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Three weeks later and two emails Amazon refund me my money. Never buy from this supplier again. NO cd but they got my money.
I also liked "Silken Twine". Or is that just loyalty and faith speaking. Ok so I thought this album would take me back to the Odonata and Aphelion styles. The rest were just OK, and while I found myself a little let down overall, this is still a decent album. :) Maybe after a few listens, I will start enjoying Isabliss a lot more. I was somewhat disappointed, as this album sounds more like Evermind, which I didn't find very terribly exciting. At least this album Isabliss had the hit track "Treasure".
Thanks Another great and wonderful album by Amethystium. Music that takes me to another world where I make everything possible.
I think this is a stronger collection that Evermind, more purposeful and more clearly standing on the shoulders of earlier material. On Isabliss the synthetics are accompanied by some deftly interwoven electric guitars and keening violins. Another panel opens out to reveal the second half of the rear cover tree trunk - here too are credits and some thanks.
The gorgeous downtempo beats are still multifaceted and evolving - those low key muted interlude grooves punctuating the shadows. Lilting piano phrases and Stine Mari Langstand's heavenly vocalisations work with some lovely understated electronics to create one of the most chilled-out pieces of musical mystique I've come across. STYLE Dreamy fairy tale soundscapes delivered with lush melodic electronica and ethereal female vocals. Amethystium has deepened and developed his sound with this latest offering - the arrangements are confident and sweeping, the instrumental work lucid and bright, the vision clearer than ever. ARTWORK This is a fantastic piece of packaging, capturing excellently what Amethystium is all about. Within two stark black birds adorn a knotted bough that has a bright lantern hanging at its tip.
There are some beautiful moments - I didn't think Øystein could manage to become any more blissful and dreamy than the Aphelion CD, but the track Frosty Morning Bliss manages it. A final turn of the page reveals the rest of the inner picture - a flying bird trails dark leaves apparently fluttering out from a shuttered window. OVERALL This is the fourth album in the unfolding Amethystium story - the fifth if you count the compilation Emblem. If you have heard Øystein Ramfjord's previous albums you'll know what to expect - although the dragonfly trilogy, as it came to be known, was concluded with Evermind, the trademark sound is still all here, just better. A three-panel digipack almost monochrome, full of delightful imagery courtesy of Grey Decay and Brian Son. Once more Neurodisc are the chosen label for the Norwegian bedroom artist turned producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist. Now the vocals are mostly specially recorded performances from such singers as Lee Nisbet, Stine Mari Langstrand and Irina Mikhailova.
There is a delightful air of mystery and appealing shade about the whole package - very tasteful and stirring to the imagination - you'll want to hold it as you listen. On the reverse is a close-up of the gnarled trunk, track titles alongside. The synth work is multi-layered; repeating phrases and arpeggios rolling over expansive pads and strings, chimes and little metalic notes twinkling in the background - warm melodies and strong themes demanding the attention, then dropping away into gentleness and quiet corners. The front cover features a striking twisted tree with dense clouds for foliage, wheeling birds circling the branches.
This review is coming from somone who wants to start a progressive, neoclassical, melodic deathcore, jazz fusion, electronica band. My favorite tracks are A small Adventure, Treasure, Anthemoessa, Strangely Beautiful, Frosty Morning Bliss, and Silken Twine. Oystein deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
I've been listening to Oystein Ramfjord's music for 4 years now. It doesn't have any chanting monks or foreign vocals which took awhile to grow on me with my first Amethystium cd "Aphelion". He does it again.
His music has to be the most beautiful in the universe. Buy "Isabliss" today along with "Odonata", "Aphelion", and "Evermind", you will not regret it. If I could sum it up in one word it would be "paradise".
If you are new to this style of ambient, new age, electronic music I recommend "Isabliss" first.
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