“Yurei returns with a work venturing further into the weird”. This work of unlimited psychological self-expression and arguable insanity from the Norwegian artist Bjeima introduces a “parade of Dali-like creatures of the night: twisted, progressive, Lynchian tracks with hectic Balkan-inspired outbursts going off inside the dissonant but still melancholic and driven rock”.
If you have the stomach for eclectic jazz-inspired psychedelia and can see it through, I guarantee that “Night Vision” will keep you on your toes, may well give you nightmares and may even delight you. Its jazzy rock creations recall the work of one band in particular: Ephel Duath. With each distortion, I sense that we’re heading further into a twisted psyche. After the opener “Insomniac Bug Hunt”, which itself has the progressive ambiance of a Canvas Solaris piece, I was surprised to hear vocals. The vocals are like the music itself: expressions of a deranged mind. “I’ll stare into your black holes revealing your future anxiety” utters the disturbed man on “Diminished Disciple”. This is just not normal. But what is outstanding is the musical dexterity. Each jazz-inspired note adds to the deepening void. It’s moody, urgent, sinister, melancholic, and like having ants crawl down your body. In amongst the unpleasantness there is delicate piano playing and soft drums. If it crushes us, it does so psychologically.
“Yurei” is a work of great creativity, dancing between inspired sections of progressive jazz rock. Waves seem to obsess our guide: “We’re dancing on the waves, floating through the night, like sleep walkers in love, nothing here is right”. “Dali by Night” is inescapably hypnotic, creeping on like a progressive nightmare. Even the silence behind the deliberate rhythm has sinister meaning and impact. The quiet keyboards suggest this is somewhere we don’t want to be. But this is so intriguing and captivating that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. The guitar rhythm of “Ditt Movement” smacks of Opeth’s “Damnation” but as I recall, Opeth weren’t playing with our brain or internal nervous system as here.
It’s hard to say that this album degenerates into the depths of mental illness as it never started in a wholesome place. To quote the Track “Machinery”: “This is where everything goes backwards”. The impressive thing is that’s all attained quietly through the medium of mental soundwaves. I just hope that Ephel Duath’s Davide Tiso doesn’t team up with Bjeima, or we’re all in trouble. As it is, this album should come with a free appointment at a psychiatrist’s. Whether it does or not, I’d suggest its well worth the effort to listen to. If an album leaves you in a different place when you’ve finished, then in my book it has achieved something, and “Night Vision” certainly does that.
(8.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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