SERRIES, DIRK — Zonal Disturbances III
More Info
Originally released on Zoharum, 2026. This is part three in a series of 5 volumes.
ONLY DEATH IS REAL REVIEW :
Belgian Dirk Serries is back with another album under his own name. Known perhaps best for his work with Vidna Obmana, the prolific musician has worked under many monikers throughout his long career. As Dirk Serries, he has released a staggering amount of albums, of which we’ve previously covered just one, Zonal Disturbances II (here).
Keeping up a brisk pace, the third installment in the series follows within a year of the second. This brings up Serries’ 2025 albums under his own name to an even ten (including splits and collaborations), according to Discogs. That’s a lot of music.
Zonal Disturbances III continues in the style of its predecessor, both aesthetically and musically. Electric guitar continues to be in the center of the album, but be assured, it doesn’t sound like a conventional electric guitar. Probably even less so than on Zonal Disturbances II. It’s played entirely atonally. Again, like on the previous album, Serries utilizes darker tones and distortion to bring an industrial, even dark ambient element to the album, but without going “all-in.” This is still ambient.
The album’s haunting, evocative music consists of drawn-out, distorted drones, slow and long layers of echoing, reverberating, serene background layers. Again, as on the previous part, what sounds like the processed moaning of metal beams under duress echo throughout the album, creating associations with industrial complexes and quiet factories. There’s a surprising amount of stuff going on here at times; as such, Zonal Disturbances III can’t be called minimalist or sparse. Entirely abstract – yes.
Like the predecessor, the album feels like morning dawning over a slumbering, waiting, for a moment still industrial area or complex. Just like the cover artwork suggests: cold, inhuman structures of steel and concrete, over which the first signs of a spring morning dawn. There’s this absolutely beautiful, perfectly still and timeless atmosphere. If you’ve ever walked in the business district of some city really, really early in the morning, before the day starts and workers start buzzing about, you know what I mean. That weird, eerie but incredible sensation of standing outside of time.
There’s also a beautifully cinematic feel to the album. It feels like a long, drawn out panoramic shot of an industrial landscape, capturing the unconventional, brutal beauty of them. Nothing moves, everything is absolutely still, only the shot moves slowly over the landscape, almost like a caress.
Zonal Disturbances III is an impressive album. This is the kind of music that, despite being abstract, atonal and instrumental, speaks in volumes. Words are not needed. It manages to strike a chord somewhere deep inside, find a nucleus of familiarity and build something potent and visual from it.
DARKROOM REVIEW :
10/10 rating ! Con "Zonal Disturbances III" Dirk Serries continua a scavare, non ad avanzare. È una musica che non guarda avanti né indietro, ma verso il basso, come se ogni traccia fosse un lento carotaggio nel sottosuolo del suono. Qui l'ambient non è atmosfera, ma pressione: una massa che si muove con impercettibile lentezza, costringendo l'ascoltatore a ricalibrare tempo e attenzione.
Le quattro composizioni si sviluppano come organismi autonomi, privi di narrazione lineare. Non c'è introduzione né climax, solo un flusso continuo di densità che mutano per microscopiche variazioni. I suoni - originati da una chitarra ma ormai irriconoscibili - si aggregano in droni opachi, abrasivi, a tratti quasi statici, eppure mai immobili. È una musica che sembra sempre sul punto di collassare, ma che resiste, tenuta insieme da un equilibrio precario e intenzionale.
L'aspetto più perturbante del disco è la sua fisicità. "Zonal Disturbances III" non si limita a occupare lo spazio acustico: lo deforma. I cluster lenti e ripetitivi generano una sensazione di claustrofobia controllata, come se l'ambiente d'ascolto si restringesse progressivamente. Non c'è conforto, né l'illusione di un paesaggio sonoro contemplativo. Qui l'ambient si avvicina piuttosto a una forma di tensione continua, che dialoga più con la musica industriale e con certe pratiche elettroacustiche che con l'idea comune del genere. La scelta di registrare tutto dal vivo si avverte chiaramente: i suoni non sono levigati, ma presentano imperfezioni, oscillazioni, sbavature che diventano parte integrante del linguaggio. È proprio in questi dettagli che il disco acquista profondità, rivelando un approccio che privilegia il processo rispetto al risultato, l'attrito rispetto alla forma.
"Zonal Disturbances III" richiede tempo, concentrazione e una certa disponibilità a perdersi. Ma per chi accetta questa condizione, l'ascolto si trasforma in un'esperienza ipnotica e destabilizzante, capace di ridefinire i confini stessi dell'ambient contemporaneo. Non una colonna sonora, ma una presenza. Non un rifugio, ma un luogo in cui sostare, anche quando diventa scomodo.
SALT PEANUTS REVIEW :
Belgian prolific, experimental guitarist Dirk Serries, now based in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France, explores in his series of Zonal Distrurbances intriguing, slow, and atmospheric textures created with real-time treatments of his electric guitar through a board of carefully selected gear. Serries released the first volume in the series in 2024, but the Polish Zoharum label released the second and third volumes in 2025. Two more albums are expected in this series.
The four extended and layered pieces of Zonal Disturbances III were recorded by Serries at his home studio in October 2024. Serries performed all sonic treatments «by hand», including turning knobs on each sound tool at the cadence of how the guitar sound twists, twirls, and floats. These pieces flow organically and revolve around minimalist yet tactile, repetitive sound clusters.
Serries employs the electric guitar as an abstract and atonal sound generator, weaving carefully layered and nuanced, effects-laden, complex drone-tinged textures. These textures incorporate noise and other forms of sonic friction as essential elements that can be shaped, processed, and manipulated in the real-time music-making process. The atmosphere is dark and introspective, yet hypnotic and highly evocative, seeking a timeless, surprisingly peaceful, and haunting statis.
SPONTANEOUS MUSIC TRIBUNE REVIEW :
Dirk Serries od lat prowadzi dwubiegunowe życie artystyczne - z jednej strony swobodnie improwizuje, na ogół na gitarze akustycznej, z drugiej kleci niekończące się dark ambientowe opowieści na gitarze elektrycznej. W tej drugiej dziedzinie zdawało się, że powiedział już wszystko, gdy niespodziewanie kilkanaście miesięcy temu powziął projekt, który nazwał Zonal Disturbances. Po części pierwszej (edytowanej tylko w digitalu), dwie kolejne ukazały się już na kompaktowych dyskach za pośrednictwem krajowego wydawcy. Album drugi całkowicie słusznie uznaliśmy na jeden z 50 powodów, dla których warto zapamiętać rok 2025. Teraz sięgamy po trzeci epizod nowej serii.
Znów tylko gitara elektryczna i przetworniki, ale efekt finalny zdaje się być inny niż dotychczas. Nagranie, to bowiem gęstą masą gitarowego wyziewu – brudne, sfuzzowane frazy, soczyste sprzężenia i mnóstwo niespodzianek, które czają się na każdym zakręcie długich, kilkunastominutowych opowieści. Ta historia nie przestaje mieć formy dark ambientu, ale staje się być może czymś, co winniśmy określić mianem dark industrial. Obrazuje to szczególnie pierwsza odsłona, która jest gruboziarnistym dronem, chropowatym, brzmiącym bardzo syntetycznie, przypominającym niekiedy estetykę laptopowego Endless Summer Fennesza sprzed ponad dwóch dekad. W kolejnej opowieści muzyk do szorstkiej, ambientowej bazy dodaje zgrzyty, drobne elektroniczne usterki, a całość zdaje się być medytacją umierającego gruźlika. Trzecią część buduje brzmieniowa dychotomia – plaster gęstego, gitarowego fuzza w opozycji do plamy soczystego ambientu. Wreszcie finałowa ekspozycja – tu ambient zostaje doposażony w gitarowy przester, który z czasem nabiera tajemniczej melodyki, przypomina śpiew przez zaciśnięte zęby, kojący szmer.
MUSIQUE MACHINE REVIEW :
Here’s the next sonic chapter in the Zonal Disturbances series, which sees longtime Euro mood setter/ ambient-scaper offer up long-form pieces created via guitar and effects pedals. And this time around, there’s a nice variation in tone and mood between the four tracks featured.
The CD release is presented in a gloss monochrome six-panel gatefold. It takes in a selection of dusk/ shadowy pictures of industrial sites, with minimal silver texts over the top. So, a simple yet effective bit of packaging, which lets the tracks speak for themselves.
Each of the four tracks lasts between just under fourteen and seventeen minutes. We move from the fuzzed-out and organ-like purr ‘n’ simmer of the opening track “41PMX9SQ “ which feels like a halfway house between shoegaze & amassed ambient glow.
Track two “TYJ45MP9” opens with fairly clear ambient harmonic guitar ebb & glide. Before later adding on more emotional raw sound maps of feedback buzz, baying crunch, and sailing sear. The third track “YFZ87PRN “ pares massive rolling guitar slugs & crashes, with a circling & lifting ambient glide.
While the final track, “KLQ89VX6 “ feels like what an ambient Popol Vuh track fed through a more controlled Neil Young-like guitar scaping might sound like. The track is seemingly always hovering on the cusp of feedback override and total ambient glow-out.
Zonal Disturbances III is another great addition to this series, with Mr Serries offering up a variedly engaging selection of tracks. Here’s looking forward to vol IV!.
ONLY DEATH IS REAL REVIEW :
Belgian Dirk Serries is back with another album under his own name. Known perhaps best for his work with Vidna Obmana, the prolific musician has worked under many monikers throughout his long career. As Dirk Serries, he has released a staggering amount of albums, of which we’ve previously covered just one, Zonal Disturbances II (here).
Keeping up a brisk pace, the third installment in the series follows within a year of the second. This brings up Serries’ 2025 albums under his own name to an even ten (including splits and collaborations), according to Discogs. That’s a lot of music.
Zonal Disturbances III continues in the style of its predecessor, both aesthetically and musically. Electric guitar continues to be in the center of the album, but be assured, it doesn’t sound like a conventional electric guitar. Probably even less so than on Zonal Disturbances II. It’s played entirely atonally. Again, like on the previous album, Serries utilizes darker tones and distortion to bring an industrial, even dark ambient element to the album, but without going “all-in.” This is still ambient.
The album’s haunting, evocative music consists of drawn-out, distorted drones, slow and long layers of echoing, reverberating, serene background layers. Again, as on the previous part, what sounds like the processed moaning of metal beams under duress echo throughout the album, creating associations with industrial complexes and quiet factories. There’s a surprising amount of stuff going on here at times; as such, Zonal Disturbances III can’t be called minimalist or sparse. Entirely abstract – yes.
Like the predecessor, the album feels like morning dawning over a slumbering, waiting, for a moment still industrial area or complex. Just like the cover artwork suggests: cold, inhuman structures of steel and concrete, over which the first signs of a spring morning dawn. There’s this absolutely beautiful, perfectly still and timeless atmosphere. If you’ve ever walked in the business district of some city really, really early in the morning, before the day starts and workers start buzzing about, you know what I mean. That weird, eerie but incredible sensation of standing outside of time.
There’s also a beautifully cinematic feel to the album. It feels like a long, drawn out panoramic shot of an industrial landscape, capturing the unconventional, brutal beauty of them. Nothing moves, everything is absolutely still, only the shot moves slowly over the landscape, almost like a caress.
Zonal Disturbances III is an impressive album. This is the kind of music that, despite being abstract, atonal and instrumental, speaks in volumes. Words are not needed. It manages to strike a chord somewhere deep inside, find a nucleus of familiarity and build something potent and visual from it.
DARKROOM REVIEW :
10/10 rating ! Con "Zonal Disturbances III" Dirk Serries continua a scavare, non ad avanzare. È una musica che non guarda avanti né indietro, ma verso il basso, come se ogni traccia fosse un lento carotaggio nel sottosuolo del suono. Qui l'ambient non è atmosfera, ma pressione: una massa che si muove con impercettibile lentezza, costringendo l'ascoltatore a ricalibrare tempo e attenzione.
Le quattro composizioni si sviluppano come organismi autonomi, privi di narrazione lineare. Non c'è introduzione né climax, solo un flusso continuo di densità che mutano per microscopiche variazioni. I suoni - originati da una chitarra ma ormai irriconoscibili - si aggregano in droni opachi, abrasivi, a tratti quasi statici, eppure mai immobili. È una musica che sembra sempre sul punto di collassare, ma che resiste, tenuta insieme da un equilibrio precario e intenzionale.
L'aspetto più perturbante del disco è la sua fisicità. "Zonal Disturbances III" non si limita a occupare lo spazio acustico: lo deforma. I cluster lenti e ripetitivi generano una sensazione di claustrofobia controllata, come se l'ambiente d'ascolto si restringesse progressivamente. Non c'è conforto, né l'illusione di un paesaggio sonoro contemplativo. Qui l'ambient si avvicina piuttosto a una forma di tensione continua, che dialoga più con la musica industriale e con certe pratiche elettroacustiche che con l'idea comune del genere. La scelta di registrare tutto dal vivo si avverte chiaramente: i suoni non sono levigati, ma presentano imperfezioni, oscillazioni, sbavature che diventano parte integrante del linguaggio. È proprio in questi dettagli che il disco acquista profondità, rivelando un approccio che privilegia il processo rispetto al risultato, l'attrito rispetto alla forma.
"Zonal Disturbances III" richiede tempo, concentrazione e una certa disponibilità a perdersi. Ma per chi accetta questa condizione, l'ascolto si trasforma in un'esperienza ipnotica e destabilizzante, capace di ridefinire i confini stessi dell'ambient contemporaneo. Non una colonna sonora, ma una presenza. Non un rifugio, ma un luogo in cui sostare, anche quando diventa scomodo.
SALT PEANUTS REVIEW :
Belgian prolific, experimental guitarist Dirk Serries, now based in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France, explores in his series of Zonal Distrurbances intriguing, slow, and atmospheric textures created with real-time treatments of his electric guitar through a board of carefully selected gear. Serries released the first volume in the series in 2024, but the Polish Zoharum label released the second and third volumes in 2025. Two more albums are expected in this series.
The four extended and layered pieces of Zonal Disturbances III were recorded by Serries at his home studio in October 2024. Serries performed all sonic treatments «by hand», including turning knobs on each sound tool at the cadence of how the guitar sound twists, twirls, and floats. These pieces flow organically and revolve around minimalist yet tactile, repetitive sound clusters.
Serries employs the electric guitar as an abstract and atonal sound generator, weaving carefully layered and nuanced, effects-laden, complex drone-tinged textures. These textures incorporate noise and other forms of sonic friction as essential elements that can be shaped, processed, and manipulated in the real-time music-making process. The atmosphere is dark and introspective, yet hypnotic and highly evocative, seeking a timeless, surprisingly peaceful, and haunting statis.
SPONTANEOUS MUSIC TRIBUNE REVIEW :
Dirk Serries od lat prowadzi dwubiegunowe życie artystyczne - z jednej strony swobodnie improwizuje, na ogół na gitarze akustycznej, z drugiej kleci niekończące się dark ambientowe opowieści na gitarze elektrycznej. W tej drugiej dziedzinie zdawało się, że powiedział już wszystko, gdy niespodziewanie kilkanaście miesięcy temu powziął projekt, który nazwał Zonal Disturbances. Po części pierwszej (edytowanej tylko w digitalu), dwie kolejne ukazały się już na kompaktowych dyskach za pośrednictwem krajowego wydawcy. Album drugi całkowicie słusznie uznaliśmy na jeden z 50 powodów, dla których warto zapamiętać rok 2025. Teraz sięgamy po trzeci epizod nowej serii.
Znów tylko gitara elektryczna i przetworniki, ale efekt finalny zdaje się być inny niż dotychczas. Nagranie, to bowiem gęstą masą gitarowego wyziewu – brudne, sfuzzowane frazy, soczyste sprzężenia i mnóstwo niespodzianek, które czają się na każdym zakręcie długich, kilkunastominutowych opowieści. Ta historia nie przestaje mieć formy dark ambientu, ale staje się być może czymś, co winniśmy określić mianem dark industrial. Obrazuje to szczególnie pierwsza odsłona, która jest gruboziarnistym dronem, chropowatym, brzmiącym bardzo syntetycznie, przypominającym niekiedy estetykę laptopowego Endless Summer Fennesza sprzed ponad dwóch dekad. W kolejnej opowieści muzyk do szorstkiej, ambientowej bazy dodaje zgrzyty, drobne elektroniczne usterki, a całość zdaje się być medytacją umierającego gruźlika. Trzecią część buduje brzmieniowa dychotomia – plaster gęstego, gitarowego fuzza w opozycji do plamy soczystego ambientu. Wreszcie finałowa ekspozycja – tu ambient zostaje doposażony w gitarowy przester, który z czasem nabiera tajemniczej melodyki, przypomina śpiew przez zaciśnięte zęby, kojący szmer.
MUSIQUE MACHINE REVIEW :
Here’s the next sonic chapter in the Zonal Disturbances series, which sees longtime Euro mood setter/ ambient-scaper offer up long-form pieces created via guitar and effects pedals. And this time around, there’s a nice variation in tone and mood between the four tracks featured.
The CD release is presented in a gloss monochrome six-panel gatefold. It takes in a selection of dusk/ shadowy pictures of industrial sites, with minimal silver texts over the top. So, a simple yet effective bit of packaging, which lets the tracks speak for themselves.
Each of the four tracks lasts between just under fourteen and seventeen minutes. We move from the fuzzed-out and organ-like purr ‘n’ simmer of the opening track “41PMX9SQ “ which feels like a halfway house between shoegaze & amassed ambient glow.
Track two “TYJ45MP9” opens with fairly clear ambient harmonic guitar ebb & glide. Before later adding on more emotional raw sound maps of feedback buzz, baying crunch, and sailing sear. The third track “YFZ87PRN “ pares massive rolling guitar slugs & crashes, with a circling & lifting ambient glide.
While the final track, “KLQ89VX6 “ feels like what an ambient Popol Vuh track fed through a more controlled Neil Young-like guitar scaping might sound like. The track is seemingly always hovering on the cusp of feedback override and total ambient glow-out.
Zonal Disturbances III is another great addition to this series, with Mr Serries offering up a variedly engaging selection of tracks. Here’s looking forward to vol IV!.