Wijde wijdte

I had experience of the Dutch prog thrash group Cryptosis before hearing of Franck Johanson’s solo project Omgeving. To be honest, this sounds fucking nothing like that, nor really like this website’s description of post-black/doom metal. Maybe it’s tangentially metal, but I feel more inclined to call this avant-garde blackened industrial ambient or something nonsense like that. Whatever tag you’d care to slap on it, the thus far only album Wijde Wijdte cares more about atmosphere and effect than about musicality.

The record certainly doesn’t feel like a fit for the 9 legged lady on the front, since her afro would get a severe trim in light of the minimalism at play across 9 tracks and 47 minutes, although I suppose the listen does have a sort of naked vibe, if not in any sensual manner. That’s due to Johanson reining back all excess in favour of strict alienation, occasionally with vaguely extreme metal styles but often just with monotonous repetition of fragmentary riffs and electronics. ‘Ouverture 2015’ starts the album with the most normal set-up, sounding potentially like a slow introduction to swampy, trippy post-black stuff, something that the following track also pretends at. The production renders everything kind of splayed out though, guitars in total echo mode and drums only heard infrequently without any highlighting whatsoever. The feel during ‘Zwaartekracht bestaat hier niet’ is of unease, numbly repeating a couple of stripped-down blackened riffs, as if Now, Diabolical-era Satyricon had converted to DSBM instead of black ‘n’ roll. These opening cuts remain fairly relaxed however, so it takes until ‘De zon ontmoet de aarde’ to get properly off the rails, clanging noise and gutsy stabs of bass sounding harsh alongside creepy melodic effects. The sinister muttered voiceover here comes back a few times later on, which appear to be the only instances of vocals on the album.

As Wijde Wijdte progresses, it continues to get more experimental and more minimalist. The title track reduces to an uncanny ambient electronic style, the throb of bass and pings of synths making a similarly unnerving soundscape to the former metallic avenue, while the closing track expresses itself the most subtly with only reverberating noise and a vague organ tone, sort of like a redemptive Nine Inch Nails piece. As a result, the back stretch of the album proves fairly hypnotic, referencing ambient music far more than heavy sounds and seeming more welcoming despite the threat never totally de-escalating. The only surprise comes when ‘Stille vernietiging’ somehow ends up in a blastbeat section after a cold magical atmosphere is built up, sounding like an avalanche in a castle of ice.

The instrumental nature of Omgeving’s music makes it extremely suitable as mood-setting listening for concentrated activities, provided that you don’t want to relax too much. It’s of that sort of album whereby I remain interested without experiencing much actual pleasure, probably because the music conveys a world that I wouldn’t like to find myself in. Nevertheless, I have to acknowledge the impressive effectiveness of Wijde Wijdte.