Review: Eric Angelo Bessel ‘Illusion Of An Inland Ocean’
Where to start, where to start… In a world filled with noise, getting a chance for some quiet can be a real rarity. Days, weeks, and years filled with other humans, traffic, and general sonic pollutants can have a real draining effect on the soul.
When I find that it’s all getting too much, I like to take myself away, change the scenery, have a wander around some woods, or just sit on my bed and close my eyes.
If you can relate to these feelings then I’m sure you, like me, sometimes need a soundtrack to accompany the background hum, and that my friends is where Eric Angelo Bessel comes in.
Not content with being one half of Lore City (who are themselves utterly wonderful), Bessel is also an artist in his own right, and he fills his time creating these beautifully sparse aural soundscapes which are guaranteed to whisk you away to unfathomable plains of reality, wondering if you ever want to leave.
Back when I was but a pup at The Sleeping Shaman, one of my early memorable reviews was covering Lore City’s album Participation Mystique. It was way back in 2021; they were easier days, and having survived a world-famous ‘modern-day plague’, life was returning, and with it the promise of a new era of music.
That was before the dark days. Step forward to the Autumn of 2026, and there’s a new series of lullabies, which will help ease these troubling times for sure.
After covering the previous release, Visitation in April of 2023, it’s felt like it’s been a long, perilous journey for mankind to reach where we are now. Considering how advanced we apparently are on the planet, it really does feel like we seem to be recovering ground not tarnished since the ‘40s and regressing, more than progressing. Well, for troubled times comes a potential antidote in the form of this new album by Bessel.
the luminescent sonic landscapes will alter your mindset and force you into a trance-like state…
To paint a picture of the man himself, musically, he is an artist who can make nothing everything. In the flutter of an eyelid, he can stop the world completely and force us to listen to what’s inside, more than outside. To be clear, this is an album which is so minimal it’s a wonder it exists at all. But therein lies its majesty. It embraces that silence and then runs a beautifully minimal musical monologue atop the low kinetic hum, while keeping the momentum organically drifting in the ether. If you need an escape, then this is it; the luminescent sonic landscapes will alter your mindset and force you into a trance-like state without you even noticing it.
Illusion Of An Inland Ocean consists of eighteen interconnected pieces that roll through without any movement ever really concluding before the next begins. It’s an organic minimalist love letter, which encourages the feeling of letting go more than it does to holding on. At no point does it ever feel weighty, and the use of delicate textures aurally helps to calm the spirit as well as the mind. Because of its sparse nature, it is impossible to really pinpoint any particular standout moments, as it in itself is more akin to one overly expanded soundscape.
This is where Bessel sets himself apart. For all my trying to reach a point for comparison to any other artist, I just cannot gauge it at all. It is so unique that it’s easier to explain the concept than it is to explain the sound itself, as it is unequivocally distinctive, which isn’t bad considering it hardly exists within this realm at all.
Quoting from this press release, I think it gives the greatest insight into it all, as it states, ‘Rather than telling a story, the album invites listeners to wander, following recurring landmarks as the gradually reveal unexpected connections beneath the surface of the ordinary world.’ It’s a wonderful way to quantify the experience, and I think it says it in a far more eloquent way than I do.
Yes, this isn’t a loud album; it’s entirely the reverse, but if you want to unburden your mind, then I would recommend this most highly. Put it on, sit back, and lose yourself within its beauty, and watch all the world’s worries gently drift away.
Label: Lore City Music
Band Links: Bandcamp | Spotify
Scribed by: Lee Beamish
