Serries, Dirk

Artist: Alio Die + Dirk Serries (Vidna Obmana)
P:  2022
The chapters of the eclipse is the new musical union of Italy's Alio Die (Stefano Musso) and Belgium's Dirk Serries (vidnaObmana) which, more than twenty years after their previous collaboration contains three compositions in a suspended airy, majestic succession. The meditative and minimalist electronic ambient sky is suspended at the interval for liberation from the shadows of becoming: life in its most essential orientation.

Artist: Chihei Hatakeyama + Dirk Serries
P: 2016
" The Japanese/Belgium connection came in pair. Almost simultaneously i worked on two collaborations. The first with Hakobune released on Chihei Hatakeyama's White Paddy Mountain was just finished while i started working on sources for Chihei. Apart from my friendship and touring adventures with Mono, i never had solid contacts in Japan. But working with Hakobune and Chihei Hatakeyama this changed rapidly. Both collaborations were created quite spontaneous and fast. Hardly any conversations back and forth but just communicating through sound. In comparison to my work with Hakobune, Chihei's approach to my sources were different, more isolated, perhaps colder and distant. Almost like something you witnessed in the distance on the horizon, something less concrete and hard to define. A feeling that solidified when i hooked up with Alessandro Tedeschi to talk about a possible release. The concept became instant, my work with Chihei is one for the winter. Amidst the icy landscapes, the isolation and desolate space. When nature becomes almost super linear, less expressive in color but with equal strength and severity. Glacial Movements became the safe haven for our album, The Storm Of Silence is that soundtrack." Dirk Serries 2015. 
The Belgian-based artist Dirk Serries has experimented with ambient music for 30 years. He released his earliest work behind the pseudonym vidnaObmana up to 2007 when he closed the book on this project (realizing an extensive discography). Other projects like Fear Falls Burning and his ongoing Microphonics series made him collaborate with several key-players like Steven Wilson, Justin K. Broadrick, Cult Of Luna and toured extensively on the sides of Jesu, MONO, Low, My Bloody Valentine and others. In October 2013 Dirk Serries re-booted his classic vidnaObmana ambient sound from the mid eighties/early nineties with releasing 3 albums on limited edition 180 gram vinyl. The pieces are unedited, live run-throughs meant to fill up a side of a vinyl record, released on the boutique Tonefloat:Ikon imprint. These 3 LPs were followed by a few digital-only releases on the same imprint.This series is to be continued. Dirk Serries returned last year to Projekt Records with The Origin Reversal, a further exploration in re-enstating of his classic vidnaObmana sound. This is ambient music that flows from its discreet origins: sonic purity, washes of harmony, and organic textures which slow time to a phase of transcendence. Disorientation Flow is the recent follow-up.He currently runs the Tonefloat’s New Wave Of Jazz vinyl/cassette imprint dedicated to his fascination and ongoing explorations in improvisation and free-jazz. 
Chihei Hatakeyama is a sound artist and musician living on the outskirts of Tokyo. He has performed for years under his given name and also as one half of the electroacoustic duo Opitope, along with Tomoyoshi Date. Hatakeyama polychromes memory-evoking soundscapes with various recorded materials of electric, acoustic instruments such as electric guitars, vibraphone and piano. His releases is on Kranky, Room 40, Under The Spire, Hibernate Records, Magic Book Records, Home Nomal, OwnRecords And Spekk (As Opitope).

Artist: Dirk Serries
P: 2010
Layers of guitars incrementally build in the twelve-minute opener “microphonics iv” with a rising motif the work's elegiac central theme. the piece is less a drone than a glorious multi-tiered rumination whose interweaving themes and atmospheres ultimately coalesce into an hypnotic, floating mass. the droning guitar layers in “microphonics iii” even at times resemble organ tones, an effect that bolsters the intimate, devotional feel of the material. though the coup de grace can't help but be the sixteen-minute closer “microphonics v,” the collection as a whole leaves a powerful cumulative impression. the pieces at times invite comparison to the soundscapes recordings robert fripp has issued during the past decade. spectral in tone and intimate in character, microphonics' four tracks offer a glimpse into the meditative heart beating at the center of serries' music. (mention also must be made of the arresting photographs by Martha Verhoeven that adorn the inside and outside of the sleeve.

Artist: Dirk Serries
P: 2013
Dirk Serries, the legendary Belgian genius behind vidnaObmana and Fear Falls Burning projects, celebrates here another chapter of his challenging "Microphonics" efforts. After the conclusion of previously mentioned projects, Dirk keeps on his journey to the boundaries of uncharted sonic terrains, a territory fusing all his long time musical experiences, visions and virtuosities. "Microphonics XXI-XXV" CD, a follow up to Dirk's debut "Microphonics I-V" from the end 2008, was released by Dutch Tonefloat Records in the middle of March, 2013 and it comes in attractive mini album gatefold sleeve featuring stunning urban pictures by Martina Verhoeven, Dirk's wife. Mastered by James Plotkin.
The opener, "Mounting Among The Waves" unfolds with quite harsh guitar dissonances, although minimally sculpted, the sound palette is quite wide, where intensely emerging passages of noise perplexes blend with floating backgrounds. The piece gradually build and steadily increase into powerfully immense sonic sceneries of utterly deep evocativeness. Even if having throughout its slightly ear-splitting surface, these peaking drones develop into a stunningly visualizing movements filled with sheer beauty and poignancy. Elegiac strings invade "There's A Light In Vein", but this melancholic stillness is soon intermingled on the background with slowly evolving panoramic textures, expanding by every second in its intensity and monstrousness. Ultra thick guitar dronescapes reach full bloom and paint genuinely magnificent and harmonious canvas, where unforgettable memories of vidnaObmana are awaken... This composition is a huge milestone melting the most magical moments of both, vidnaObmana and Fear Falls Burning, with Dirk's most recent harmonic desolations, a brightly shinning kaleidoscope of sounds, sensitiveness and reminiscences, an emotional powerhouse gratifying the listener's soul!!! "There's A Light In Vein" will counterpart any of the most famous vidnaObmana compositions, guitar drone manipulations have never sounded better!!! Thank you so much, Maestro, for this truly unique listening delight!!! "The Burden Of Hope" is announced by rawer riffs, again its shape sounds rather minimal, especially during the first three minutes, but always effective. The background drone blanket slowly enlarges into thicker volume and fully blossom into another breathtaking wide-screen scenario, melting rougher tensities with weighty dose of expansive drone roars and streams into one, monumentally monolithic sculpture, gloriously encircling and stimulating. Certainly another phenomenal piece in this set!!! "Thousands Of Rivers" relieves the tension a bit, although keeping its harsh edge, again masterfully intertwined with warmly gliding cloudscapes. Beautifully disturbing!!!
Yes, I am still deeply missing vidnaObmana, and always will, but with this album Dirk Serries has accomplished another huge step in his musical explorations. "Microphonics XXI-XXV" is a triumphant piece of art displaying extraordinary emotional sonorousness and invites each devoted listener to the frontier of intriguing guitar drone wizardry!!! And by the way, "Low Volume Music 2" with his long time traveler Steve Roach is the works too...

Richard Gürtler (Jun 02, 2013, Bratislava, Slovakia)

Artist: Vidna Obamana, Steve Roach,
Erik Wollo u.a.
P: 2015
Best of the Projekt artists from their 2015 releases.