Vinca Minor: Isolation [Album Review]
In music, ambiance is often associated with minimalism and drone; elongated monotonous notes, thundering across the vast atmosphere, or hiding in the dark murky oceanic depths. Vinca Minor encompasses this space. And contrary to many artists that fit the description, this band mixes in quiet echoing vocals. Isolation begins with the picturesque “From Here, Eternity” and, after a solid 16 minutes, fades into drone-heavy “Ignition”, masked in a melodramatic darkness, yet with the occasional ray of major-chord hope.
Learning more about the Seattle artist behind Vinca Minor, Matt Menovcik, and you’ll begin to paint a picture of an artist inspired by the avant greats — musicians like Brian Eno and Angelo Badalamenti, film-makers like David Lynch. “Waves”, “Holding Pattern”, and “Your Arms” would fit perfectly in a Lynch-generated world, while the heavy piano in “Descent” bleeds emotion. As the album enters the latter half, the songs lose some of their minimalist, but the ambient effect remains prominent. There’s a world in Isolation, a personal one by nature, that Menovicik wants to share. And that makes an album like this intensely powerful.
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Second Shimmy Records [CD, 2009]
1. From Here, Eternity
2. Ignition
3. Waves
4. Holding Pattern
5. Raindrop
6. Descent
7. Your Arms
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