Dirk Ivens is not exactly unknown. As one of the founding members of The Klinik, but also as part of Sonar and many other projects his name got associated with good dark electronic music. Another project that added to his fame is his solo-project Dive.
Talking about this project immediately brings us to the newest Dive-release “Behind The Sun”, the first one that is not a solo-album anymore. In fact this album is a collaboration with Rafael M Espinosa from Geistform.
What does this do for the music Well, it sounds more polished , less raw than the older Dive albums. This can also be attributed to Eric van Wonthergem’s (from Sonar indeed) production. But furthermore the typical Dive sound still exists. Captured pressure and aggression, fighting it’s way out, but never able to break through entirely, cropped up frustration as a result. All this sometimes in almost soundscape-esque songs, sometimes in beat-driven tracks, making a strong record.
In fact the frustration and aggression seem to have grown when compared to earlier albums. This does not make this album easy to listen to, but it makes you discover new parts of the songs when you replay the album, that will not soon bore the listener.
An album that can be bought just because of the name Dirk Ivens, that guarantees quality. An album that has no extremely strong points, but no weakness either.
An album also that really makes me wonder what Dive will sound and look like live in 2005. An act to look forward to at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen.