Transient Thoughts 005 - Skyrealm - Virtual Dreams

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Transient Thoughts is a series of shorter reviews that capture my thoughts on a given album at a given time.  Most of these reviews have not had nearly as in depth of a look at my full reviews.  These thoughts are often formulated while walking through my neighborhood, and reflect how the album impacted me in those moments.  I hope you enjoy them.

Have you ever felt as if you are on a journey through a foreign country, simply taking in the sites? Surrounded by people but cannot communicate with any of them.  Everyone is content to live their own lives and you are in this transitory state, just passing through.  

This is the feeling I get from Skyrealm’s Virtual Dreams.  Through the use of field recordings I am taken into the streets of Japan and allowed to get a small glimpse of different parts of the country.  Each track acts as a scene to the larger picture contained within the album.  Each its own stop alongside the journey.

Rain, distant voices, a train stop - samples that are used effectively to enhance the sense that this album is about singular moments in time. The music itself is mostly droning ambient pads that enhance the field recordings.  These two elements together make up the core of what is heard on Virtual Dreams.  

This album truly shines during the album's longer tracks.  The synths are given ample time to develop and provide a state to lose oneself into their ambient tones.  Slow droning passages that simply gently guide emotions, never direct them.  And it's in this meditative state that the album is at its finest.  

Feelings of solitude, contemplation, and peace are drawn out in these longer passages, and that alone makes the album worthwhile.  The spell is broken however in some of the shorter tracks.  

Towards the end of the album, melodies are introduced in a way that simply breaks the mold that the album has set for itself.  It's a shame because the melodies themselves are not bad per se, they just do not fit the meditative state that the album has established to this point.  

Despite this minor complaint, Virtual Dreams is absolutely worth listening to, especially the first three to four tracks at the beginning of the journey. That is where the album truly shines.

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