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review by Dene Bebbington This is an unusual album in that it merges the Berlin school sensibilities of Lambert Ringlage with the dark ambient style of Alien Nature (a.k.a. Wolfgang Barkowski). On paper, this might seem like an unlikely recipe for a good electronic music album, but it actually works splendidly. The result is five atmospheric tracks recorded during improvisation sessions in both of the musician's studios. These two musicians have combined their skills so well that the album neither feels like Berlin school sequencing with dark drones bolted on, or vice versa. Right from the start the music seems to pull the listener towards it, as though one is being sucked inexorably into a whirlpool. In this sense, the dark ambient drones work to create a feeling of foreboding while the sequencing adds a sensation of movement. Though the album is generally of a dark nature there are parts which, while not light, are not overly disconcerting either; the tracks "Sleepwalk" and "Tracelunar Drive" fall into this category, both of which are a little reminiscent of 1980s Tangerine Dream. Dark electronic music is not something that I've sought out, but after playing Within The Whirl a few times I'm tempted to try out some more darker ambient works. It's not as if you need to be in a depressed or bad mood to appreciate (not sure if "enjoy" is the right word!) this kind of music. Hopefully, the future will see another Hypnosphere album, their individual styles go together really well in the improvisational sessions used to create this one. By the end of Within the Whirl you may feel like you've been taken on a journey through some kind of maelstrom (for quite some time, too, as the album is around 73 minutes long), but you'll still want to play it again. From the spooky "Isolation Process," through the somewhat industrial sounding "Hypnotic Fields," to the Science Fictionesque "Tracelunar Drive," this is a powerful and engaging album. |
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