From Opus Zine Exploring the Depths of The River of Appearance, vidnaObmana’s Ambient Masterpiece When Dirk Serries officially retired his vidnaObmana moniker in 2007, he closed the book on a remarkably prolific musical project. There have been over a hundred (official) vidnaObmana releases, not to mention numerous compilation appearances and collaborations with the likes of Alio Die, Jeff Pearce, Steve Roach, and Black Tape For a Blue Girl’s Sam Rosenthal (to name a few). With such a wealth of music spanning genres (e.g., ambient, power electronics, industrial) and labels (e.g., Ladd-Frith, Projekt, Soleilmoon), some might find it hard to pinpoint their favorite vidnaObmana album. Not me. I enjoy, and have written about, a number of vidnaObmana releases — including 1990’s Near the Flogging Landscape and 1992’s Shadowing in Sorrow — but there’s one vidnaObmana album that I return to most often, and that continues to hold a very special place in my heart: The River of Appearance, which was originally released by Projekt Records on November 8, 1996. Admittedly, that may be partially due to the fact that it was also the first vidnaObmana album that I ever bought, after seeing Soulwhirlingsomewhere’s Michael Plaster describe it as the sort of music one hears upon entering heaven. Soulwhirlingsomewhere’s Eating the Sea was my favorite album at the time, so I put great stock in Plaster’s words — and as it turns out, he wasn’t too far off. Put simply, The River of Appearance is a masterpiece of serene, contemplative ambient music for which terms like “heavenly” and “ethereal” are perfectly apt even as they fail to adequately capture its essence. I return to this album when I need refuge, be it from the torment of a migraine or illness, or from a world that feels increasingly insane. With its shimmering electronics and elegant arrangements, The River of Appearance handily provides just such a tranquil space. The last 25 years have done nothing to diminish my appreciation of The River of Appearance. To the contrary, the last few decades have only refined the album, its soundscapes and arrangements growing in sublimity and elegance with the passage of time. Its songs never cease pulling me into their strange yet beguiling worlds. Indeed, I listened to it just a few days ago after a terrible headache drove me to bed early, and I was in sore need of escape. Within just a few minutes of pressing “Play,” I felt myself growing more at ease as the album’s qualities — serene, contemplative, atmospheric — took hold. Although vidnaObmana officially shut down over a decade ago, the project was so prolific that Serries still occasionally releases vidnaObmana albums culled from old compilations and collaborations, as well as previously unreleased music — some of which, like 2020’s Out of Solitude, was actually recorded years before The River of Appearance. Even so, The River of Appearance remains a singular achievement, a high-water mark in vidnaObmana’s vast catalog — and the ambient music genre as a whole. -Jason Morehead
