Review: Vortex - Acéphale

Artist: Vortex

Album: Acéphale

Label: Cyclic Law

Release date: November 2025

The great thing about Vortex is that, unlike many other dark ambient artists, the project doesn't really have a signature sound. Over his almost 20-year-career, this German musician has never really produced two albums that sound very similar to each other, although one does start to clearly tell apart certain aspects of his work given sufficient exposure. While all of them are notable albums in their own right, releases such as Rockdrill, Moloch and Häxan just don't have that much in common either musically or thematically to be interchangeable, which is an extremely positive thing in my book, even if I don't enjoy all of them equally (or as frequently). Therefore, a new full-length release by Vortex is never just another chapter in his work, but a genuinely unpredictable creative output, a fact that always adds to the excitement surrounding it. Acéphale, an album inspired by the writings of Georges Bataille and especially his philosophical outlook on eroticism, sexuality and transgression as fundamental parts of human nature, is no exception.

Although I often see Vortex described as ritual ambient, I have to admit I find this description a bit lazy and likely stemming from his frequent use of percussion and repetition. In reality, and especially on Acéphale, Vortex is not only stepping outside the bounds of ritual ambient, but of dark ambient as a whole, fluid as the genre's definition may be. To start with - literally - the first track L'érotisme is a semi-spoken section in French, semi-piano piece that pretty openly sets out the philosophical musings that provide the intellectual backdrop to the entire album. More importantly, its very nature goes against any genre conventions, just as Bataille would have suggested. In the same vein, and quite ironically, the album then proceeds by Les larmes d'Eros, probably Vortex's most conventional - but no less powerful for that - dark ambient track in years. The rollercoaster only continues from there, shifting moods and musical expressions track after track with a deceptively familiar array of sounds, including string and wind instrumentation, heavily processed voices, pulsating drones and field recordings. True to the spirit of the Headless God invoked by the album title, not a single track ends the way it started, yet there is a clear sense of coherence, storytelling and progression throughout the album. The penultimate and title track, perhaps my favourite of the album, is an excellent example thereof, showcasing Vortex's masterful use of dynamics to get his point across. The album ends with the mammoth 13-minute closer Wiegenlied, whose string-based electronic drone brings the listener to an almost meditative state of mind, appropriate for the subject matter.

Acéphale isn't easy to either comprehend or digest, and its relatively simple structure at face value hides a lot of inner layers and contradictions that take multiple listens to take in and resolve. It's clearly the result of long-term gestation, and its complexities deserve - nay, require - the listener's full attention. While I wouldn't call it Vortex's magnum opus, which I actually feel is still somewhere in the future, it's among the artist's most intriguing releases to date, and a welcome reminder that dark ambient as a genre was never intended to be a safe space, either musically or philosophically.

Rating: 8/10