Omnibeing – Recurrence

Since 2015, I have been a fan of post-rock and instrumental rock in general. Prior to that, I often found the sound of most post-rock bands to be monotonous and repetitive. That all changed when I stumbled upon “IV” by Toundra, which completely captivated me and led me to explore numerous post-rock bands that I still enjoy to this day.

When I first encountered the unfamiliar name Omnibeing, a one-man project by Vital Shemetavets from Minsk, Belarus, and currently based in Turkey, my curiosity was piqued. What further intrigued me was the fact that Vital drew inspiration from bands like Russian Circles and Shy, Low, both of whom I enjoy, so I decided to check it out.

One person once told me, “To make a post-rock song, just add a bunch of reverb guitars along with a basic drum beat, and there you have it.” While this might be truth to some extent, instrumental bands naturally need some sort of hook to maintain interest: whether it’s through the creation of atmospheric and emotional experiences (like MONO), captivating song structures (Toundra), or the inclusion of unconventional instruments (as seen in JAMBINAI).

As I delved into “Recurrence”, an album based on the concept of reincarnation, I felt a similar feeling I got when listening to one-man projects. The heavily guitar-driven compositions, while sounding great, lacked a distinctive hook and failed to leave a lasting impression on me once the songs concluded.

It is worth noting that “Recurrence” is a semaphoric album, with Vital Shemetavets emphasizing a focus on simplified composition and atmosphere rather than pure technicality. Although I have not yet explored the debut LP, the technicality still shines through to some extent. Nevertheless, there are moments of atmospheric post rock found in “Recurrence”.

Vital Shemetavets, founder of Omnibeing

I really enjoyed the slower part in ‘Nobody’, where guitar gives way to the rhythm section and saxophone parts (sax features quite heavily on this album, sometimes used along with heavy riffs, similarly to how it’s done in White Ward, or in quiet parts). In the same way, in the song ‘Chonyid’, the most memorable part to me was the section where keyboard and saxophone go to the forefront. Same with ‘New Body’, when the song gets quieter, that’s the part that is the most memorable for me, as it actually takes time to build the atmosphere, rather than throwing the heavy riffs at the listener, and ‘Sidpa’ has a quite interesting and rather unsettling keyboard intro and outro. In the final track ‘Thodol’, towards the end I finally get to hear the “trademark” post rock sound, with reverb guitars, which is followed by a guitar solo and is concluded by saxophone.

While listening, I found myself taking very few notes. “Recurrence”, predominantly a guitar-driven album, occasionally became monotonous for me. At times, I had a sense of déjà vu, as if I had heard similar sound before in other solo guitarists’ albums that all suffer from the same. Even the album art, while brilliant, reminded me of “Liminal Rite” by Kardashev. Furthermore, the album seemed to leave limited room for other instruments to shine (I would have appreciated more memorable drum grooves, for instance).

Nonetheless, I discovered glimpses of what I like about post-rock and instrumental rock: the saxophone parts, when given space, complemented the music quite well, and certain sections were slow and atmospheric. I look forward to seeing the development of these elements in Vital’s future albums, and I will certainly keep a watchful eye on his work.

Track List:

1. Bardo
2. Old Body
3. I – Chikhai
4. Nobody
5. II – Chonyid
6. New Body
7. III – Sidpa
8. Thodol