Los Angeles-based composer, Mark Van Hoen, has delved into electronic music for nearly thirty-five years with records running the spectrum from Berlin school pulses to throbbing EDM, all of which influence his latest ethereal synth-driven release.
Nightvision ranges from pastoral Harmonia-like krautrock to the darkness of Italian horror movie soundtracks by Claudio Simonetti and Fabio Frizzi. Haunting electrified voices waft over lounging industrial beats while Eno-esque drones merge with a cloud of Vangelis haze. Elsewhere, Olekranon’s carefully constructed noise flirts with Tangerine Dream’s heady mind expansion, and cosmic Klaus Schulze hyperdrive dances to Autechre glitch. It’s simultaneously soothing and unsettling, that uneasy feeling of watching the sun come up while ghosts of the night before lurk in the shadows of memory.
Though a veteran, Mark Van Hoen shows no signs of the cynicism or laziness that come with the title. Step into his surreal space and float away for awhile.
