Violence On-line:
Pora na najbardziej niepozorny – a przy tym mój ulubiony – album w opisywanym tu zestawie. „Background Curtain” to efekt korespondencyjnej współpracy Dirka Serriesa, znanego z vidnaObmana i Willa Longa, który wydał szereg materiałów pod szyldem Celer, w tym fenomenalny „Tempelhof” z 2015 roku. Te dwa kilkunastominutowe snuje nawiązują klimatem do najbardziej onirycznych dokonań zarówno Celer, jak i Serriesa („The River of Appearance”), choć od tych drugich są znacznie bardziej minimalistyczne. Blisko im do rozciągniętych pejzaży Stars of the Lid („Above/Below”) i zabaw z taśmą duetu Eno/Fripp („Below/Above”). Maksimum wrażeń za pomocą minimum środków, muzyka idealna jako „zasłona w tle”, ale i do zatopienia się bez pamięci. Wyśmienite. (5 pkt.)
resolutionheart
“Collaboration between these two well established artists. Dirk Serries is a Belgian composer who’s probably best known for his work as Vidna Obmana a pseudonym he went under until 2007. These days he works in various guises such as Fear Falls Burning but here on this collaboration with Celer he has chosen to use his birth name.
This album has had a long gestation. It started life back in 2012 when Dirk and Will Long (Celer ) began to exchange some sounds and from the press sheet accompanying this release it seems Will was slightly unsure what do to with Dirk’s guitar based loops. It seems he decided to take the frequencies and shapes of the wave forms from Dirks sounds and create something of his own that mirrored these. It’s explained rather confusingly in the press release and whilst the method is important to the creators perhaps us listeners can just enjoy the sounds for what they are rather than thinking about how they came into being.
There’s two tracks on this short release Above/Below and Below/Above. Both pieces are firmly sitting in the ambient, drone territory with Above/Below having the more stretched out long droney notes as it’s basis and Below/Above having more obvious individual notes moving it along. It almost strays into the instrumental territory once explored by Gong in their heyday with Steve Hillage in the line up.
There is a huge amount of drone work out there these days. And as with noise and power electronics there is so much substandard work that it becomes harder and harder to sometimes find the works that stand out. This album is one of those. Its drone but its drone that actually engages you and makes you listen rather than acts as a backdrop to your life.
As such it’s a worthwhile album to add to your collection and I’d recommend at the very least that you check it out on bandcamp and maybe treat yourself to a physical copy. DB.” Projekt Progress – UK “Trois notes, il n’en faut pas plus à Celer et à Dirk Serries (Fear Falls Burning, Vidna Obmana) pour commencer une collaboration qui s’avèrera fructueuse. Du Japon du premier à la Belgique du second, les bandes ont dû faire plusieurs fois le voyage, certain !, et il est donc plutôt normal de dire de ces deux plages sont… sidérales.
La première (Above/Below) n’est d’ailleurs (en plus) pas loin d’être sidérante. Ses surplus de couches dévident des câbles de sons qui débordent du chemin des ondes et du chemin des drones. La deuxième (Below/Above) n’est pas la première qu’on aurait passée à l’envers, non. Elle s’en démarque au contraire par son côté « concret » (on peut presque y déceler les instruments qui ont servi à son interprétation : une guitare au bottleneck et un son du genre harpsichord). Moins paisible mais diantrement efficace quand même. De quoi diversifier le propos ambientique de deux maîtres du genre.” Le Son Du Grisli – France
“Already in 2012 Will Long, also known as Celer, and Dirk Serries, also known as Vidna Obmana and Fear Falls Burning (to name a few of his projects) started exchanging some sound material, but it took a full year before Long even had an idea what to do with Serries’ guitar sounds. Long explains this on the press text, but me no understand what he did: “Using the original track that I sent Dirk at the very beginning as a sound source, I shaped it exactly like Dirk’s responding source file – the musical colour and frequencies were the same, but the effects and enveloping was triggered by the waves of Dirk’s track.[…] It may be hard to hear the two sides, but it’s really built by the background curtain, and even if you can’t hear it’s place, it’s definitely there. Where does one thing begin and another end? Maybe you can hear it?” It may explain the title of the release though. Both of these two pieces work with Serries long sustaining guitar drones sounds, with slowly envelop, overlaid, I guess, with Celer’s own drones, perhaps created by a transformation or two of the original Serries input, but then more stretched out, adding more variations of the same colour to the whole. ‘Above/Below’ is the darker side of the moon here, while the second piece, not surprisingly called ‘Below/Above’, represents the lighter side of the coin. This is music that absolute weightless space stuff, transporting the listener through an endless black universe and the notes of
Serries, especially on ‘Below/Above’ are like little stars at the firmament. Maybe I just wrote that because of the impending Christmas season? I have no idea; it is one of those beautiful shiny winter days and Celer and Dirk Serries provide the perfect soundtrack for such a day, in which everything seems to slow down.”
Raben Report
“8.5/10 rating ! Vier Jahre bedurfte es zur Fertigstellung dieser Zusammenarbeit zwischen den Musikern Will Long und Dirk Serries, wobei Ersterer den Grundstein mittels scheinbar unverwertbarer Tonspuren lieferte. Aber manchmal findet sich glücklicherweise doch ein Weg und das Resultat sind zwei längere Vertonungen, die “Background Curtain” füllen. Mit dem dargebotenen Stil passt man sehr gut in das Raster von Zoharum, wo experimentelle Kost und ambiente Klangwelten öfters miteinander harmonieren. So auch in vorliegender Angelegenheit, wo lang gezogene Klanglandschaften dominieren und den Rezipienten durchaus ansprechen können. Warme Atmosphäre ist kein Fremdwort und wer Gedanken schweifen lassen will, der hat hier vielleicht etwas gefunden, um dem trüben Alltag zu entfliehen. Mit dem ersten Teil, “Above/Below” gelingt dies schon sehr gut, wobei “Below/Above” in die gleiche Kerbe geht, was in einem schönen Soundtrack mündet, der bei entsprechender Stimmung als sehr angenehm zu benennen ist. Dabei ist der zweite Teil sogar noch eingängiger ausgefallen, was an der atmosphärischen Melodieführung liegt, welche so etwas wie Wärme und Geborgenheit ausstrahlt. Vorbildlich abgestimmt ist ebenso das Artwork, welches dies harmonische Gesamtbild auch abzurunden vermag.
Eine Voraussetzung zum erfolgreichen Konsum von “Background Curtain” bedarf es nicht, lediglich gilt es die Seele einfach mal baumeln zu lassen, in einem Traum aus ambienten Tondokumenten, die in Sachen Ausstrahlung und Vereinnahmung keinesfalls zu verachten sind. Bin ja mal gespannt, ob es in Zukunft eine weitere Kooperation zwischen den Musikern gibt- ich würde es mir jedenfalls wünschen, da mich “Background Curtain” in vielen Belangen überzeugen konnte. Meine Empfehlung!”
Grisli CanalBlog
Trois notes, il n’en faut pas plus à Celer et à Dirk Serries (Fear Falls Burning, Vidna Obmana) pour commencer une collaboration qui s’avèrera fructueuse. Du Japon du premier à la Belgique du second, les bandes ont dû faire plusieurs fois le voyage, certain !, et il est donc plutôt normal de dire de ces deux plages sont… sidérales.
La première (Above/Below) n’est d’ailleurs (en plus) pas loin d’être sidérante. Ses surplus de couches dévident des câbles de sons qui débordent du chemin des ondes et du chemin des drones. La deuxième (Below/Above) n’est pas la première qu’on aurait passée à l’envers, non. Elle s’en démarque au contraire par son côté « concret » (on peut presque y déceler les instruments qui ont servi à son interprétation : une guitare au bottleneck et un son du genre harpsichord). Moins paisible mais diantrement efficace quand même. De quoi diversifier le propos ambientique de deux maîtres du genre.
FYH!
To może nie są fajerwerki, na nagłe zwroty akcji też nie ma się co nastawiać, bo Background Curtain to trzydzieści pięć minut ambientu. Dwa kawałki, dwóch artystów współpracujących ze sobą mejlowo, przy czym punktem wyjściowym były kompozycje Celera. Will Long skonstruował lata temu snujący się kolaż, który Dirk Serries odpowiednio, według swoich potrzeb, zmodyfikował i… przesłał Celerowi. Long, jak to Long, musiał wszystko odpowiednio wydłużyć (już samo nazwisko nakazuje) i tak powstały te dwa urocze utwory.
To proste melodie, proste i ciągnące się niczym Łyna motywy, którym bliżej do new-age’owych struktur niż zapierających dech w piersiach drone’ów. To też dwa różne podejścia do tworzenia – otwierający album „Above/Below” ukazuje mroczniejsze i smutniejsze, pełne ciemniejszych barw kompozycje, a gdy odwrócimy słowa w tytule na „Below/Above”, nagranie błyszczy jaśniejszymi odcieniami. Ambientowe pejzaże, dźwięki kojące i momentami też oniryczne wypełniają ponad pół godzinny muzyki, jaką przygotowali Celer i Dirk Serries. Idylliczna, sielankowa atmosfera, astronautyczna zima pełna sennych plam melodycznych. Do takich płyt wraca się chętnie i często, mimo że emocji tu jak na lekarstwo.
Progress-Report
Collaboration between these two well established artists. Dirk Serries is a Belgian composer who’s probably best known for his work as Vidna Obmana a pseudonym he went under until 2007. These days he works in various guises such as Fear Falls Burning but here on this collaboration with Celer he has chosen to use his birth name.
This album has had a long gestation. It started life back in 2012 when Dirk and Will Long (Celer ) began to exchange some sounds and from the press sheet accompanying this release it seems Will was slightly unsure what do to with Dirk’s guitar based loops. It seems he decided to take the frequencies and shapes of the wave forms from Dirks sounds and create something of his own that mirrored these. It’s explained rather confusingly in the press release and whilst the method is important to the creators perhaps us listeners can just enjoy the sounds for what they are rather than thinking about how they came into being.
There’s two tracks on this short release Above/Below and Below/Above. Both pieces are firmly sitting in the ambient, drone territory with Above/Below having the more stretched out long droney notes as it’s basis and Below/Above having more obvious individual notes moving it along. It almost strays into the instrumental territory once explored by Gong in their heyday with Steve Hillage in the line up.
There is a huge amount of drone work out there these days. And as with noise and power electronics there is so much substandard work that it becomes harder and harder to sometimes find the works that stand out. This album is one of those. Its drone but its drone that actually engages you and makes you listen rather than acts as a backdrop to your life.
As such it’s a worthwhile album to add to your collection and I’d recommend at the very least that you check it out on bandcamp and maybe treat yourself to a physical copy. DB.
Vital Weekly:
Already in 2012 Will Long, also known as Celer, and Dirk Serries, also known as Vidna Obmana and Fear Falls Burning (to name a few of his projects) started exchanging some sound material, but it took a full year before Long even had an idea what to do with Serries’ guitar sounds. Long explains this on the press text, but me no understand what he did: “Using the original track that I sent Dirk at the very beginning as a sound source, I shaped it exactly like Dirk’s responding source file – the musical colour and frequencies were the same, but the effects and enveloping was triggered by the waves of Dirk’s track.[…] It may be hard to hear the two sides, but it’s really built by the background curtain, and even if you can’t hear it’s place, it’s definitely there. Where does one thing begin and another end? Maybe you can hear it?” It may explain the title of the release though. Both of these two pieces work with Serries long sustaining guitar drones sounds, with
slowly envelop, overlaid, I guess, with Celer’s own drones, perhaps created by a transformation or two of the original Serries input, but then more stretched out, adding more variations of the same colour to the whole. ‘Above/Below’ is the darker side of the moon here, while the second piece, not surprisingly called ‘Below/Above’, represents the lighter side of the coin. This is music that absolute weightless space stuff, transporting the listener through an endless black universe and the notes of Serries, especially on ‘Below/Above’ are like little stars at the firmament. Maybe I just wrote that because of the impending Christmas season? I have no idea; it is one of those beautiful shiny winter days and Celer and Dirk Serries provide the perfect soundtrack for such a day, in which everything
seems to slow down.
