Vine ~ Bark & Spore captures a pure, organic sound that is rich with a potent magical atmosphere. The remote and mysterious locations deep in Mexico's historic landscape, as well as the hallucinogenic terrain of the Sonoran desert in Southern Arizona, provide the ground where this music takes place. The musical elixir was created from a surreal blending of acoustic and electronic instruments, along with voice and location recordings. With strong shamanic undercurrents, it creates an opening to step through time into the mythic worlds of the in-between. Vine ~ Bark & Spore offers music as medicine for the soul. The music of Roach and Reyes acts as a transmitter of the attitudes that ancient cultures had towards music and the spiritual aspects of life, while merging with the currents of today.
Spore is the second disc in Vidna Obmana's (Dirk Serries) trilogy based on Dante's Inferno. This is also quite a departure for Serries. He uses quite an array of eclectic devices to create this experimental - almost avant-garde - album. The most interesting sounds are from the overtone flutes and fujaras. Serries has commented that this is not an ambient CD. That is correct. This CD is interesting enough to be the focus of deep listening. It is not innocuous enough to be ignored as background music. It demands attention. The rhythms and atmospheres complement each other smoothly. The experimental sounds are neither dominant nor dominated. This disc is certainly electronic, definitely experimental, and decidedly Vidna Obmana. It will appeal to fans of Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Jorge Reyes, and Ma Ja Le.