Visions - Summoning The VoidVisions is the solo-project of Frédéric Arbour, the proprietor of the dark ambient label Cyclic Law. It's been five years since the last full-length Visions album, Lapse, and continues his interest in contemplating the vastness of the universe.A seam of spiritualism runs through Summoning The Void. You can hear it is the vast spaciousness of 'Dawning' the opening track here. Massive quaking drones, riddled with clinking and clanking, and a roar of disembodied voices sounding like a mass of haunted voices, a choir summoned from the void. Those voices become more like a treated ritualised groan on the title track, amongst grating foghorn-like sounds and slow-shifting textures that settles into multi-layered droning. There's a feeling of stillness in 'In The Midst of Infinity', with only the clanking of metal puncturing the hushed atmospherics for a large part of the track. Later on synths sounds, treated voices and ringing bells pierce through the abstractions like some cosmic middle-eastern ritual music. 'Vortexed' is the most rhythmic of tracks on Summoning The Void, with the percussive clatter of metallic clanging and crashing cymbals being sucked up into the undulating drone. The final track cracks open the void to reveal aching vocalisations like slo-mo interstellar gothic chants at its core. Much of Summoning The Void is eked out from a small palette of sounds, but there is a diversity to the sound constructions and Visions have a good grasp of texture. Visions are working in a niche genre and Summoning The Void will appeal to only the committed dark ambient listener. Unlike others in the dark ambient field who probe the vast expanse of the universe at least their sound is infused with a spiritualism even if their perpetual longing seeks but ultimately finds nothing in the vastness. Summoning The Void is released in an A5 foldout cardboard sleeve in an edition of 1000 copies. For more information go to www.cycliclaw.com |