Mark van Hoen - The Revenant Diary

My fondness for the works of Mark van Hoen has a long story and reaches back to the Locust releases on R&S. His idea of stoically beating drum machines beneath swirling textures and pulsating synth lines always fascinated me, since I first heard them. In my head, it always sounded like a long forgotten russian ambient techno release that was lost somewhere in the late 80s. There was this sadness you could not really put your fingers on and this eerie atmosphere that only seemed to make sense in those wee small hour of the morning, where everything and everyone was asleep and it was just you, the stereo and a bottle of wine. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, what those tracks did to me, the only thing I know, is, that this is still resonating within me. 

When I heard about this new release on Editions Mego, I was really excited because the combination totally made sense to me. Mego as a label that always pushed the envelope of music a little further, van Hoen with his introspective mediations. This sounded like a good combination. And to be honest; it is. “The Revenant Diary” is an amazing piece of work. Sure, one can easily say, that it doesn’t add that much to the already existing vocabulary of van Hoen’s releases, but it perfectly fits in with its monotonous beat patterns, strange and unsettling pads and textures.

It’s probably the total absence of notion to the developments of electronic music or trends within this field that makes this so interesting. This could have been released at any point and – this is really important – only be Mark van Hoen. This is a desolate and sad, introspective journey without a destination. It’s just riding inward, just surfing on sounds and textures. Drink deep! Believe me, you will.

Editions Mego
Mark van Hoen