How have I not heard of this guy? Really. I feel as if I must have been dwelling in a cultural vacuum for the majority of my existence. It’s not as if I’m ignorant of the fields in which he operates, after all. For the unfamiliar, it’s worth taking a moment to check his bio: ‘The Belgian-based artist Dirk Serries has experimented with music on the border between avant-garde, industrial, experimental and ambient for more than 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 Microphonics series made him collaborate with several key-players like Steven Wilson, Justin K. Broadrick, Cult Of Luna, Steve Roach and toured extensively on the sides of Jesu, MONO, Low, My Bloody Valentine and Cult Of Luna.’
‘Epiphany and Isolation’ intermingles broad ambient brushstrokes with the expansive swell of organ. Despite my abject antipathy to religion in general, and in particular the trappings of Christian ritual, I cannot help but be moved by the depth and tone of the organ. The sound as of and in itself stirs something incommunicable, indescribable, but which conveys a spirituality beyond religion as its notes ascend to the skies and beyond. The long, multifaceted drones
The album’s four pieces are mellifluous, amorphous and delicately sculpt intangibles. These are compositions of the vaguest of forms, yet which stiff offer a sow-moving sense of release.
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‘Swept to the Skye’ evokes, on a highly personal level, the atmosphere of the Isle of Skye, the magical, mystical island off the West coast of Scotland. Anyone who has observed, first-hand the breathtaking landscape shaped by the inhospitable Cuillin mountains and the awe-inspiring Old Man of Storr will likely have an understanding of the way in which the supple drones reflect the immense grandeur of this unspoilt, prehistoric landscape, which, in its remoteness, is even now possible to observe in the absence of other humans.
The final track, the fourteen-minute ‘The Deprivation of Heart’ is the sparsest of the set, a forlorn piece, whereby elongated drones ebb and flow in a thin, airless atmosphere.
Resolution Heart is a magnificently restrained suite of compositions, which flow together to create an absorbing, unified whole in which the listener can fully immerse themselves, lose themselves, and find themselves once more.
Dirk Serries Online
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