“At Future Dawn” is the second Cloudchamber release for Dirk Serries. Picking up where Dirk left off with “Nocturnal Discord”, this album pushes those ambient boundaries once more. Known since the early eighties for his trademark ambient music under the Vidna Obmana pseudonym, Dirk continues to steer his music into new territory using a motherboard of pedal effects and one electric guitar. “At Future Dawn” contains music that constantly breaks down and build itself up again, all done real-time without any specific editing apart from EQ-ing and mixing. The music becomes an organic flow of processing the guitar, carefully analyzing the tonalities to create 6 songs of beauty, introspection and abstractness all at once. Let yourself be immersed in this new world Dirk Serries is creating.

Copies are now available from our bandcamp shop :
https://dirkserries.bandcamp.com/album/at-future-dawn

VITAL WEEKLY REVIEW
“You can’t say Dirk Serries is a one-trick pony. Following many years as Vidna Obmana and a lot fewer years as Fear Falls Burning, these days, he plays under his name improvised music. But he willfully confuses his fans by using the same name to play the music that could be part of the Vidna Obmana/Fear Falls Burning catalog, with differences. Suppose you only know his improvised music, for instance seeing the Kodian Trio in concert (we’ll get to that later), you might be surprised by his release ‘At Future Dawn’. The six pieces on this disc, recorded in real-time, see Serries playing electric guitar and effects, and it sounds very different, even when played in real-time. In his older projects, he played ambient music, using synthesizers, loops, and later on guitar, usually with a maximum effect, especially in Fear Falls Burning. On this new disc, he likes his music to be sparse, with a few sounds, maybe a looper device, and some coloring with other devices. All of this works with microscopic sound. This is ambient music but on a more vulnerable level. The tension is there, but sometimes a bit buried and hushed. Listen closer and you spot many small
details in the music, which makes the music no longer strictly microtonal. In all pieces, Serries takes his time to unfold what he wants to convey with his music, slowly building up, putting some mild distortion in places, and still doing a very atmospheric job. Music that is quite immersive, especially if you turn up the volume, but also when Serries decides to put some force behind his music. I don’t know why he no longer wishes to use his Fear Falls Burning moniker for this, as this could have morphed into something that Dirk Serris does on this CD.”

DE SUBJECTIVISTEN REVIEW
“De Belgische klasbak Dirk Serries leerde ik ooit kennen als Vidna Obmana (of welke schrijfwijze dan ook), waarmee hij een bijzonder indrukwekkende discografie heeft opgebouwd. Dark ambient pur sang was het en nog altijd met enkele gedraaide releases hier. Daarna kwamen er vele releases met projecten als Fear Falls Burning, YODOK III, 3 Seconds Of Air, The Sleep Of Reason, Continuum, Akhet, Kodian Trio en Streams Of Consciousness. Maar ook onder zijn eigen naam verschijnen er ontiegelijk veel maar en allemaal kwalitatief hoogwaardige releases. Nergens zal daarbij ooit de zon schijnen overigens, maar schakelt hij tussen meerdere kleuren zwart en hard. Onder zijn eigen naam is nu het album At Future Dawn verschenen, dat op minimale wijze weer andere ambient gebieden ontgint. Dit doet hij met elektrische gitaar en effecten, waardoor het gruiziger is en meer zijn Fear Falls Burning project benadert en toch ook weer niet. Af en toe meen ik ook een stem te horen, maar dat is wellicht puur suggestie. De muziek bouwt langzaam op om vervolgens weer af te brokkelen en verder te kruipen naar intrigerend nieuw terrein. Meeslepend goed!”

INDIEROCK MAGAZINE REVIEW :
“Hasard du calendrier, deux vétérans du dark ambient et plus généralement des musiques expérimentales du côté obscur, toujours hyperactifs aujourd’hui et qui par ailleurs se connaissent bien pour avoir collaboré encore pas plus tard que l’an passé avec le premier opus de Loud As Giants (cf. #140 ici), sortaient fin mai de nouveaux albums : d’un côté Final, aka le Britannique Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, Techno Animal etc), de l’autre le Belge Dirk Serries (Vidna Obmana), moins connu des aficionados de musiques extrêmes bien qu’auteur avec Steven Wilson/Bass Communion, dans les années 2000, de deux chefs-d’oeuvre absolus du drone doom sous le nom de Continuum. Deux amis, deux albums aux artworks de grisaille abstraite non sans atomes crochus musicalement parlant avec leurs nappes denses et opaques aux lourdes vibrations basses et au hiss proéminent… mais au minimalisme finalement assez statique de What We Don’t See, qui ne restera pas dans les annales des plus grandes réussites de son auteur, répond chez Dirk Serries une dimension presque orchestrale aux poignantes harmonies élégiaques tantôt saturées (Blank Resurgence, ou le monumental Semblance), abîmées au cut-off (A Bitter Grace) ou gondolées par les années (Stretching Zero, At Future Dawn), ainsi que de véritables abîmes fantomatiques à l’image des limbes magnétiques du superbe The Sole Comportment. Un disque enregistré en direct à la guitare électrique à effets et pourtant d’une richesse assez impressionnante dans ses motifs et ses textures, qui n’est pas sans évoquer par son instabilité et ses contrastes agités la fragilité de nos espoirs pour l’avenir face à la menace constante du chaos… autant dire que l’on tient là un vrai coup de coeur, et potentiellement l’un des sommets de ce premier trimestre pour les amateurs d’ambient.”

EXPOSE REVIEW :
“Dirk Serries has long been known (under his own name and monikers Fear Falls Burning, and VidnaObmana before that) for making absolutely mind-shattering ambient music using primarily electric guitar and associated effects. It may not sound like that on first listen, but he has a way of coaxing sounds out of his guitar that one wouldn’t expect, capably twisting in the wind like fragments of iron and steel, burning and melting, finding chaos and disorder where one would least expect it. At Future Dawn presents six cuts of varying duration, whirling and spinning with abandon down dark and grizzly corridors of monochrome madness, finding a nightmare around every corner, wondering how this beautiful dream ever turned into such a cauldron of formless bedlam, but it did. Each of these stand-alone pieces drives home a flood of emotion and mangled asymmetry as it releases an epic of astonishing patterns that follow no predictable order beyond that which is never predicted. At times the entire wall of sound stretches and falls into a darkened shadow where all tones bend together, stretching up and stretching down, with strange sounds coming out of the darkness in order to make themselves heard, like ghosts of a flock of pterodactyls lost in time. How does Serries create these strange organic flows? one might ask, but since he has been at his craft as long as many of us have been alive, it might be better to let him keep that secret and just enjoy what has been offered as it is presented, like the gnarled and knotty images on the ancient cave wall that is opened before you. It is natural beauty, it is art, it is the purity of existence in its most open and resplendent form; open your mind and allow it all to come in, immerse yourself in whatever it is that washes over you as it seeks to open new portals above and below for further exploration.”

ROCKERILLA REVIEW :
“Da piu di vent’anni Dirk Serrie ha abbandonato il nome di Vidna Obmana per pubblicare la sua musica.  All’alba del nuovo millennio è passato attraverso le esplosioni post-rock di Fear Falls Burning per poi giungere ad una rivoluzione copernicana che l’ha portato ad essere un protagonist della scena free jazz europea.. Dopo tutto questo girovagare Dirk ha sentito il bisogno di tornare a misurarsi con l’ambient music.. AT FUTURE DAWN è un disco costriuto con I riverberi accecanti di una chitarra elettrica e poco altro. Meloldie stracolme di malinconia si rincorrono per tutta la durata del disco, lungo sessantasei minuti e sei cartoline di introspezione acustica.”

MUSIQUE MACHINE REVIEW :
“At Future Dawn collections together six ambient guitar-scapes from long running/ respected Belgium sound maker Dirk Serries. The tracks utilizers both  gentle feedback & subtlety moody electro detail in their make up, for an ambient album that is nicely nudges at the genres edges.The CD album comes presented in a black & grey six panel digipak, which takes in  a selection of barrenly abstract pictures that have been blurred or used similar effects.  The tracks were performed in real time by Serries- with him utilizing just an electric guitar and effects.  The six tracks have runtimes between seven & eighteen minutes- with a good selection of moods/ tones conjured up over the album. The album opens with “Stretching Zero” which is the longest track here at nearly nine minutes. It’s built around this shimmering ‘n’ swaying fed back tone- which at it’s base has waveringly restful low end, and at it’s top simmering harmonic mids & soothing highs.   As we move through the album we have the wonky harmonic grandeur meets hovering static haze of “Bitter Grace”. At points the track possessions an almost antique organ quality- which is underline by the feel  of sun faded sonic American.  There’s the eerier and juddering flow of “The Sole Comportment” which feels like the soundtrack  to walking through a creepy house at nighttime- as one visions seems to gentle warp & flicker after you’ve ingested some strange and limb weighing hallucinogenic drug.
With the album playing out with the title track- which brings together light seared tolling slide rings, with a glowing ambient underbelly, and  growing mid-range harmonic warp/ waver. At Future Dawn is another fine ambient album from Serries- which sees it’s gentle pushing at the genre’s envelope.”

MUSICZINE REVIEW :
“9/10 rating. We citeren even uit de bio: ‘At Future Dawn’ is de tweede Cloudchamber release van Dirk Serries. Dit album gaat verder waar Dirk ophield met ‘Nocturnal Discord’ en verlegt opnieuw de grenzen van de ambient.
Bekend sinds het begin van de jaren tachtig voor zijn kenmerkende ambient muziek onder het Vidna Obmana pseudoniem, blijft Dirk zijn muziek sturen naar nieuwe gebieden met behulp van een moederbord van pedaal effecten en een elektrische gitaar.
‘At Future Dawn’ bevat muziek die zichzelf voortdurend afbreekt en weer opbouwt, en dit alles in realtime zonder enige specifieke bewerking behalve EQ-ing en mixing. De muziek wordt een organische stroom van het bewerken van de gitaar, het zorgvuldig analyseren van de tonaliteiten om 6 nummers van schoonheid, introspectie en abstractheid in één keer te creëren. Laat je onderdompelen in deze nieuwe wereld die Dirk Serries aan het creëren is.”
Inderdaad, Dirk Serries creëerde met deze ‘A Future Dawn’ een heel filmische, visuele plaat, die bovendien de fantasie prikkelt. Niet door een oorverdovende klank, maar het te houden op intense, zwevende klanken die de horizon verruimt. 
In de zes nummers laat Dirk ons binnen stappen in een wonderbaarlijke wereld waar donker en licht elkaar ontmoeten en een amicale band uitbouwen. Een sprookjeswereld die echter niet te klef overkomt; het brengt zelfs rust in dit jachtig bestaan . Het ruim achttien minuten lange “Stretching Zero” is een mooi voorbeeld hoe Dirk Serries hier tewerk gaat in die twee verschillende polen, die een mooi spanningsvelde creëren. Een zone tussen volstrekte rust en intimiteit, zalvend je hart verwarmen en zachtjes botsend tegen een geluidsmuur hoor je op de uitgesponnenheid van “A Bitter Grace” en “The Sole Comportment”. Ze flirten voortdurend tussen die polen en een ‘zen’ gevoel wordt bereikt na de laatste noot van ‘A Future Dawn’. Dirk Serries is een veelzijdige muzikant die eenintens,  onaardse sfeertje bewerkstelligt, met of zonder compagnie. Het maakt dat deze ‘A Future Dawn’ weet te overtuigen!”

SPONTANEOUS MUSIC TRIBUNE REVIEW :
“Pierwsza opowieść trwa tu ponad osiemnaście minut i konstytuuje jakość całego przedsięwzięcia. Pozornie leniwy poranek dość szybko przyobleka się brudem, usterkującą pulsacją, brzmieniem, któremu zastanawiająco blisko do Fear Falls Burning, etykiety, której wierny był Serries w poprzedniej dekadzie. Flow syci się tym razem nie tyle smutkiem, co trwogą, niemal egzystencjalnym lękiem. Narracja pęcznieje – górą ścielą się fale ambientowego krzyku, w trzewiach narasta rozdygotany smutek, któremu po drodze z wrażliwością wspominanego przy okazji poprzedniego albumu Third Eye Foundation. Finał utworu oblepiony jest plejadą gitarowych post-dźwięków. Kolejne dwie opowieści są znacznie krótsze, ale równie dosadne emocjonalnie. Najpierw, to chmura usterek, zgrzytów, napięć elektrycznych, które formują się w balladę pełną złych mocy. W głębi znów rodzi się smutek, który rozrywa trzewia gęstymi porcjami rozpaczy. Na ratunek płynie teraz szeroki strumień czystego ambientu, ale nie niesie on ukojenia, raczej kolejne porcje niepokoju. Szczęśliwie dla naszego zdrowia psychicznego kolejna opowieść daje garść wytchnienia. Basowe post-melodie, szum dogorywającej przyrody, nowe porcje emocji, docierające wszakże spoza grubej kotary teatralnej. Czwarta część rodzi się w oparach szemrzącej ciszy. Narasta dość szybko, nie bez prawdziwie demonicznej poświaty. Na froncie tlą się iskierki brudu, we wnętrzu rozpacz zapomnianych melodii. Opowieść łyka także porcje post-elektronicznych zgrzytów, a w fazie finałowej niepokojąco zbliża się do ściany dźwięku. Puenta, to złowrogo skrzeczące gawrony. W piątej historii znajdujemy się w strudze brzmienia, które przypomina syntezator konsekwentnie udeptujący plejady skwierczeń i drobnych usterek. Na to wszystko opada chmura rozdygotanego, brudnego, szeleszczącego post-ambientu. Hałas ponownie czai się za rogiem, a programowy smutek zdaje się być na stale zastępowany niekończącymi się porcjami lovecraftowskiej grozy. Ostatnia opowieść śmiało zaksięguje na miano diabelskiej kołysanki. Budowana jest usterkami i pulsacjami brzmiącymi niczym organy. W sploty nerwowe narracji muzyk wkleja intrygującą, niemal dubową poświatę. Nie brakuje kolejnej strugi rozpaczy godnej Matta Elliotta. I tak już bogata faktura opowieści raz za razem uzupełniana jest kolejnymi elementami – coś tyka jak zegar, coś zgrzyta zębami. Zbawienna chmura ambientu z czasem wygładza ów chropowaty flow, topiąc jego kolejne elementy. Opowieść umiera w kałuży drobnych usterek.”

JAZZ’HALO REVIEW :
“Het vervolg op ‘Nocturnal Discord’ (2023) en wederom waagt Dirk Serries zich in het mythische land van ambient en soundscapes. Hiervoor hanteert hij (opnieuw) een elektrische gitaar en een resem effectpedalen. De kunstzinnige zwart-wit lay-out omvat fotowerk van Martina Verhoeven dat even intrigerend is als de cryptische inhoud. ‘Stretching Zero’, ‘Blank Resurgence’, ‘The Sole Comportment’ en natuurlijk ‘At Future Dawn’ zijn titels die een mogelijke richting aanduiden maar de fantasie van de luisteraar is hier nog de beste gps om gedurende iets meer dan een uur rond te zweven in onbekende nevelen. Zoals we dat gewoon zijn van Serries werd alles in “real time” opgenomen. Fascinerend hoe de gitarist zich een weg baant door het labyrint van zijn eigen universum en de ruimte moduleert. Verslavend, bedwelmend en een gepaste soundtrack om buiten de geldende tijdzone te stappen.”

DIRK SERRIES’ newest ambient release FLUCTUATION OF BEING (cd, Midira Records) just got reviewed.

” have been a fan of Dirk Serries’ early work as Vidna Obmana for nearly a quarter century. It largely relies on synth-driven ambiance in a similar vein as that of Steve Roach, Alio Die, Robert Rich, and so on. Landscape in Obscurity was a masterpiece. Here, he returns to that general style but with guitar and effects rather than synths. These five long tracks feature Serries generating slow-moving drone soundscapes. The textures are slightly rough with just enough distortion to be unsettling. With these building blocks, he moves deliberately from chord to chord, each sweeping into phase as a variation of a previous theme or an exploration of a new motif. The result is surprisingly melodic despite the album’s lack of traditional notions of melody, harmony, or rhythm. When listened to as a whole, Fluctuation of Being has the ability to slip in and out of any incidental background noises in the listening environment. But I also find that it grabs my attention more frequently than most ambient music. But this dual nature of the recording is not surprising, given Serries’ history of mixing passages that evoke relaxation but with dark overtones. Regardless, this effort is another strong one in Serries’ very long discography. ” AMN

“Dirk Serries prosegue imperterrito nella sua ricerca musicale che lo ha portato, nel corso di una carriera leggendaria, a sperimentare le sonorità più disparate. A mio avviso è comunque con il suo progetto Vidna Obmana che ha lasciato il segno riuscendo a ridefinire i confini della musica ambient. Tuttavia Dirk Serries è sempre stato un artista che ha giustamente guardato avanti e che ha sempre cercato di reinventare il suo linguaggio. In realtà la sua sensibilità alla materia sonora è sempre rimasta sempre la stessa così come la sua capacità di riuscire a creare delle emozioni profonde nell’ascoltatore. È solo cambiata la forma ma non la sostanza: mentre prima usava i synth ora usa le chitarre ma il musicista belga è rimasto integro e se anche, data anche la notevole produzione, ogni tanto gli capita di ripercorrere strade già battute, lo fa sempre con grande classe e con un fine artigianato. È il caso anche di questo nuovo The Fluctuation of Being, un album caratterizzato da atmosfere malinconiche che mi ha ricordato il Vidna Obmana più oscuro, quello per intenderci di The Contemporary Nocturne e Surreal Sanctuary ma anche della collaborazione con Asmus Tietchens. Fin dalla prima traccia “Nothingness” siamo proiettati in un paesaggio nebbioso dai contorni indefiniti, un paesaggio che sembra avvolgere delle città in un crepuscolo eterno. La sensazione è quella di fluttuare in una dimensione onirica ma, allo stesso tempo, estremamente reale. Serries riesce a non perdere mai il contatto con la realtà: semmai ce ne offre una visione leggermente distorta ma non per questo meno vera. Anzi la sua musica riesce a portarne alla luce, nella sua apparente immobilità, la sua essenza nascosta.” Ver Sacrum

“Fluctuation Of Being is Dirk Serries’ first foray into full-on ambience since 2018’s Epitaph. It’s a guitar & effects-based album highlighting both his skill and atmospheric scope within the ambient form. Over the five featured tracks, he moves from slowly growing drone matter, through to drifting ambience, onto felt & forlorn moodscapes.

The CD album appears on Germany’s Midira Records. It comes presented in a four-panel mini gatefold- which on its outside features what looks like a close-up colour photo of vegetation & roots locked within either frost or ice.

We open with just over twelve and a half minutes of“Nothingness” here Serries slowly but surely builds a vast & baying wall of drone matter, which sits somewhere between the sweepingly grand & glowingly felt. By track three “Confinement” and its near eight-minute unfold- we find ourselves in a floating in gliding and ebbing guitar tone- which both circles, sweeps, and lightly harmonically jangles its way along.

The longest track here is the fourth “Despairing Object” which comes in at dead on the sixteen-minute mark. It moves from felt, at points forlorn sweeps. Onto to ebbing & expanding drone fields, through to billowing & drifting pitch glides- which are half lost & half hopeful.

Serries has been active since the 1980s in the wider European experimental genre, with his sonic interest moving harsh industrial music, ambience, and on to improv/ abstract jazz in recent years. So, it’s nice to see him once again returning to the ambient form with Fluctuation Of Being, and it most certainly shows he hasn’t lost his knack for the form- as it’s both a skilled & engaging album, that rewards replays. ” Musique Machine 

Check out the reviews of DIRK SERRIES’ The Disintegration Of Silence album on 13/Silentes with the beautiful artwork of Stefano Gentile. Available here.

“The most extensive package is the 28-page booklet, 8 inches squared of collages by label boss Stefano Gentile and music by Dirk Serries. The two go back some thirty years, when Gentile’s first label enterprise, Amplexus, released a 3″CD by Serrires, then working as Vidna Obmana. Four years ago, Gentile released some more music by Serries, now working under his own name, on vinyl and ‘The Disintegration Of Silence’ is their latest offering. In the booklet, we find collages by Gentile from fashion ads, words, and newspapers, all looking quite colourful. As I am playing Serries’ music at the same time, I am thinking about his music concerning the collages. Maybe the music resembles black-and-white photography of nature shots, trees and such. Still, the relation between images and music becomes more apparent if you look at the images as worn-out pages from magazines from a long time ago. These days, Serries is more known as a player of free
improvised music, but he occasionally returns to the world of ambient music, and this is what he does here, playing five excellent moody tunes on his guitar. Many guitar effects are used, some of which are a bit hissy, such as in the second part. At times, it sounds like he has been made on a reel-to-reel tape, using various bits of tape stuck together, with the music recorded later. It creates a refined, somewhat unsettling atmosphere and sometimes just a beautiful atmosphere in the longest and final piece. It’s always good to hear Serries doing this kind of music occasionally. I understand his heart might be somewhere else, but I assume he also wants to unwind after a hard day of improvising and do what he does very well. A true beauty. ” Vital Weekly – The Netherlands

“Dirk Serries è un artista integro che ha continuato a fare la sua musica non curandosi delle mode. Ammetto personalmente di essere stato un fan di Vidna Obmana soprattutto all’epoca della mitica trilogia ambient costituita da Passage In Beauty, Shadowing In Sorrow ed Ending Mirage. Tuttavia, anche dopo aver dismesso il monicker Vidna Obmana, il musicista belga ha dimostrato di non avere perso la sua ispirazione. Attualmente continua a pubblicare lavori di grande pregio in cui predilige l’uso della chitarra elettrica. Ma a mio avviso si tratta solo di un cambio di forma: la sostanza infatti è rimasta la stessa. Anche ascoltando questo nuovo The Disintegration Of Silence, che esce per la Silentes di Stefano Gentile, la sensazione è che il feeling sia rimasto lo stesso degli esordi. Indubbiamente c’è stata una ricerca di nuove strade il che penso sia anche comprensibile. Tutte le esperienza hanno una fine ma l’importante è che il sacro fuoco dell’ispirazione continui ad ardere; e il fuoco di Dirk Serries, a differenza di altri, non si è ancora spento. Durante l’ascolto di una traccia come “Reflection” la mia mente è tornata alla raffinatezza irreale di Vidna Obmana. Una menzione poi per la lussuosa confezione e per l’artwork di Stefano Gentile, autore anche delle deliziose illustrazione pop-art che troviamo all’interno e che rendono The Disintegration Of Silence un vero e proprio oggetto da collezione.” Ver Sacrum – Italy

Digitally out on DIRK SERRIES’ bandcamp is a selection of outtakes from his acclaimed and sold-out NOCTURNAL DISCORD release on Cloudchamber Recordings. Belgium’s MUSICZINE just reviewed this digital-only album. Available here.

“Dirk Serries is een muzikant, producer en componist die van vele markten thuis is; de releases volgen elkaar in snel tempo op. Al die releases van de laatste maanden bespreken, is een onmogelijke zaak. Maar we buigen even het hoofd over zijn laatste meesterwerk ‘ Nocturnal Discord Outtakes’. Drie songs die afklokken op circa tien minuten. Waarbij Dirk Serries zijn veelzijdigheid aantoont.
Een geflirt van donkere gedachten en rustgevende soundscapes horen we op ”Alternative Lullaby”, eentje die je compleet ‘zen’ maakt, eens je in die mooie wereld bent in gestapt.
Het fijne aan Dirk Serries’ muziek is dat hij duisternis aangenaam doet aanvoelen, een gemoedsrust daalt over je neer, ipv de angst van het donkere.
Het ellenlange, wondermooie “Monumental Twitch” , met een klank gerelateerd aan strijkers, zorgt voor een sprookjesachtige wereld. Magisch mooi. “Autum Reprise” bezorgt je meer dan tien minutenlang een krop in de keel; een sound gelinkt aan klanken bij een opera . Wat dan weer het filmische van de muziek onderschrijft. Want deze muziek zou perfect passen bij romantische en suspense films. Emotie is hier het centrale gegeven. Een typische weg die hij blijft bewandelen, maar daar waar hij soms gebruikt maakt van oorverdovende drone geluiden,
‘Nocturnal Discord Outtakes’ bewandelt duidelijk de weg van rust en kalmte, die grenzen kan doen verleggen. Oorverdovende drone geluiden komen hier niet te pas.
Het is de perfecte plaat om even de jachtigheid opzij te plaatsen en gemoedsrust te laten heersen.”