{"id":10495,"date":"2024-06-18T17:17:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T15:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kessel-tamerus.nl\/Esthers_Blog\/?p=10495"},"modified":"2025-11-30T11:49:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T10:49:31","slug":"vlyes-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kessel-tamerus.nl\/Esthers_Blog\/cd-recensie\/vlyes-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Vlyes – Why"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Vlyes is a new name, but founders Kay S\u00f6hl (ex Sylvan) and Jens Lueck Single Celled Organism and Isgaard) are well-known in the prog world. ‘Why’ is their melodic atmospheric prog debut album. This concept album is about the bio-industry. The story displays life (from birth to death) from the perspective of an animal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘The Arrival’ starts calmly with sampling and several layers of guitar playing. The calm vocals match the music. This takes place just after the animal’s birth, and his\/her view of the “world” around him\/her. Sampling is added during an instrumental piece. ‘I Can’t Get Out’ has a bit more volume and the rhythm is catchy. The young animal wants to get out but can’t. You can hear the desperation in Volker Oster’s voice. The intro of ‘I Need A Wise Friend’ is beautiful. Volker has a lot of diversity in his voice. He explains the suffering and loneliness of the animal in an intense way. Vocal parts are interspersed with instrumental pieces. Lighter and more heavily played parts alternate. Unnoticed, there are quite a lot of layers in the music. ‘Once In A While’ contains a delicious amount of prog and various twists and turns; the ending is quite unexpected. During the intro of ‘The Petition’, the sound of plucking strings of stringed instruments can be heard. The unusual combination of instruments and the unexpected turns make you feel like you are being drown into the music. There are many details in both the vocal and instrumental parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Calm Down’ starts with a dreamy atmosphere; it seems like nothing is going on, but appearances are deceiving\u2026 The stacked vocals are subtle, but beautifully added. A “heart beat” is woven into the music. Very briefly, the music sounds distorted, this suits the added sounds. This special ending flows into the remarkable start of a song consisting of two parts. The monotonous sounds of ‘The Abandon’ (the first part) match the sung words and the animal’s hopeless life. In the background, wordless vocals can be heard. Again, the details in the calm drumming stand out positively. Step by step, the music slows down, then there is a sudden turn to more pace and volume. The second part also contains several changes. In ‘The End’, emotion comes through in piano playing and (wordless) vocals. It touches me, especially when combined with the “heartbeat” heard at a given moment. The string instruments, piano playing and vocals give ‘Why’ a sombre atmosphere. A transition to a warmer, instrumental piece follows. This extended piece is well filled with beautiful twists and turns. The vocals that follow remain balanced with the music. This is a deserved title track, as it is a beautifully long song, which takes on cinematic allure just before the end. The lyrics and sampled animal sounds in ‘The Dubiousness’ make you realise again what this album is about. This is chosen so well that it is not predominant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The words on the album are well chosen, as they are not full of blame or protest. So the concept is definitely accessible. The emotions in vocals and music are not dominant. The guitar playing is regularly compelling; the bass is also well heard. The division between (bass) guitar and keys is fine. The beautiful sound is well spread across the headphones. ‘Why’ needs some time to grow, but newcomer Vlyes has made a good album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(83\/100) (Progressive Promotion Records<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media<\/strong>:
Bandcamp: Vlyes<\/a>
Facebook: Vlyes<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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