Green House Music - Reviews: Vir Unis

Vir Unis - Aeonian Glow

GHM.00.02
Released 2000

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Hannah M.G. Shapero, Eclectic Earwig Reviews

In the ancient esoteric philosophy of Gnosticism, the “Aeons” were both measures of time and spiritual entities. They emanated from the transcendent divine world and made their way down to our own world, where they could be either terrifying lords of darkness and oppression, or redeeming beings of light. “Vir Unis,” in a brilliant stroke of creativity, unites the Gnostic myths with the images and sound-impressions from quantum physics (as seen in his track titles) to give us AEONIAN GLOW, a masterful new ambient album.

Though “Vir Unis” has been working with Steve Roach, and Roach along with his team of sound-artists add their expertise to this album, the sound here is not at all Roach-like. And though “Unis” uses the familiar language of drones, loops, vast reverberations, and fractal ambient textures, this is very much his own unmistakable style. He builds great complex structures of sound here, which move slowly in sustained, ponderous orbits, without any of the insistent synth-percussion rhythms such as the ones he provided for his collaboration with Steve Roach on BODY ELECTRIC. The sound has a grandeur to it, as if it were in a cathedral– but this is not a pretty, comforting stained-glass cathedral. It is a dark-glowing nebula in warped space, which you enter in trepidation and awe.

This is definitely “dark ambient,” complete with dissonant and microtonal harmonies (at least most of the way). Listen closely to the densely stacked layers of sound and you will hear not only resounding synthesizer tone-clusters and drones, but fragments of radio voices, soft eerie whistles, and sometimes a watery trickling and gurgling – much like Robert Rich’s “glurp” sent into outer space. But this is more than the usual Gothic “dark stuff,” though there are passages in GLOW that are truly scary. “Unis” moves between a sense of wonder, striving for light and tonality, and a sense of mystery and terror. Rarely has ambient music conveyed such power and depth.

Track 4, “Particle Path,” evokes the subatomic world in an almost whimsical interlude of twinkling electronic notes. But this moment of lightness leads into track 5, “A Night of Passage,” the centerpiece of the album, a 12 ½ -minute voyage which is one of the most intense pieces of electronic music I’ve ever heard. This begins with the sound of synthesized bells, as if they signified the twilight leading to the longest night of the year at the winter solstice. As the piece progresses, the sound-texture builds to an immense size, microcosm united with macrocosm, girded together with metallic drones and roaring industrial thunder. And over all of this, at the climax of the piece, is a kind of organ-sounding, melancholy anthem, rapt in contemplation of the abyss. This is not for the faint-hearted! Listen at your own risk - this may induce mystical experience!

Two more tracks after that continue the vertiginous space trajectory, and then the album comes to an end in a peculiar surprise, as it suddenly surfaces back not only into clear musical melody, but into recognizable features that sound like guitar notes and even delicate, melancholy traceries of harpsichord lines, though these are still all electronic. Like Roach, “Unis” chooses to end an album with a piece that does not leave the listener in the ultraviolet darkness, but returns to the outside world of ordinary light. Yet this last piece, titled “Letting Go of this Radiant Hive,” offers no easy reassurance. It is poignant and sad, leaving us with a sense of distance and regret, and a paradoxical yearning to return to the perilous but enthralling dark spaces.

HMGS rating: 10 out of 10. My vote for the best ambient album of Year 2000!

Hannah M.G. Shapero
12/3/2000

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Matt Borghi, The Organization of Sound (c) 2000

With Aeonian Glow, Vir Unis has taken his music to some new areas that I can really appreciate. Anyone whose read my reviews knows that I'm extremely partial to Ambient atmospheres. For a long while now it's seemed as though that sort of quasi-tribal Ambient/Spacemusic has been dominating the scene, but at long last it seems as though dark, long-playing atmospheres are beginning to make their way to the forefront of Ambient music. Vir Unis has created a very stereophonic atmospheric recording. FYI, if you have a surround system play this recording, if you have the system but never put up all the speakeres, set it up now, and listen to this recording. I did and it was a transcendental experience to say the least. This is a direction that I hope Vir Unis continues in. This recording consists of a deep and resonant collection of sonic tapestries that adds to the wonderful Green House Music's already growing catalog. Actually, if you like Exuviae, which I thought was one of teh best recordings of teh year, then I highly recommend Vir Unis' Aeonian Glow. Vir Unis has created a stellar recording that will surely be in the top ten of 2000. Fantastic, Fantastic, Fantastic!

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Matt Howarth, Space.com (c) 2000

With a broad basis of elongated tones which brethe with unnatural duration, this music creates vast sonic lakes that sit immersed in mist-shrouded valleys. The occurrence of dawn is achieved through the interplay of less-etheral tonalities, caressing the music like light streaming through swirling vapors. A melodic flow gradually swells during each composition, producing gentle heat amid these liquid sonics. Amiable waves of gaseous sound merge and blend with each other in an atmospheric example of oil in water. Although airy in nature, each wave possesses a distincly contrasting identity, from sparkling echoes from an intergalactic distance to haunting sighs leaking through from another dimension. These textures are tinged with a pleasant eeriness that elevates the music beyond mortal comprehension, plunging each track deep into a realm normally occupied by prehistoric secrets. The impression of cosmic revelation dominates these compositions, as if this tuneage were somewhow channeled through Vir Unis from spirits who ruled distant eras. This music generates the feeling of glacial ice melting to reveal ancient wonders for eons from the eyes (and ears) of mankind.

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Phil Derby, SMD Magazine (c) 2000

Sometimes, you can tell what you're in for just by the look and title of a CD. The soft, subdued grays and blacks, with a tinge of purplish hues, suggest floating music. 'Aeonian Glow' certainly sounds like a surreal name, and the music follows this other worldly theme. Eight bite-sized ambient works are woven seamlessly together, each one fading almost completely away, but not quite, before the next emerges.

Actually, the music sounds more like it submerges rather than emerges, down into somewhat murky depths. But then, what would you expect with titles like 'The Ghost of Aeons?' This track is quite eerie, and richly textured. Haunting echoes drift in and out, mixed with the sounds of dripping water. The feeling is very much like descending into a dark cavern. It's fascinating, fun, and a little scary. If you like melody or beats, look elsewhere, because this CD is all about formless waves of sound. Each track slowly explores a particular sound, and although each is distinct, the overall mood and tone is relatively consistent throughout. In style, it is quite similar to his previous release 'The Drift Inside,' but everything just a shade darker than before.

The opening track, 'Glide,' sounds a lot like Steve Roach's music when he is in ambient drone mode, like 'The Magnificent Void.' That isn't too surprising, because Steve was involved in mixing the final product at his studio. Though the mood tends toward the darker side, occasional glimpses of light appear, as on the brief 'Particle Path,' which has some bubbly electronic stuff going on. But just as it seems this might lead to something brighter, with a little more sonic shape to it, 'A Night of Passage' sinks back into a gelatinous mass. Shimmering, bright overtones meld with low drones, with only subtle changes over the next 12 minutes. The best track is 'Alien Machinery,' loaded with churning, trippy echoes and lots of character. By now you probably know if this is your thing or not. If you like your ambient music on the darkly soothing side, don't hesitate. (PD)

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Eric Prindle

Like his first solo album, The Drift Inside, Vir Unis's Aeonian Glow eschews the driving "fractal grooves" of some of his prominent collaborative works in favor of a more introspective sound.

This album is a bit busier and a bit spacier, with perhaps a few too many dramatic swelling synth effects. But it definitely has its moments, and it goes further in establishing "the Vir Unis sound," which reminds one quite a bit of Steve Roach at his most restrained, but with a less organic, more electronic feel and other unique touches, including the persistent ringing sounds that make their way into many of his tracks, sounding sometimes like ghostly moans.

Packaged in some of Vir Unis's own intriguing artwork, which manages to be wispy and mathematical at the same time, Aeonian Glow is another quality release from the Green House label, which is becoming pretty dependable.

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David Opdyke, AmbiEntrance (c) 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.

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Lloyd Barde, Backroads Music (c) 2000

"Aeonian Glow" explores the same musical terrain as "The Drift Inside" but goes deeper and into the more shadowy realms of atmospheric, highlighting the differences between light and dark spaces. The boundaries of sanctuary are examined as this quiet, self-reflective music serves as a catalyst to seek deeper refuge. Their brand of space music is the beatless, deeply spiraling variety, offering infinitely shifting spaces of deceptive stillness to fall into. This is the fourth release from the already excellent Green House label.

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Chuck van Zyl, Star's End Radio Program (c) 2000

One meaning of Aeonian Glow would be eternal luminescense. It is also the title of the second full-length release by synthesist Vir Unis. Aeonian Glow is an engaging drift through many degrees of dense textures and deep atmospheres. This album deals with gradual transformation. The listener gently passes between states of equilibrium on a tide of electronic drones and harmonic invention. Each track is a stage in a sweeping sonic account of forever's incandescense. Vir Unis crafts beautifully the flow between states. High production values and close attention to the substance of sound results in a sensory suggestion of the artist's condition in the advancing flow of time and space. Lulling and ambient, yet possessing enough depth and intricacy to elicit rich imagery, the sonorous narrative of Aeonian Glow will enrich the inviting listener.

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Twilight Zone webzine

Fantastic ambient, the one crossed only with imagination's help, and that merges with the Time; it has got a tight link with "Aeonian Glow"'s music. An hidden scenery which reveals solemn breeze of our perception. Vir Unis paints with his sonar brushes, aquatic sceneries belonging to luminous and distant heavenly bodies. Author's keyboards, careful and experienced traveller of ambient music, scout infinitive cosmic details by soft colour of dawn; a climate by melancholic reflexes and slow sidereal progressions. Ultraviolet radiations, the eight unlimited themes, flourish beneficial and persuasive impulses in listener's mind. To describe a stylistic reference, this Cd is not distant from the glacial and hypnotic Necrophorus in "Drifting Motion". Spring waters which hold in their profundity soothed mysteries, reached only by transcendental immersions created by Vir Unis. Looking for the source of Oblivion ...