Hypnophobia

"One wonders if the album isn't itself a twisted, surreal illustration of that weird limbo state which happens immediately before one falls asleep. With his barrel organ-tailored melodies and ethereal multi-layered vocals, Jacco Gardner is an alchemist who builds a fantasy world of engaging and hypnotic sounds which trigger involuntary impulses in the most hidden corners of our brains, sending us off into a journey throughout the unconscious. And if Jung's theory is in fact correct, he may well be singing about our own".

"Melodies alter incrementally, rather than through big chord or key changes. At its best, on the eight-minute Before the Dawn, that means songs like a fever dream, reveries that gain impact from the repetition and the extension of a simple idea beyond its logical endpoint. But it also makes Hypnophobia a bright, shiny surface without the rough points that provide traction. It's pleasurable, but it's hard not think that a little varying of the approach might pay dividends".

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