Evolving Visions

Album Review

The man and artist behind Numina, Jesse Sola, has created yet another ambient/space/atmospheric master work with Evolving Visions. He did some fantastic work previously on Dreamsleep and then outdid that a short time later with Recluse, but with Evolving Visions, Numina has exceeded and quite possibly outdone all of his prior work. Evolving Visions consists of some very beautiful yet ghoulishly dark timbres; it unfolds ever so slowly, giving a little bit up and then taking away just as slowly and subtly. This recording has a very clinical Hypnos-esque sound to it, a coldness, a placid and engaging sound that brings the listener into to an icy depth only be taken down deeper into the abyss by guest vocalist Tara Vanflower's echoey vocalizing. Vanflower's singing really fits in the ending. It's a sort of climax; as she sings, the last track segues into unresolved harmonic chording and dark atmospherics, and the final track fades out to nothingness. Numina has created a fantastic and unsettling recording that has the same effect that Claude Debussy's piano works generally have with their unresolved tension. It's also important to mention that Evolving Visions is one of the first ambient recordings in which tension and release is effectively used in the harmonic fabric, thus creating a new compositional direction for ambient. This is a fantastic recording and one that is certainly recommended.