Øystein Ramfjord’s Amethystium is one of the very few music projects these days with a unique, distinct sound. Like Enigma or Enya, Amethystium too is being imitated by other artists. Ramfjord’s new album is called Transience, and I’m happy to say that the original Amethystium sound is still intact and unparalleled.
While some artists release an album every third month, Amethystium albums are few and far between. The last full album, Isabliss, was released back in 2008. In today’s streaming music business – where artists seem to need a massive catalogue of albums to get enough streams – it is refreshing to find an artist that takes his time to get the music just right.
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Transience is an instrumental album. It is perhaps Amethystium’s darkest album so far. But don’t let that scare you; the dark clouds gives way for some of the most positive and uplifting songs I have heard in a long time; songs like Mesmerized, Nightfall, Solace and Saudade are instant Amethystium classics. When the album ends with the title track (and the epilogue), it feels like you have completed a voyage to strange, magnificent and welcoming planet. Marcela Bolívar’s wonderful cover sets the mood even before you have started listening.
It is refreshing to find an artist that takes his time to get the music just right.
Øystein Ramfjord is a true master when it comes to producing synth music. It is impossible to tell that Transience is an independent production, and not backed by a label with an army of studio technicians standing by. That said, one or two more main instruments, for an occasional fill in for the cello/violin, would have been great. With sequenced music it is usually the other way around; the artists uses too many instruments and effects.
What I like the best about Amethystium is that this music project is like a bridge between electronic and New Age music, a proof that the neoclassical darkwave exists. To use another Norwegian band as an example; Amethystium is Secret Garden of electronic music.
Bottom line; Transience is a simply amazing album that will give us lots and lots of joy in the years to come. We can only say; thank you, Mr. Ramfjord. Well done.
Score: 95/100.
Listen to the album on:
