I don’t think it’s a surprise that here at VWHQ, there is a person that likes Dan Burke’s aka Illusion of Safety’s output. Earlier this year, Korm Plastics (who said they’d never release music again) broke the dry spell of releasing music by co-releasing the IoS/Z’ev collaboration on vinyl. Now they have a CD by Illusion of Safety. Combine that with a few other releases like Muziekkamer and the BOH Sampler, and those first words on the Korm website raise questions: ‘Korm Plastics was a record label. These days, we publish books. About music.’ Maybe Frans will explain it to me at some point.
But, back to what it is all about. Illusion of Safety / Dan Burke. It’s a blind spot in my collection. I’ve seen him perform once in Aachen, but since that was something like 25 years ago, I really can’t remember the details. So, it’s Dan’s recent output that I started to know and respect. And with this new album, “Pastoral”, the concern is only getting stronger. Though I must say, it took me several listening sessions before it struck me at the right spots.
The five tracks with a total playing time of 58 minutes are hidden in serene packaging. Pictures of a morning or evening stroll in the countryside and the first sounds of “Invulnerable” are concrete staccato sounds. There was something wrong with the combination of those in my head. Still, as the track continued, field recordings started building a backing drone, and additional sounds formed the actual composition with a massive piano/guitar intermezzo, which has to be mentioned. All kinds of manipulated musical instruments create a flawless transition towards the second track entitled “Neolithic”, and from here, it only gets better. Tracks 3 to 5 are droney soundscapes with a perfect balance between layers of minimal noise and drones and additional sounds projected on top of it. In total, 40 minutes of absolute poetic sounds. And there it struck me how I see Dan’s music, in this release at least. Looking at the picture on the cover, you get an emotion, but zooming in on the picture, you can extrude air, sun, grass, sand, and a little forest in the back. And zooming in on the woods, you can see trees and then branches… But zooming out, you get a ‘walk in nature’… But what if you zoom out from there… “Thermogenesis”, “Ground”, and “Compelling” all cover a particular aspect of switching perspectives like this. At least, that’s what I think.
Pastoral (noun): a work of literature portraying an idealized version of country life. For me, the first tracks are about escaping what’s terrible, and the last three are about embracing what’s good. The illusion of Safety presents in one album that you can’t make just one of those choices (escape/embrace) and that the result is great if you follow your heart.
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