Mike Van Portfleet - Beyond the Horizon Line (2004)

I’d imagine anyone that’s even vaguely familiar with darkwave music probably knows who Mike Van Portfleet is. Mike began his music career back in the late 80’s with Lycia, who would later become one of the most admired and respected bands in the darkwave scene. However, as the 90’s were coming to their end Lycia became more silent and Mike moved on to other musical ideas. ‘Beyond the Horizon Line’ is Mike’s first solo album and for the most part it’s quite a departure from what he was doing with Lycia.

On, ‘Beyond the Horizon Line’ Mike creates dark and icy sounding ambient music straight from his home base in the hot Arizona desert. As usual with ambient music we have some melodic moments filled with beautiful synth work and also lots of bleak droning moments on this album. Fortunately the album belongs more so to the former, but it’s a very slow paced ambient record which naturally gives it more of the droning quality. Mike takes the listener on a slow paced chilly ride that’s filled with an unadulterated dark atmosphere that makes you feel like you’re in a cold dark cave or perhaps wondering through a frost covered field with an endless assault of snow and wind bashing against you. In addition there’s also some ghostly sounding spoken parts far off in the distance that only add to the unsettling feeling already present in the music. Mike’s guitar playing also makes a sporadic appearances, but if you don’t pay attention it might blow right past you, and make you think its simply synth sounds.

If cold ambient music like Apoptose or Northaunt interests you or if you’re just curious about Mike’s other musically endeavors then this is indeed a fantastic ambient record. Unfortunately, it's Mike's only foray into this sound, but perhaps someday he'll continue his work in this project.