WEIRD

"Weird" is the only Senmuth record to date that has known a semi-professional release that is physically available all around the world. I don't know why this album was chosen out of almost one hundred releases but I'm happy with this choice.

In my humble opinion, "Weird" is amongst Senmuth's ultimate masterpieces with Oracle Octave I: Orion Mystery and Great Oppositions Of Mars and convinces with nine detailed and well worked out little masterpieces. The instrumental parts may seem minimal at first contact and this album is one of his most calm and spiritual ones but every single song has progressive changes in style, gripping atmospheric passages and the certain kind of magic that not every album in his collection has. As this album is easy to purchase, I would consider it as an absolute must have and highlight in any collection of a fan of progressive ambient music.

To go further into details, I might as well point out my favourite songs for the moment on this consistent record. There is the really haunting "Raido" that finishes with an amazingly eerie piano melody that sends shivers down my spine and reminds me of the darker moments of some gothic metal bands such as The Vision Bleak minus the heaviness of those bands. I also adore the mechanical industrial sounds that open and close the gripping "Isa" which is maybe the best song on here. I also admire the majestic male choirs in the stunning "Uruz". Concerning the diversity I would though point out the track "Perth" which is practically as profound and amazing as "Isa" that has many progressive changes and mixes natural folk sounds, minimalistic tribal drum rhythms and a floating spiritual atmosphere in one single song and unites many key elements of previous essential Senmuth records which means that this album even gives you a great overview.

In the end, there really is no reason to not purchase this record. Go on his homepage, download his record free and legally and get convinced by this underrated atmospheric masterpiece and then go and support this unique musician by purchasing his record. I really hope that there will be more Senmuth albums available in this form in the near future as the idea kicked off in a nearly perfect way with "Weird" that is not as strange as the title suggests but simply another peak of brilliantly executed diversity signed by our culturally inspired multi-instrumentalist Senmuth.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on September 23th of the year 2011.