Vir Unis: Aeonian Glow

viru-ag.jpg (13k) Vir Unis: Aeonian Glow
(GreenHouse - 2000)

In yet another successful mission (see also The Drift Inside) into deep-listening-space, Vir Unis explores amorphous atmospheres which radiate with an Aeonian Glow. Nicely understated organic touches add breadth, depth and almost-tactile sensations to the dark and wonderful surroundings, and the package is decorated by the artist's own appropriately shapeless renderings.

Those with an affinity for the extraterrestrial, rejoice...

Simultaneously surging and billowing cloud textures Glide into focus, then roil into fantastic shape-shifting soundmasses and flatter drones. From across vast alien planes, The Ghost of Aeons emits glimmering wisps of stunning ethereality, evoking an enigmatically inviting sense of desolation on a celestial scale. A bubbling undercurrent and cold celestial winds, stream into Indigo Light which whorls in a big, slow vortex of obscuring mists from which bird-like cries are half-heard.

Opening on a practically-transparent sheen, Particle Path (3:43) orients itself toward a subdued zone of muffled blippiness, which is replaced by the thrumming tunnel which descends into A Night of Passage (12:37); decidedly ominous airs surround with a more machine-like haze, though they also glisten with delicate enchantment amid foggy, everchanging scenery. More serene, though no less surreal, Flying Dream hovers and dips in slow-motion movements of nocturnal symphonics and tonal suspensions.

Forget the clanking or hums of Earthly mechanicals... the sounds of Alien Machinery simply percolate within a boiling underworld of windswept caverns... with such "live"-sounding, "you-are-there" panoramas, Vir Unis could easily land a gig scoring the next big sci-fi alien-world movie. Phantasmal musicality drifts as Letting Go of This Radiant Hive spirals out sweet starflares of twisting tone-strands.

So unreal, yet so lovely... nearly all traces of "normal" musicianship and/or instrumentation are artfully smeared into a deliciously morphing (69-minute-long) soundworld alight with Aeonian Glow. Vir Unis is proving himself to be a master of forging new sonic vistas of the most stellar varieties. An awe-struck 9.3, which lines him up for a double-whammy in this year's Top Ten.

Get over to GreenHouse right now...

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This review posted December 30, 2000

AmbiEntrance © 2000-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).