Vidna Obmana - An Opera for Four Fusion Works, Act 3
Artist: Vidna Obmana
Title: An Opera for Four Fusion Works, Act 3
Hypnos Recordings
2006. Act III of VidnaObmana's series AN OPERA FOR FOUR FUSION WORKS is now ready! Remember, Act I was released in a four-CD case, and acts II through IV are sold in a simple paper sleeve (with booklet) to be inserted into the Act I case.
Each of the four acts of this project utilize different source recordings by a different artist. This time the featured artist is Kenneth Kirschner, performing on piano. The treatments and processing by vidnaObmana this time are quite daring and experimental, edging at times into the realm of "glitch" or subtle noise experimenation. Overall, though, the feel is of gentle piano sonics, with a smooth and hypnotizing atmosphere rarely disturbed by well-placed bits of digital distortion.
Belgian ambient experimentalist Vidna Obmana is working at the height of his powers here, as he nears the end of his 4-part "Opera" cycle.
The usual disclaimer applies... this music is not in any real sense "opera" music, and the term is used only to suggest the varied, multi-part quality of this ongoing release.
Numina - Eye of the Nautilus track list with MP3 samples:
1. I
2. II
3. III
4. IV
Purchase direct
Reviews
"The fact that Dirk Serries, for twenty or so years, the man behind Vidna Obmana, started a new 'band' (again of just himself), did lead to the conclusion that Vidna Obmana was dead, or on hold at least. But it's not. Or perhaps it is, and is Hypnos just a bit late, releasing this album. It's the third act in a series of four. The first one was by Vidna Obmana himself, and on the second he transformed the saxophone sounds (see Vital Weekly 420). For the third act Vidna Obmana treats the piano sounds, played by Kenneth Kirschner, who is perhaps best known for similar collaborations with Taylor Deupree. The piano playing of Kirschner is quiet, just a few notes every once in a while, and the recordings he makes are usually finely treated with small clicks and hiss. This is excellent music for Vidna Obmana to expand his ambient tapestries on. Vidna Obmana adds guitar and synthesizers, after which he locks the music into his chamber of sound effects, looping all the sounds, making small shifting changes while certain elements keep returning ad infinitum. The piano sounds by Kirschner remain audible throughout this work, it doesn't seem that they are treated to such an extent. In the warm ambient bath created by Vidna Obmana they find a good home. Soberly orchestrated, the dedication to Morton Feldman is no surprise (although perhaps many more notes are played here than on average Feldman composition). Vidna Obmana doesn't necessarily add something new to ambient, but his music still belongs to the best the genre has to offer."--Vital E-Zine, Frans DeWaard
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