“One of the most beautiful albums of ambient music, all genres included”
1 Without the light of the sky, time is lost 23:39
2 The shadow is slow, the hour is fleeting 17:51
3 The sun from the point of view of the earth 19:34
(CD/DDL 61:05) (V.F.)
(Ambient Music)
A distant rumble pierces the wall of my eardrums as soon as Without the light of the sky, time is lost makes its first meditative vibrations heard. Guitar chords seem to drag in the background while a synth/guitar combination weaves slow undulations whose arabesques melt in the horizon like the sighs, the brushings of a hand caressing our cheek. These waves sigh, cry and/or whisper these secret incantations which have this power to make us fall into the oblivion. The strength of this title, if not of the album! These sound arcs take the same shapes, adjusting their tonalities in order to vary the elegiac range of their transcendental murmurs on our subconscious. Every second of this track is invested with it. One cannot ignore this fragile sweetness whose wordless poetry becomes the ally of our torments as well as of these visions of a past where happiness seemed so evanescent. Everything is there! We only have to let ourselves be cradled by these great mirific wings, a bit like Frodo and Sam when they were extirpated from the scarlet lava to land towards the paradisiacal skies. This is the vision that comes to my mind while listening to this magnificent minimalist esoteric oration that is Without the light of the sky, time is lost. This very long track of THE CHAPTERS OF THE ECLIPSE, what an appropriate title that literally sticks to its 61 minutes, flows its almost 24 minutes in an ethereal vision that flirts with the sonic ashes of the superb album Structures from Silence, especially Reflections in Suspension. Not for nothing has this magnificent album made its way into my iPod night music section!
Have I ever heard a softer, more musical and more striking meditative ambient music than this? Yes, with the music of Steve Roach! And yet it is not Roach that my ears have heard from this beautiful Without the light of the sky, time is lost. It's the divine music of Alio Die and Dirk Serries, also known as Vidna Obmana, who form a more than seraphic duo for the purposes of this beautiful album that comes to us from Projekt Records. Composed and recorded between 2014 and 2022 in the studios of the two musicians in Italy and Belgium THE CHAPTERS OF THE ECLIPSE proposes 3 long and very meditative movements built on the same bases, that is to say, multilayered sound arcs that are melting in the diverse tints of a musical horizon. If we take The shadow is slow, the hour is fleeting, the decor is darker with sometimes raucous hums that give a texture of Dark Ambient music to the vibes. The arabesques still have this texture of synth and guitar crying, like suffering here, in a darker musical panorama. The guitar is heard moaning more in The sun from the point of view of the earth. The subtle buzzes active in the background simulate a slow procession that invites us to a deeper introspection. Alio Die and Dirk Serries couldn't find a better way to conclude an album of such magnitude. Hats off to them, gentlemen! THE CHAPTERS OF THE ECLIPSE invites itself in the category of the most beautiful albums of ambient music, all genres included. Yes, a superb album!
Sylvain Lupari (August 29th, 2022) *****
Available at Projekt Records Bandcamp