Recenzje

Atman
Personal Forest

Atman will be at least vaguely familiar to obssessive underground fanzine readers through ecstatic reviews of their previous "Soundreams" LP and "End Of Philosophy" 7" on Obuh (don't know if any copies ever surfaced here), none of which, however, are any substitute for actually hearing this staggering collective at work. From Poland, Atman associate themselves with the Eastern European 'Deep Ecology' movement, which promotes various forest workshops and ecological retreats in an attempt to forge some kind of planetary awareness. Claiming to draw inspiration from "occurences, people, wild places, forests and landscapes", their music is unsuprisingly very organic. The bulk of Personal Forest consits of tracks originally issued on vinyl by the German Lollipop label with the addiction of some truly transcendental pieces recorded "out in the open" on their 1994 Save Earth! Tour.
All acoustic, Atman utilise manic Jew's harp and didgeridoo, plaintive Tibetan liturgical instruments and nameless woodwind inventions to create a uniquely open and all encompassing series of free improvisations. Parallels are few, but perhaps a Masaki Batoh-less Ghost circa Second Time Around and Temple Stone are as close as you'll get to the microscopically-damaged ethnic folk moves within.

The Wire, November 97
David Keenan