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After a leap of almost 10 years, Epiphany (aka Erik Teljeur) finally brings us a new album with imaginary, dark ambient electronics. Erik describes the outcome as his most intimate work to date, as the music inhabits a lot of personal emotions. “Sonica”, which comes in a very nice digipack with a 4-page colour booklet and liner notes, consists of nine tracks which all are derived from improvisations. Starting out with nice retro sounds on “Sonica Intro”, the overall sonic realm and used rhythm of “Dreaming” reminded me of Syndrone’s music. “Angels and Ghosts” though is quite mind altering, visualising a ride through the worlds of good and evil. Next comes the emotional “End of an Era”, initiated by the tragic death of Erik’s dog, featuring a nice layering of textures. These slow evolving, dense soundscape with rhythmic elements contain a distinct sense of gloom shining through, rounded out with a feeling of hope. The strange freeform textures of “Dark Procession” realm in uneasy clouds of sound, topped by a prominent harsh sounding effect in the middle. Here, I sincerely miss a sense of direction. The minimal approach explored on the world-ambient flavoured “Hypnotic Jungle” consists of drony tapestries and repetitive rhythms, evoking a certain humid but also uneasy feeling. The 15-minute “Alpha” is more vibrant, “out-there” space music with circling sequencer patterns and lush sounds, followed by the soothing sounds of water and airy sound effects. Things get more lively when a tweaked sequencer pattern, a monotone rhythm and various lush effects show up, but again there’s no red line set out in this imaginary music, the abrupt break near the end making it even more confusing. “The End” is a rather psychedelic sound creation that shuts things down abruptly as well. The vintage sounding “Sonica Outro”, a reversed version of the intro, brings things to an end. With “Sonica”, Epiphany again hasn’t come up with easy ambient music, but with something that once more wants to trigger the sensation of mind. |
| Website: www.epiphany.nl
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