This is the second cdr I hear of Grimbergen, a one-man Scottish project named after a Belgian beer, which makes atmospheric music with synthetic means. The first creation “Shame and Regret” was pleasant to listen to, with a mixture of classical and ambient music. This second album continues in that vein, though with a somewhat denser sound. There are 5 songs present, lasting over 45 minutes in total. Grimbergen is in no hurry, the songs unrevel slowly, carefully they move forward. The moody first track strongly reminds me of Raison d`être. After a drony start the room is filled by spacious ambient layers of strings, subtle percussion, dark windy sounds and a desolate atmosphere.
On ‘The Ominous Crags’ threatening beats play a more significant role, and the tension is further increased by the gradually swelling keyboard parts, who form a very slow melody. This song makes me sleepy, though halfway it gets more melodic and moving. ‘Under the Stones’ is a tranquil ambient piece, where drones meet unexpected spacy sounds to create a surreal mood. Not the most interesting part of the album in my opinion. Halfway more noisy elements enter the galaxy to chase the little spacemen away. The last minutes of the song contain beautiful sweeping classical layers, adorned by bells.
‘Fallen’ (Misfortune) has a very slow start, dark ambient sounds seem to lead to a void. But then percussion start to intrude, and melodic aspects take a hold of the track which gets more and more interesting. Finally we are treated to ‘Objection: Meaning’ is probably my favourite, again making me think of Peter Andersson’s work. The tracks is nicely built up, with a good variation of elements, and leading to a majestic classical eclipse.
I think this second album of Grimbergen is less accessible than its predeccesor, but after a few listening turns “Something is Wrong” is certainly worth the effort. You can never have enough of such nice atmospheric music in your collection.
