Album Review: Heinz Riegler - Survey #2 (One Thousand Dreams I Never had)

It's not necessary to know Austrian-born Heinz Riegler's previous body of work to appreciate this record, but it's very existence demands your attention. Most well-known for his work with the Brisbane-based Not From There, and as part of I/03 and countless other solo and collaborative efforts, Survey #2 represents a truly unique rebirth of him as an artist. It's a mostly instrumental record, crafted over a period of 80 days of isolation in a cabin in the Austrian Alps – and it sounds like it.

Beginning with Morning, we are awoken into Riegler's world with the birth of an unmistakable sunrise. The night melts away and Dissolve signals the transition into the new day. There's a warmth punctuated with an unease that lurks just below the surface. For Matthieu's Visit, Riegler picks up the guitar and even sings some 'aahs' to entertain his guest.  From this point the album echoes one man's descent into madness from literal cabin fever culminating in the abandoned hope of No Return.

Now the light at the end of the tunnel starts to cut through with the synth guitar pop of Walking Naked Amongst Fields Of Snow signalling the journey's end. It could be argued that the album's closer signifies either an escape from the madness, or giving in to it completely. This mystery is part of what makes the album so compelling – not just the beauty and complexity of the sounds or the ideas and story that your mind cannot help create, but a combination of all these elements, and so much more that is impossible to try and put into words.