dirk serries is a well-known musician from belgium and specialist in making atmospheric music. with his gibson les paul guitar and a few effect pedals he creates his own world and sound. in 1984 he starts with vidna obmana and since 2005 he released a lot of music under the name fear falls burning. sometimes he cooperates with metal and drone orientated groups like nadja and final/justin k. broadrick.
tonefloat, an independent recordlabel from rotterdam, released two albums with re-releases of concerts in combination with unreleased tracks. as usual the cds are well packed in a cardboard cover with photography of martina verhoeven.
“woes of the desolate mourner” starts with a 20 minutes recording of a concert in extrapool in 2006. firstly it was released as a 7 inch, but i think this format does not suit to this kind of music. the power is fear falls burning is that he will takes you with his journey of guitardrones. the cd ends with with a long recording of a concert at sju jazz club in utrecht in 2006. most of the compositions of fear falls burning ends at about 20 minutes, but now it continues double with a suprising silent piece in the middle.
“the rainbow mirrors a burning heart” is another nice cd of the first days of fear falls burning. dirk serries take the listener in a drone where slowly the sounds develop in a big wall of sound. the first two tracks are first released on vinyl at auf abwegen and are live recordings of a concert at the kulturbunker mulheim in cologne. it starts slowly and quiet and ends in a distorted way with feedback and metalriffs. the track “i dreamed this mortal part of mine” is an unreleased studio recording from 2005. it starts with a one tone and ends with distorted guitarsounds en searching melodies.
in his new project microphonics dirk serries discovers abstraction and harmony in music. the cd “microphonics i -v” starts with two compositions with nice melancholic melodies and ends with more abstract ambient compositions, like robert fripp in his early years. also he uses his receipt of many layers where tones slowly come, repeat and disappear. microphonics is a interesting direction of dirk serries career where he is searching the more soft sides of his musical world. for now he is touring with this project in europe, so if you want to experience his atmospheric melodies alive, i really advice to be part of it. (jkh)
source: vital weekly
