Release Date: April 20th 2023. Record Label: Lore City Music. Formats: DD/Vinyl
Vistiation: Tracklisting
Sunken Prism
A Tap On The Shoulder
Hoax
Secret Lake
It's So Far Away
Less Red
Highest Invoking
Kindly Rewind
Members
Eric Agnelo Bessel - Everything
Review
Eric Angelo Bessel is perhaps best known for being a member of Post-Rock/Art-Rock Duo Lore City who have impressed me with their last few releases. Eric is releasing his debut album with Visitation which is a chilled out Psych/Drone/Post-Rock/Art-Rock collection of haunting and melodic tracks. There is a sense of warmth and exploration on this album which has a slight Science Fiction or Science Fact vibe. The album does feel like a soundtrack to an Art-house Science Fiction movie and if Blade Runner was originally made today I could see this album being part of the soundtrack.
The instrumental work is stunning, there's no other way to describe it. Ambient Post-Rock textures slowly build into other areas of Gothic based music. The album is slow-paced and will perhaps disappoint folks who are looking for their next "HEAVY" fix. This isn't that kind of album. Eric Angelo Bessel is all about sonic exploration with the foundations of Post Rock and Psych Rock. The music is mostly nuanced which allows Eric to explore different classical sound structures which you can hear on the excellent opening two songs of Sunken Prism and A Tap On The Shoulder. Both tracks show different sides to Eric's creative drive and vision. Both haunting and delivering different blends of Ambient/Droned Out Post-Rock.
The album is purely instrumental and I believe vocals would damage the great work that Eric has achieved with Visitation. The soulful and blissful vibes are quite uplifting but with almost Post-Doom edge. Inspired by experimental sounds of the Eighties and Nineties scenes, Eric does contain some gloomy and downbeat moments when the need calls for this.
Other outstanding tracks include Secret Lake, Less Red, Highest Invoking and Kindly Rewind with these tracks having the richest and most interesting styles of music on the album. I never thought of Post-Rock having a romantic quality to the album but I feel Eric has achieved that with this release especially with most chilled out and blissfully drawn out Progressive themes that remain on the album.
Visitation also benefits from richly observed production values that allows Eric to release a sublime album that lasts long in the memory. This could end up becoming one of the most interesting and fascinating releases from the Post-Rock scene I've heard in a very long time.
The album won't be for everyone but if you want to experience a Post-Rock album with a mighty difference then Visitation might be the album for you.
Words by Steve Howe
Visitation is available to buy now on DD/Vinyl via Lore City Music and is distributed by various stockists now.
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