A conceptual album referring to Würm, the last ice age, is a nice idea to build an album (or series) around, but the problem here is that the only things we know about that last ice age is pure scientific fact. Thus, we have only a perception depending on the interpretation of facts at hand and the always-evolving techniques to obtain these facts. Oöphoi's sixty-five minute enduring sound-interpretation of the Würm is, to say at least, minimal in every meaning of the word. An Aerial View displays nothing more than a portrait of a solid frozen landscape, curving at the horizon with a glistening sun breaking through the frost in the thin air.
By taking on the 'flight over the Würm' point of view, An Aerial View fails to grasp the intensity and violent force of the biting cold and always transforming ice. After about fifteen minutes I was anticipating technical difficulties in order to get some variety in the rather sleep-inducing soundscape (note: not soundscapes). Freezing fuel tubes, rotors struggling to work in the air impregnated with ice: the thrill of going to the boundaries of mankind, and technical possibilities are missing. I've been waiting for the emergency landing I was hoping he had to make, and I still am craving for it.
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Oöphoi website
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