praised as some of the finest post-classical experimental electronic music of its time, and the Stateside connection finally opened his music up to an American audience, leading also to his association with Sam Rosenthal's Projekt label (the entire Trilogy was finally reissued by Projekt sister label Relic as a boxed set in 1996, with several new Vidna releases also appearing in the interim).

Although his textural recordings form the core of his output to date, Serries' more recent solo and collaborative works (such as The Transcending Quest, Echoing Delight, and The Spiritual Bonding) have also found him pushing the minimalism of his earlier works into the Fourth World territories of artists such as Jorge Reyes, Michael Stearns, and Jon Hassell, setting lush, dreamy soundscapes in a larger, more engaging rhythmic framework (usually with contributions from percussionists Djen Ajakan Shean and Steve Roach). Still, as many compilations and retrospectives of his earlier or unreleased work have appeared in recent times so as to confuse somewhat the trajectory of his development, which at any rate seems to trade more or less equally between the freeform conceptual landscapes of his earlier Projekt, Relic, and ND works and the more structured interactivity of the Extreme and Amplexus releases. Collaborations have also increasingly occupied Serries' time, with full-length works with Steve Roach (Well of Souls, The Spiritual Bonding), Robert Rich (The Spiritual Bonding), Asmus Tietchens (a self-titled collaboration for Syrenia), Sam Rosenthal (Terrace Of Memories), and Djen Ajakan Shean (Parallel Flaming) appearing all within the space of only a few years. Both Landscape in Obscurity and The Shape of Solitude followed in 1999, and in the spring of 2000 Obmana returned with Echo Passage and Surreal Sanctuary. Subterranean Collective was issued the following year.

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The first solo Vidna Obmana work in three years is a surprising return to textural composition, particularly since intervening collaborations with Djen Ajakan Shean and Steve Roach have revealed the more restless side of Dirk Serries compositional persona. Still, an overarching focus on melody and dynamics distinguishes Appearance from earlier program works such as the Trilogy, combining mood with movement in far more obviously "musical" ways.

Vidna Obmana - The River of Appearance (flac 288mb)

01 The Angelic Appearance 5:48
02 Ephemeral Vision 8:47
03 A Scenic Fall 10:23
04 Night-Blooming 8:28
05 The Solitary Circle 6:17
06 Weaving Cluster 5:15
07 Streamers Of Stillness 7:25
08 The Ominous Dwelling 6:35

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Recycling is a process wherein a complete piece of music goes "through the wringer." It is more thorough than remixing and more respectful than deconstruction. It allows the processor to maintain a spiritual dialogue with the original composer/performer even if the new piece is unrecognizable (as often happens). Vidna Obmana (aka Dirk Serries) and Asmus Tietchens invented and named the process. Motives for Recycling is their first set of recycled material. This double CD features some of Tietchens' older material (from the '70s and '80s) recycled by Serries. Serries put his minimalist stamp on the process. He also added some experimental and avant-garde sounds to give the set some originality. This highly imaginative album will appeal to fans of Lustmord, Laszlo Hortobagyi, Jeff Greinke, and TUU.

Linea [1+3] was originally released as a cassette in 1988. Recorded at Audiplex Studios, Hamburg, Germany. Eight-track recycling by Vidna Obmana using processors, speed variations, volume changes, loops, FM noise and feedback. Produced, recorded and mixed at the Serenity Studio, Belgium, in December 1996.

Vidna Obmana and Asmus Tietchens - Motives For Recycling  1 (flac 334mb)

Linea [1+3] (1988) = Linear Writings (1996)
01 Vot 4 20:25
02 Vot 5 10:24
03 Vot 4/2 18:28
04 Vot 6 18:00

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Nachtstücke was released in 1980. Contains pieces recorded between 1975 and 1978 on 2-track Revox and 4-track Teac tape recorders. All sounds were created on the Moog Sonic Six synthesizer, using a Philips reverb and an Echolette tape delay for effects. Composed, arranged and recorded at Audiplex Studios, Hamburg, Germany. Eight-track recycling by Vidna Obmana using processors, speed variations, volume changes, loops and harmonizers. Produced, recorded and mixed at the Serenity Studio, Belgium, in January 1998.

Vidna Obmana and Asmus Tietchens - Motives For Recycling  2  (flac 294mb)

Nachtstücke (1975-1978) = Nachtstücke Revisited (1998)

01 Opening (First Nachtstück) 5:41
02 Second Night 6:03
03 4th Theme 7:44
04 Swarm 8:18
05 Miniature One 2:57
06 In A Blaze 5:11
07 Revisited 5:50
08 Miniature Two 5:05
09 Vot 7 11:44
10 Towering 12:28

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The Surreal Sanctuary is a monumental album from Vidna Obmana , it has seven tracks, and each features Serries showcasing a different instrument, including the human voice. (Jim Cole, an extraordinary overtone singer, is a guest performer on the track "Lamentation.") Serries uses the recycling technique that he and Asmus Tietchens perfected, which involves breaking down a base track and remanufacturing it with different shapes, timbres, and textures. At each step, the music is processed, continuously. It's like processing the process while it's being processed by a process within a process. It is endless and curiously like an endless Frippertronics loop; it just keeps going and going and going, yet it remains interesting. This description sounds like it could apply to dissonant and experimental avant-garde music, but this disc is everything that fans expect of Serries -- cutting-edge electronic ambience. This album will appeal to fans of Steve Roach and Robert Rich, and is essential for all fans of electronic music.

Vidna Obmana - The Surreal Sanctuary (flac  329mb)

01 Infinity 5:10
02 Lamentation 7:15
03 The First Coil 8:52
04 The Profound Isolates 10:05
05 Jewel Of The Underground 7:50
06 The Fragmented Dome 17:53
07 Flame 14:02

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Echo Passage is a collaboration between the gifted Belgian composer Vidna Obmana and Italy's Alio Die. Both Vidna Obmana and Alio Die are known for this excellent solo and collaborative works in the ambient genre, but Echo Passage sees these two world-renowned artists coming together to create a enigmatic blend of sonic sound space and deep, ethereal ambience. Echo Passage is a single long-running piece that clocks in at just under 69 minutes. This is a lush and fantastic recording that truly demonstrates Vidna Obmana and Alio Die working at the top of their game. The choice of timbres on Echo Passage are impeccable, and the use of silence and melodic subtlety in the compositions is comparable to the works of Steve Roach, Robert Rich, or even the symphonic works of Claude Debussy, particularly "La Mer" and "Nocturnes." This is an excellent recording, and one that is truly representative of both Vidna Obmana and Alio Die's large body of work.

All three movements merge without pause, delivering more than hour incredible immersion, boredom-free, which is not always case when dealing with time superformats Is it for a bird chant or some spacey layer, all sonic events are beautiful and contribute to maintain interest and feed soundscape with multiple degrees of depth ...Final part alone leaves one speechless, redefining what is the core in so-called "religious" or "sacred" music.

Vidna Obmana and Alio Die - Echo Passage (flac  335mb)

01  Echoes Of Light - A Slip Of Darkness - The Passage 68:32


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