First, I'd like to state that I'm not an Ildjarn fan by any means; in fact, I like only about four songs (those from the "Norse" EP) out of all the Ildjarn material I've heard and/or owned, which spans roughly four albums or so. Despite this, I was interested in checking out "Landscapes" because it was supposedly different from anything that Ildjarn had ever done before, and I must say that it certainly is.

A good alternate title for this would have been "Ildjarn takes a few handfuls of Valium, smokes a couple of joints, and makes an ambient record." As you can probably tell from that description, this stuff is extremely mellow and relaxing. In fact, it's so relaxing that it's extremely difficult to believe that this is an Ildjarn release. The music is mostly based on repetitive and simplistic patterns, with a synth sound that is vaguely akin to that found on some of Burzum's work such as "Tomhet," although I wouldn't say that Ildjarn's ambient material is quite that dynamic. It does have the tendency to become a bit boring, but if you're in the right frame of mind, "Landscapes" can be quite effective. Besides the "Norse" EP, I'd consider this to be the only other worthwhile Ildjarn release.

Overall, it's an interesting release, mainly due to the fact that it stands in stark contrast to the rest of Ildjarn's albums. By the way, this is a double CD - the first disc has 12 tracks and lasts around 74 minutes, and the second disc has 10 tracks and lasts about 61minutes, so there's a massive amount of overall playing time. I've also heard that it's limited to 250 copies, so tracking it down might be a bit difficult, but I think that it's worth the effort in the end. Not bad at all, really.

© 1998 baalberith