CoC : Regard Extreme - Resurgence : Review

Regard Extreme - _Resurgence_
(Perspectives, 1996)
by: Andrew Lewandowski (10 out of 10)

Every once in a great while, an album will come along which completely allude a verbal definition; in fact, placing words upon such a release can only serve to pervert its power. _Resurgence_ is one of those albums. Symbols such as "melancholic" and "transcendental" are ejaculated, yet nothing can do anything but limit the objective strength and subjective effect of this recording. If seen superficially, this is created in a rather conventional mold; orchestral ambient generated by synthesizer. Yet Regard Extreme create music that is far too lush and multi-faceted to be correctly limited to the ambient genre, nor do they come close to degenerating into an obviously "Casio" band (see much of Mortiis' work). Only the choral passages are evidently inorganic, for the human voice is impossible to faithfully replicate via machine. The emotional impact and suffocating ambience result in an effect intrinsic in only the best of ambient music, as the dichotomy separating listener and music is annihilated; the m sic truly melts into the skin of the listener, assimilating itself with one's persona. Thus, as I've discovered over the past month, _Resurgence_ is the perfect album for those solitary winter nights in which the ambivalence of emotion runs thick.

(article published 16/3/1997)