Streams of Consciousness is Dirk Serries’ homage and return (after the closure of vidnaObmana in 2007) to pure harmonic sonic moments. A mix of deep ambient and drone, this collection presents a nearly-3-hour selection of tracks from the 17 releases created in real-time on electric guitar and a handful of effects in Dirk’s home studio, it’s a slowflow inner exploration of sonics and emotional states. Single notes and reverberating washes of guitars ebb and flow over the course of these longform pieces.
The Vast Wilds writes: These pieces are stunning. I could listen to this forever. They are up there with River of Appearance, which I happen to think is a perfect album. Favorite track: harmonious flare.
Dave Aftandilian writes: I loved drifting off to DS’s compositions as vidnaObmana, and these new streams seem to flow directly down from those ideas. The shimmering guitar here has a very organic ambience. At time while listening I feel like I’m floating in deep space, at others that I am a piece of driftwood being gently rocked by ocean waves, and at still others it’s as if I’m lying stretched out in the grass, the sun gently warming my face as I watch puffy white clouds slowly drifting by.
⭐ NAME-YOUR-PRICE DOWNLOAD ★ When you donate even a dollar, the album is added to your personal Bandcamp collection, available for streaming and download. When you choose zero, you can download, but the album will not be added to your Bandcamp collection. Thanks! ⭐
Streams of Consciousness is Dirk Serries‘ homage and return (after the closure of vidnaObmana in 2007) to pure harmonic sonic moments. A mix of deep ambient and drone, this collection presents a nearly 3-hour selection of tracks from the 17 releases available at: streamsofconsciousness.bandcamp.com Created in real-time on electric guitar and a handful of effects in Dirk’s home studio, it’s a slowflow inner exploration of sonics and emotional states. Single notes and reverberating washes of guitars ebb and flow throughout these long-form pieces. Begun in 2013, the first three Streams of Consciousness albums were pressed in ultra-limited quantities on vinyl. The series then continued digitally.
Some Bandcamp fan quotes: “Ambient guitar drone at its best from none other than the best.”
“Whatever your definition of bliss is, Dirk Serries has the power to change it forever.” “From the depths of his inner world to the ears of our sensory world, Dirk Serries is a master at the top of his game. A must have…”
“For me, Dirk Series literally walks on water. He has an amazing talent and uses it well. From his days as vidnaObmana to operating under his own name, the quality of the audio experience has always been exceptional.”
“This is one of those albums where you really begin to question what is more important, the note or the space between the notes. Perhaps it is the SOUND between the notes, the sound of the previously played note fading. Regardless, Dirk Serries paints a very gentle picture of blissful yet slightly lonely place, a place of silent introspection and reflection. Simply fantastic.”
“Sensational drones from the undisputed master of the genre.”
✰ NAME-YOUR-PRICE DOWNLOAD ✰ When you donate even an euro/dollar, the album is added to your personal Bandcamp collection, available for streaming and download. When you choose zero, you can download, but the album will not be added to your Bandcamp collection. Thanks! ✰ Go here
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.”
DIRK SERRIES – THE DISINTEGRATION OF SILENCE (250 copies CD with a 28 pages 8″ booklet, Silentes)
Stefano Gentile and Dirk Serries met almost 30 years ago when Stefano’s Amplexus label released Vidna Obmana’s the seminal classic ‘The Transcending Quest’ on a limited 3”CD. Fast forward 20 years later, after the closure of Dirk Serries’ critically acclaimed Vidna Obmana project, Stefano and Dirk, under his own name, regathered with another gem ‘The Devastation Chant’, a limited 8” and 10” on Gentile’s new label Silentes/13 that used Stefano’ own impressive collage art work. Now again, after 4 years, Dirk Serries – fully operational under his own name as a free (jazz) improviser, continues to frequently return to his trademark ambient music while continuing to push himself as an artist and sculptor of the ambient. THE DISINTEGRATION OF SILENCE is Dirk’s new album that, partially inspired by the melancholic collage art work of Stefano Gentile, plays with the sound he has been worldwide so recognized and appreciated for almost 4 decades while, so typical for Dirk’s ongoing knack for adventure, expands the comfort of his ambience with alienating analog and real-time treatments. An album that has been performed solely on electric guitar in conjunction with an alliance of pedal effects. No computer was used. Enjoy this breathtaking album of melancholy and introspection, marking it as another chapter in the collaboration between Stefano Gentile and Dirk Serries.
To be released on Silentes, September 23rd, 2023 on a limited hand- numbered to 250 copies CD with a 28 pages 8″ booklet of décollage art by Stefano Gentile. The package will also include an extra 8 page 5,5″ booklet. Preorder will be available soon, stay in touch.
DIRK SERRIES will do a last-minute added SOLO AMBIENT concert at the STRUPPIGTANZEN concert event series (KAW/Kulturausbesserungswerk) in Leverkusen, (Germany) on June 30th, 2023.
The extraordinary Polish webzine, from the mind of Andrzej Nowak, just wrote a beautiful article on DIRK SERRIES recent albums : two solo’s : FLUCTUATION OF BEING and NOCTURNAL DISCORD, and his collaboration with JUSTIN K BROADRICK : LOUD AS GIANTS.
Dirk Serries! Back to the dark!
Belgijskiego artystę Dirka Serriesa uwielbiamy na tych łamach niezwykle intensywnie, zarówno jako swobodnie improwizującego gitarzystę (akustycznego i elektrycznego), jak i szefa fantastycznego impro labelu A New Wave Of Jazz. Tego samego muzyka po prostu kochamy, gdy dźwiękami swojej gitary zabiera nas w bezmiar mrocznego ambientu, który jak zawsze nie ma początku, ani tym bardziej zakończenia.
Z ogromną radością donosimy, iż w ostatnich tygodniach ukazały się aż trzy albumy Serriesa w ambientowej estetyce – dwa w pełni solowe, choć każdy powstały w innych realiach producenckich oraz jedno poczynione w duecie ze starym kumplem, z którym muzykował onegdaj choćby pod wspaniałym szyldem Fear Falls Burning.
Ladies and gentlemen, Dirk Serries in dark zone! Welcome!
Dirk Serries Fluctuation Of Being (Midira Records, CD 2023). Nagrane w różnych okolicznościach, 2019 – 2022: Dirk Serries – gitara elektryczna i efekty. Pięć utworów, 55 minut.
Fluktuacja bytu, to niemal klasyczna pozycja w dark ambientowym portfolio Belga. Gitarowe pasaże od lewej do prawej, od nieistniejących narodzin do zapomnianego bezkońca. Nagrania powstałe w trakcie czterech lat brzmią bliźniaczo, pięknie kołyszą nas egzystencjalną trwogą i wszechobecnym smutkiem. Tytuły utworów pełne są niemal metafizycznej pustki, zapewne obrazują dźwiękiem czasy covidowej beznadziei. Piękny album wprost do galerii wzorca gatunku!
Pierwsza z pięciu kilkunastominutowych ekspozycji zdaje się płynąć strumieniem o umiarkowanie mrocznej proweniencji. Budują ją pasma brzmiące czystym ambientem, ale także strugi bardziej zabrudzonych fonii. Całość sprawia wrażenie bardziej tęsknej niż konającej w trwodze nieskończoności. Raz po raz flow zdobiony jest bardziej masywnymi, basowymi pasmami, które brzmią dość syntetycznie. Narracja z czasem rozlewa się coraz szerszym korytem, nie szczędząc nam emocji. Druga opowieść brzmi niemal polisyntetycznie, bardziej wszakże relaksacyjnie, z głęboko skrywaną melodyką rezygnacji. Kolejna narracja wydaje się lżejsza, kreowana z większą swobodą, ale uformowana w dość płaskie pasmo. Czwarta opowieść płynie zarówno bardzo łagodnym strumieniem, jak i basowym kontrapunktem. Z czasem nabiera pewnej śpiewności, budując klimat mniej ponury, jakby na horyzoncie pojawiało się mgliste światełko nadziei. Finałowa historia pięknie wieńczy dzieło. Przypomina leniwy strumień, który nabiera mocy i zamienia się w rwący, emocjonalny potok dźwięków. Znamiona silnie mrocznego nosi tylko jeden z wielu wątków tej niekończącej się opowieści.
Dirk Serries Nocturnal Discord (Cloudchamber Records, Kaseta/DL 2023). Nagrane w czasie rzeczywistym, studio domowe, styczeń 2023: Dirk Serries – gitara elektryczna i efekty. Pięć utworów, 49 minut.
Druga z solowych nowości gitarzysty powstała w czasie rzeczywistym, z czego wnosić można, iż jest realnym zapisem procesu twórczego bez specjalnych ingerencji post-produkcyjnych. Nagrana na raz i udostępniona w formie pięciu improwizacji, budowanych surowym brzmieniem gitary elektrycznej, szumem gitarowych pick-upów, nasączona brudem analogowej metody realizacji. Nowy, ciekawy wątek w twórczości muzyka, silniej osadzony w żywych dźwiękach, poniekąd nawiązujący do gitarowego projektu życia artysty, czyli Fear Falls Burning. Płyta wszakże zdaje się mieć nieco punkowy anturaż, jest chropowata, jakby klejona taśmą malarską, nie zwiewnością elektronicznych obróbek, daleka od ambientowej płynności i dramaturgicznej zwinności typowej dla gatunku.
Nocturnal Discord budowany jest na ogół metodami dość minimalistycznymi. Gitara pracuje tu częściej krótkimi frazami niż dźwiękowymi plamami typowymi dla ambientu. Wokół niej wszystko zdaje się szumieć i skwierczeć naturalną analogowością. Narracja incydentalnie potrafi zgęstnieć, ale też niemal momentalnie rozmyć się w chmurze szumu. Ów czerstwy post-ambient ma, co do zasady, powolne tempo, porusza się niemal ceremonialne. W kolejnych opowieściach gitara żyje pełnymi emocjami – czasami przypomina niedostrojone organy, czasami moduluje dźwięk, czasami fałszuje niczym pijany wokalista lokalnego bandu. W trzeciej części narracja wydaje się wyjątkowo rwana, niebywale nerwowa jak na kanony ambientu. Dużej w niej szorstkich, męskich zapachów i siermiężnej subtelności. W czwartej opowieści przywołane wyżej charakterystyki zdają się nasilać. Całość przypomina elegię na śmierć ambientu. Finałowa opowieść znów brzmi organowo, tworzą ją mgławice dźwiękowych plam z wolna umierającej gitary.
Loud As Giants Empty Homes (Consouling Sounds, CD 2023). Czas i miejsce akcji nieznane (jakkolwiek pandemiczne): Justin K. Broadrick oraz Dirk Serries – wszystkie instrumenty, żywe i syntetyczne. Cztery utwory, 45 minut.
Jeśli we współczesnym dorobku artystycznym Serriesa mielibyśmy szukać pozycji o największym potencjale … komercyjnym, to popełnilibyśmy błąd najmniejszy wskazując na nagranie Empty Homes! Oczywiście mamy tu gitarowe, niekiedy post-rockowe frazowanie zanurzone w oceanie gęstego ambientu, ale każda z narracji doprawiona jest perkusyjnym beatem, który nie rzadko nabiera syntetycznych barw i haczy o niebanalne electro, tudzież estetykę drum’n’bass. Album dostarcza naprawdę dużo wrażeń, choć całość dramaturgicznie i narracyjnie wydaje się być dość łatwo przyswajalna, nawet dla nieobytego w mrokach ambientu odbiorcy.
Początek każdego z utworów zdaje się być typowy dla gitarowego ambientu, aczkolwiek brzmienie bywa tu gęste, chwilami wręcz ciężkie. W pierwszej odsłonie, po rzeczonym wstępie, perkusja zaczyna bić prosty rytm, czyniąc ambientową introdukcję elementem rockowej piosenki, szczególnie, gdy frazowanie gitary na froncie robi się nad wyraz spokojne. Dodajmy, iż brzmienie duetu jest dość niechlujnie, brudne, ale całkiem ożywcze. W kolejnej opowieści mamy podobny schemat, ale rozwinięcie wątku gitarowego idzie tu w masę i brzmi niczym klasyczne riffy Black Sabbath. Całość niesiona jest pasmem basowym o zdecydowanie syntetycznym brzmieniu. W trzeciej części ambient otwarcia wydaje się bardziej mglisty, z kolei gitarowy wątek główny przypomina nasączone silnym echem produkcje Cocteau Twins, odgrywane wszakże tuż przed nuklearnym atakiem wroga. Beat utworu dość szybko przyobleka tu szaty drum’n’bass. W ostatnim utworze szyk narracji kreuje elektroniczny beat, niczym perkusyjna stopa na bębnie basowym. Gitara wydaje się tu wyjątkowo rozkołysana, na poły post-rockowa, na poły ambientowa.
Chile’s LOOP MAGAZINE just published a brand-new interview with DIRK SERRIES about his recent solo album FLUCTUATION OF BEING on MIDIRA RECORDS.
In the early 80s the Belgian composer Dirk Serries began to work in the industrial scene with the alias of Vidna Obmana with whom he released more than 140 solo albums and in collaboration with other artists such as Steve Roach, San Rosenthal, David Lee Myers, Asmus Tietchens, Steven R. Smith, Aidan Baker, Celer, Scatterwound to name a few.
In 2005, Serries decided to finish with Vidna Obmana, while he had other projects like The Fear Falls Burning and Microphonics, the latter is still active. In addition to playing with several bands. Meanwhile he founded several labels such as Mechanical Orchestration Music in which he released the music of Vidna Obmana. In recent years he has developed a great interest in free-jazz and improvisational music, founding the A New Wave Of Jazz label.
Serries is a multifaceted musician who works both with metal and post-metal, as well as free improvisation, avant-garde jazz and ambient music under his name, with which he has just released the album “Fluctuation Of Being” (Midira Records, 2023), an album that features long guitar drones that float in a sea of uplifting tonalities. On the occasion of this new album, this interview is carried out.
Thanks go to Ed Benndorf, from the Berlin distributor Dense, for arranging this interview and to Dirk Serries for sharing his experience.
You work in a wide spectrum of music. Can you tell us what you find and appreciate in ambient music and free-jazz/improvisation?
“Almost from day one when I started to experiment with sound in the early eighties my goal was to look forward, to learn and grow as a musician and a human being. So, I never shied away from pushing myself and trying different combinations, genres and even instruments. Apart from a brief industrial phase in my early existence as a musician, I got extremely fascinated by ambient music and I still am. Over those past 3 decades I was able to fine-tune my own style in this genre, over the course working with synths and computers till purifying my sound to work solely with an electric guitar and a few pedals. Although I’m not that intensely active any more, the focus lies way more on the free improvisation nowadays, ambient music is what I breath and it’s actually thanks to being involved in the free improv scene I managed to apply a working method for my ambient music that is equally on the spot and surprising than any of the improvised music I do. It still is course a different music style so naturally it requires different playing techniques but both sides of the spectrum I just love to be in.”
What do you mean when you say “vintage ambient music”?
“The term is a wink to the old-school ambient scene in which I was active in the late eighties till the late nineties. Much changed over time, going from outboard hardware instruments like synths, sequencers, mutli-track recording on tape, analog mixing desks to the younger generation that works solely on a laptop computer. I am happy that I was able to perform a technique for myself that still resembles the style of ambient music I created with Vidna Obmana while trimming down the set-up to just one Carefully selected electric guitar and a handful of pedals. The way of playing, layering the tonalities and having them shift slowly over time is just that what I did with Vidna Obmana on synths and all the tools in my studio. Therefore, the reference to the vintage style of playing the ambience”
What do you like to explore with your side-projects Fear Falls Burning and Microphonics?
“Microphonics is definitely a closed book but with Fear Falls Burning ideas are forming to do another record and it surely will be the ‘band’ approach again. Hopefully I’ll be able to record some material over the course of this Summer.”
Which bands/labels/music magazines would you highlight from the early 80s?
“There are plenty as the eighties were just such an inspiring and creative period. To highlight a few musicians and bands: Giancarlo Toniutti, Joy Division, Test Department, early The Cure, Maurizio Bianchi, Chris & Cosey and even early Simple Minds. Labels like Factory, Broken Flag, RRRecords, Sub Rosa, Staalplaat and Projekt.”
Which were the sources of inspiration for the making of your latest “Fluctuation Of Being” album?
“Being here and now. I mean, despite still a lot of people will probably deny or refuse to accept it, we are living in an intense period and already for a long time. Absolutely don’t want to go politically here but the pressure ‘On us, all the impulses we’ve to digest is just sometimes too much to handle and makes you shift your life almost constantly. This album is just about that, the constant twists of the mind under impulse of daily life.’”
On Fear Falls Burning’s Bandcamp page you pointed out “a musical meditation on purity and subdued power” What does it mean?
“Wow, that’s a long time since I read that definition but back then after completing the Vidna Obmana story I really wanted to pursue something different. Fear Falls Burning still has connotations to what I did previously but the approach was different, less studio-oriented but real-time guitar manipulations through a vast array of pedal effects. The focus was on playing simple motives on the guitar while the effects brought everything into play and constructed the full guitar soundscape. Fear Falls Burning was way more powerful than Vidna Obmana ever was, louder and more intense but at the same time it was about the detailed research in what the electric guitar could produce, from the tiniest sounds to the full-on wash of tones. That said, Fear Falls Burning slowly over time, due to My ongoing urge to experiment, turned into a band project that features several key players from the metal, post-metal and free improv. scene. More to come for sure.”
What would you highlight the most from these 30 years dedicated to music?
“It’s difficult to pick one but generally seen I’m most proud of how I have been able to create my own identity while maintaining my independency. Nothing is original but in this all you can still work and make the efforts to realize your own voice and this is what I’ve done from day one. Of course, I always have been ambitious to share my music with as many listeners possible, this is something you decide upon when you start releasing your work but never, I wanted to follow the straight path and rely on a particular success. The number surely dropped when the highly successful cd retail collapsed in the late nineties, due to the arrival of streaming, but luckily there’s still a dedicated audience adventurous enough to follow me on this journey of constant exploration. And the fact that I’ve been able to work together with such talented international musicians, through various genres, while others seem to follow that and be inspired by, confirms that I probably am doing some interesting stuff. From my solo work, the free improv band KODIAN TRIO (with Colin Webster and Andrew Lisle) to the culmination of all YODOK III (with Tomas Järmyr and Kristoffer Lo).”
Guillermo Escudero
May 2023
Buy FLUCTUATION OF BEING here. Visit the MIDIRA RECORDS website here.
DIRK SERRIES, in promotion of the LOUD AS GIANTS’ EMPTY HOMES album, has been doing several interviews as well these (video) podcasts. Some of them brief, another lengthy and very detailed on lots that has been part of Dirk Serries’ 3 decades plus repetoire.
dirkserries.com 