Canadian electronic musician Hugo Girard has taken an interest in the subject of hypnosis and created an album based around the idea of simulating or accompanying a session through the employment of analogue electronic drones, sequences, and rhythms.
Hypnosis is one of those things people are eternally fascinated by and about which many myths have been generated, not to mention also spawning a self-help industry in which the process is utilised to aid in quitting smoking, overcoming phobias, and similar. Plus, who hasn't come across the thrilling mystery story plot where the evil villain (with the use of the ubiquitous pocket-watch and a ridiculous moustache) hypnotises some unfortunate innocent victim into committing a dreadfully heinous crime in his stead.
Vromb's music is characterised by subtlety of composition, constructed from washes of wave-like drones, subtle tones, and quiet electronic sequenced rhythms that constantly change and metamorphose; and strange voices speaking in French add to the sense of experiencing an altered state. The music has a serpentine quality, undulating and deeply hypnotic (pun intended), insinuating itself into the deepest levels of the consciousness and crawling into the crevices of the subconscious where the darkest secrets hide. The beauty of it is that there is nothing overt about the music; instead just the merest hint of a suggestive influence at work. Put the headphones on, lie back and let it all wash over and seep in. That said however, I felt a slight uneasiness bubbling away like an undercurrent, as if to point out that hypnosis is not necessarily healthy or beneficent and that like most things it also has a dark side; for me though it is that merest suggestion of an edge of darkness that defines the music's attractiveness. This could, indeed should, be classified as an intelligent rendering of ambient dance, the sounds and rhythms evolving naturally and following on one from the other easily; this is definitely music for the head and not for the feet. As reluctant as I am to employ comparisons I will just this once reference early- to mid-'70s Tangerine Dream as a way of providing some musical co-ordinates, especially in terms of the sequencer rhythms.
Personally I have always been a tad suspicious about claims that such music can induce altered states of consciousness, principally because the claims made seem so fantastic and overblown. What surprised me about this release was the fact that I caught a tiny glimpse of the possibility that specific sounds and cyclic tones can indeed produce the desired effect in the brains of those so attuned. Even on a purely superficial level this is a thoroughly relaxing album but not in the vapid or insipid New Age sense; this has enough darkness and bite to make it engaging and satisfying on both a musical and intellectual level, plus you could actually shuffle and sway to it if you were so inclined.
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