Product Description
- the Angelic Appearance | MP3 excerpt
- Ephemeral Vision | MP3 excerpt
- A Scenic Fall | MP3 excerpt
- Night-Blooming
- The Solitary Circle | MP3 excerpt
- Weaving Cluster
- Streamers of Stillness | MP3 excerpt
- The Ominous Dwelling | MP3 excerpt
re-creation by Dreams in Exile
- the Angelic Appearance
- Ephemeral Vision
- A Scenic Fall
- Night-Blooming
- The Solitary Circle
- Weaving Cluster
- Streamers of Stillness
- The Ominous Dwelling
10th Anniversary 2CD edition | Projekt re-releases vidnaObmana’s ultimate fan favorite ambient work with a bonus disc: the entire album performed by Oregon’s Dreams in Exile.
This 1996 album was a high point of vidnaObmana’s early compositional style, presenting a minimal and serene flow utilizing sparse piano lines which intermingle with drifting keyboard loops and organic rainstick sounds. There is an overall harmonic unity on these 8 pieces, stripping dense walls back to reveal a slowly changing sound configuration. The 2nd disc is a complete re-creation of the original on traditional instruments. Re-experience the everlasting melancholy of the River of Appearance on this exceptional 10th anniversary release.
Alternative Press “Atmospheric pieces from the Belgian composer. At times, sparse, pretty piano lines float over shimmering walls of electronics, evoking a melancholic yet romantic feeling. At other moments, cyclical melodies interweave with each other in a slowly moving stream of sound which stirs the imagination. The talented vidnaObmana continues to evolve and refine his music, now draping his spacey aural atmospheres with more defined melodies.”
WEFT Epiphanies Radio “Nothing in Vidna’s previous releases will prepare you for the glories, the passion, and the transcendental beauties of this release. This is a crowning achievement; in the heavenly, soaring, shimmering, meditative vein. This is a must-have release for all lovers of space and ambient music.”
2CD in jewel box.
Kirk of DiE writes: “Corey and I have always been fans of the nearly lost art of albums. Between us, we can think of at least a dozen complete albums in which each melody, inflection, and subtle quirk are etched completely in our minds and memories. the River of Appearance is one of these. The first track I heard from the River of Appearance was in 1996 while driving on the deserted Palisades Parkway at 4:00 am. I was spinning around the radio dial when I suddenly heard a distant, unearthly moan that seemed to originate somewhere outside my car – it was “Ephemeral vision.” Four years later, vidnaObmana invited us to record River ourselves. The compositions were scored using an invented technique which involved drawing visual navigational charts of each piece. With the help of a children’s choir, a cellist, and two horn players, the River was diverted into a different channel – one in the realm of Dreams in Exile.”
padmin –
From Opus Zine
Exploring the Depths of The River of Appearance, vidnaObmana’s Ambient Masterpiece
When Dirk Serries officially retired his vidnaObmana moniker in 2007, he closed the book on a remarkably prolific musical project. There have been over a hundred (official) vidnaObmana releases, not to mention numerous compilation appearances and collaborations with the likes of Alio Die, Jeff Pearce, Steve Roach, and Black Tape For a Blue Girl’s Sam Rosenthal (to name a few). With such a wealth of music spanning genres (e.g., ambient, power electronics, industrial) and labels (e.g., Ladd-Frith, Projekt, Soleilmoon), some might find it hard to pinpoint their favorite vidnaObmana album. Not me.
I enjoy, and have written about, a number of vidnaObmana releases — including 1990’s Near the Flogging Landscape and 1992’s Shadowing in Sorrow — but there’s one vidnaObmana album that I return to most often, and that continues to hold a very special place in my heart: The River of Appearance, which was originally released by Projekt Records on November 8, 1996. Admittedly, that may be partially due to the fact that it was also the first vidnaObmana album that I ever bought, after seeing Soulwhirlingsomewhere’s Michael Plaster describe it as the sort of music one hears upon entering heaven. Soulwhirlingsomewhere’s Eating the Sea was my favorite album at the time, so I put great stock in Plaster’s words — and as it turns out, he wasn’t too far off.
Put simply, The River of Appearance is a masterpiece of serene, contemplative ambient music for which terms like “heavenly” and “ethereal” are perfectly apt even as they fail to adequately capture its essence. I return to this album when I need refuge, be it from the torment of a migraine or illness, or from a world that feels increasingly insane. With its shimmering electronics and elegant arrangements, The River of Appearance handily provides just such a tranquil space.
The last 25 years have done nothing to diminish my appreciation of The River of Appearance. To the contrary, the last few decades have only refined the album, its soundscapes and arrangements growing in sublimity and elegance with the passage of time. Its songs never cease pulling me into their strange yet beguiling worlds. Indeed, I listened to it just a few days ago after a terrible headache drove me to bed early, and I was in sore need of escape. Within just a few minutes of pressing “Play,” I felt myself growing more at ease as the album’s qualities — serene, contemplative, atmospheric — took hold.
Although vidnaObmana officially shut down over a decade ago, the project was so prolific that Serries still occasionally releases vidnaObmana albums culled from old compilations and collaborations, as well as previously unreleased music — some of which, like 2020’s Out of Solitude, was actually recorded years before The River of Appearance. Even so, The River of Appearance remains a singular achievement, a high-water mark in vidnaObmana’s vast catalog — and the ambient music genre as a whole. -Jason Morehead
Reviews Editor –
From Sequencer Welten
Nach der The Origin Reversal bin ich erstmal ganz vorsichtig an weitere Musik von Dirk Serris, bzw. Vidna Obmana herangetreten.
Nachdem ich aber Ausschnitte der The River Of Appearance gehört hatte, schöpfte ich neuen Mut und bestellte sie mir. Mein Mut wurde belohnt und ich bin froh, dass ich an Dirk´s Musik drangeblieben bin. Das Original brachte Dirk Serries unter seinem Pseudonym Vidna Obmana bereits 1996 heraus, 5 Jahre später erschien die Musik im neuen Gewand: mit Gastmusikern, akustischen, traditionellen Instrumenten und Vocalisten ….. ich war wirklich erleichtert, dass es auch “leichte” Musik von Dirk Serries gibt!!
Athmosphärische, ruhige und harmonische Stücke im Ambientstil, die durchaus meditativen Charakter hat. Obwohl die beiden CDs die gleiche Tracklist aufweisen, wirken sie sehr unterschiedlich. Die erste CD ist elektronisch und minimalistisch ausgelegt. Ideal zur Entspannung und Meditation.
Die zweite CD wirkt wesentlich lebendiger und frischer, was auf den Einsatz von einigen traditionellen Instrumenten und Vocalisten zurück zuführen ist. Beide Versionen haben ihren eigenen Charakter und eigenen Reiz: wirklich eine sehr schöne Bereicherung in meiner CD-Sammlung. Ein “Must-Have” für Ambient-Fans! -Uwe Sasse