{{Short description|Belgian composer and ambient musician}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Vidna Obmana | image = Fear Falls Burning, Epiphone Les Paul.jpg | caption = Dirk Serries (2009) | background =non_performing_personnel | birth_name = Dirk Serries | birth_date = 1968 | origin = [[Belgium]] | instrument = | genre = [[Ambient music]]<br>[[Minimal music]]<br>[[Drone music]] | occupation = | years_active = 1984–2007 | label = [[ND Records]]<br>Hypnos Recordings<br>[[Soleilmoon Recordings]]<br>[[Projekt Records]] | website = [http://dirkserries.com] }}
'''Vidna Obmana<!--"Vidna Obmana" per talk page-->''' (stylized '''vidnaObmana''' on many album covers) is a [[pseudonym]] used by [[Belgium|Belgian]] composer and [[ambient music]]ian Dirk Serries. The name ''Vidna Obmana'', a phrase in [[Serbian language|Serbian]], literally translates to "optical illusion" and was chosen by Serries because he felt it accurately described the music.<ref name="VidnaObmana Bio">{{cite web|url=http://www.vidnaobmana.be/index.php?pg=vidnaobmana|title=Vidna Obmana|access-date=2009-11-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822222435/http://www.vidnaobmana.be/index.php?pg=vidnaobmana|archive-date=2009-08-22|url-status=dead}}</ref> Serries created music under the Vidna Obmana pseudonym from 1984 until 2007, when he officially retired the name.<ref name="VidnaObmana">{{cite web|url=http://www.vidnaobmana.be/|title=Vidna Obmana|access-date=2009-11-13|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091123183923/http://www.vidnaobmana.be/|archive-date=2009-11-23}}</ref> Most of his current work is released under the '''Fear Falls Burning''' pseudonym.<ref name="Fear Falls Burning, History">{{cite web|url=http://www.fearfallsburning.be/|title=Fear Falls Burning, History|access-date=2009-11-13}}</ref>
Vidna Obmana's music has often been described as anamorphic and organic. He uses the techniques of looping and shaping harmonies, minimizing the configurations to a few notes.<ref>[http://www.moodbook.com/music/vidna-obmana.html Vidna Obmana discography]</ref>
Vidna Obmana has collaborated on several occasions with artists such as [[Asmus Tietchens]], [[Brannan Lane]], [[Capriolo Trifoglio]], [[Diego Borotti]], and [[Steve Roach (musician)|Steve Roach]]. Some of these collaborations have become entire projects of their own, such as [[Continuum (music project)|Continuum]] (collaboration with [[Bass Communion]]) and Principle of Silence (collaboration with [[Joris De Backer]]).
Vidna Obmana is often cited as one of the more notable dark ambient musicians.<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/comj.2004.28.4.87?journalCode=comj | doi=10.1162/comj.2004.28.4.87 | title=Linux Audio Conference 2004 Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnology, Karlsruhe, Germany, 29 April-2 May 2004 | year=2004 | last1=Phillips | first1=Dave | journal=Computer Music Journal | volume=28 | issue=4 | pages=87–91 | s2cid=64289367 | url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>Teresa Gubbins, [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DM&p_theme=dm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0ED3D44AC8478E7C&p_field_direct-0=document_id Vidna Obmana], Dallas Morning News, February 24, 1994</ref>
==Discography==
===Solo albums=== * ''The Ultimated Sign of Burning Death'' (1985) Therapie Organisatie * ''Experience Artaud - Soundtrack for Experimental Theatre'' (1988), Mechanical Orchestration Music * ''Deathchamber - Trancedreamed'' (1988) Mechanical Orchestration Music * ''Gathering in frozen beauty'' (1989), The Decade Collection * ''Near the flogging landscape'' (1990), VioletGlassOracle Tapes * ''Refined on gentle clouds'' (1991), Direct Music * ''Passage in Beauty'' (1991), [[Projekt Records|Projekt]] * ''Shadowing in Sorrow'' (1991), Projekt * ''Ending Mirage'' (1992), Projekt * ''[[Echoing Delight]]'' (1993) * ''Revealed by composed nature'' (1994), Hic Sunt Leones * ''[[The Spiritual Bonding]]'' (1994) Extreme * ''The Transcending Quest'' (1995), Amplexus * ''The River of Appearance'' (1996), Projekt * ''Twilight of Perception'' (1997), Projekt * ''Crossing the Trail'' (1997), Projekt * ''Landscape in obscurity'' (1998), Hypnos - with [[Capriolo Trifoglio]] and [[Diego Borotti]] * ''The Surreal Sanctuary'' (2000), Hypnos * ''The Contemporary Nocturne'' (2000), Hypnos * ''Subterranean Collective'' (2001), Project * ''Soundtrack for the Aquarium'' (2001), Hypnos * ''Tremor'' (2001), [[Relapse Records|Relapse]]/Release * ''Isolation Trip/Path of Distortion'' (2002), Klanggalerie (7" LP) * ''Spore'' (2003), Relapse * ''Legacy'' (2004), Relapse
===''Opera for Four Fusion Works'' Series=== * ''An Opera for Four Fusion Works'' ** ''Act One: Echoes of Steel'' with Dreams in Exile (2002), Hypnos ** ''Act Two: Phrasing the Air'' with Bill Fox (2004), Hypnos ** ''Act Three: Reflection on Scale'' with Kenneth Kirchner (2006), Hypnos ** ''Act 4'' (2007), Hypnos
===Collaborations===
====With [[Bass Communion]]====
* ''[[Continuum (music project)#Continuum I|Continuum I]]'' (2005), Soleilmoon * ''[[Continuum (music project)#Continuum I|the continuum recyclings, volume one]]'' (2006), Tonefloat (2LP) * ''[[Continuum (music project)#Continuum II|Continuum II]]'' (2007), Soleilmoon * ''[[Continuum (music project)#Continuum I|the continuum recyclings, volume two]]'' (2010), Tonefloat (2LP)
====With [[Big City Orchestra]]==== * ''Vidna Obmana & Big City Orchestra'' (1989), Mechanical Orchestration Music
====With [[Serge Devadde]]r==== * ''The Shape of Solitude'' (1999), Multimood
====With [[Alio Die]]==== * ''[[Echo Passage]]'' (1999), Musica Maxima Magnetica; [[Prokekt Records|Projekt Records]] (USA)
====With [[Brannan Lane]]==== * ''Deep Unknown'' (2002), Ambient Circle
====With [[Dreams in Exile]]==== * 2-disc re-release of ''The River of Appearance'' (1996) with accompanying all-acoustic re-conceptualization of the album by Dreams in Exile
====With [[Klinik]]==== * ''Gluttony'' (2005), Hands * ''Greed'' (2006), Hands
====With [[Jan Marmenout]]==== * ''Spirits'' (1999), High Gate Music
====With David Lee Myers==== * ''Tracers'' (2003), Klanggalerie
====With [[Neurotic Youth]]==== * ''Bleeding Wounds / Only Fear Will Survive'' (1986), Ladd-Frith
====With [[PBK (composer)|PBK]]==== * ''Monument of Empty Colours'' (1988), The Decade Collection * ''Compositions : Depression & Ideal'' (1989), Freedom in a Vacuum/PBK Recordings * ''Fragment 3'' (1991), N D
====With [[Jeff Pearce (American artist)|Jeff Pearce]]==== * ''True Stories'' (1999), Mirage
====With [[Steve Roach (musician)|Steve Roach]]==== * ''Well of Souls'' (1995), Projekt – 2 discs * ''Cavern of Sirens'' (1997), Projekt * ''Ascension of Shadows'' (1998), Projekt (limited edition 3-disc set included ''Somewhere Else,'' re-released 2005) * ''Live Archive'' (2000), Groove Unlimited * ''Circles & Artifacts'' (2000), Contemptary Harmonic * ''InnerZone'' (2002), Projekt * ''[[Spirit Dome]]'' (2004), Projekt * ''Somewhere Else'' (2005), Projekt * ''Low Volume Music'' (2012), Projekt
====With [[Sam Rosenthal]]==== * ''Terrace of Memories'' (1992), Projekt
====With [[Djen Ajakan Shean]]==== * ''[[Parallel Flaming]]'' (1994), Multimood * ''Still Fragments'' (1994), ND
====With [[Willem Tanke]]==== * ''Variations for Organ, Keyboard and Processors'' (1999), Multimood
====With [[Asmus Tietchens]]==== * ''The Shift Recyclings'' (2002), Soleilmoon * ''Motives for Recycling (Linear Writings, Nachtstücke Revisited)'' (1999), Soleilmoon * ''Untitled Collaboration'' (1995), Syrenia
====Other collaborations==== * ''Zero Point'' (2001), The Foundry - by Seofon with Thermal, [[Stephen Kent (musician)|Stephen Kent]], [[Robert Rich (musician)|Robert Rich]], [[Steve Roach (musician)|Steve Roach]], [[Not Breathing]] * ''Music for Exhibiting Water with Contents – Soundtrack for the Aquarium'' (1992) Antwerp ZOO - Split with Hybrids * ''A Thunder Orchestra / Vidna Obmana'' (1986), Ladd-Frith - Split release with A Thunder Orchestra * [[Agoraphobic Nosebleed]] - ''[[PCP Torpedo]]'' ANbRx "Three Ring Inferno" - remix
===Anthologies=== * ''Noise/Drone Anthology 1984-1989'' (2005), Ikon/Projekt * ''[[Anthology 1984 - 2004]]'' (2004), Ikon/Projekt * ''Memories Compiled 2 (Near the flogging landscape, Refined on gentle clouds)'' (1999), Projekt: Archive * ''The Trilogy'' (1995), Projekt: Archive - Compilation of ''Passage in beauty'', ''Shadowing in sorrow'' and ''Ending Mirage'' * ''Memories Compiled 1 (Monument of Empty Colours, Gathering in frozen beauty)'' (1994), Projekt: Archive - with PBK
== See also == *[[List of ambient music artists]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Official website|http://www.dirkserries.com/}} * {{Allmusic|class=artist|id=p40696|label=Vidna Obmana}} * {{Discogs artist}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:Ambient musicians]] [[Category:Belgian composers]] [[Category:Belgian male composers]] [[Category:Extreme Records artists]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Projekt Records artists]] [[Category:Relapse Records artists]] [[Category:Soleilmoon artists]] [[Category:Belgian electronic musicians]] [[Category:1968 births]] [[Category:Place of birth missing (living people)]]