Divinorum is a musical project undertaken by the demoscene dinosaur and now full-time musician Bjørn Lynne. Divinorum, musically, is as epic as Lynne's other work, but with a critical difference:
Divinorum is electronic dance music.
Bjørn Lynne himself dubs Divinorum as "big, lush, full-on trance & electronica." Combining elements of modern ambient music with live instruments from all around the world and mixing these with a hard-driving techno beat, Divinorum is a dance music project quite unmatched. The music of Divinorum is very difficult to place into a single category as it contains elements of a number of musical styles from psychedelic techno music to world music and even epic guitar-driven melodies.
Like Lynne's other projects, Divinorum has not signed onto an external record label, though it undoubtedly could have. Since Lynne prefers promoting and selling his music himself, the success of Divinorum can not be left unnoted: Divinorum has been featured as the artist of the month in Keyboard Magazine in 2000, as well as appearing in numerous electronic music top lists with practically no marketing. Divinorum still very clearly remains an underground project despite these (admittedly limited) successes.
Bjørn Lynne himself urges his audience to give Divinorum a try, even if they usually are not into trance-type music. In fact, while the music does have typically trance-like elements, the melodies and atmospheric elements come from a much wider range of musical styles. Indeed, atmosphere is a central element in any Divinorum song. The melodies and dynamics of the piece play into creating a specific kind of feel for each separate song.
Divinorum has released two full-length albums in addition to numerous appearances on compilation discs. Currently (2002) Divinorum is quoted to be "on the back burner for a while".
Discography
(C) 1999 LynneMusic
From Lynne's homepage: "Isms is a warmer and more emotional trance / electronica album than most of us are used to." This is very true. There are numerous warm-sounding non-electronic influences and generous use of voices to create a Middle Eastern feel to the music. The music coaxes the listener on a journey, creating fascinating visions and textures with the melodies. There is a "hard" element to the music, but the fluid sounds prevent it from being harsh.
(C) 2000 LynneMusic
Talisman is a harder-sounding and harder-hitting album than Isms. Combining live instruments like guitars and live drums with traditional synthesizer-driven trance, Talisman delivers a strong punch. This album does, however, sound mechanical and computerized, much more than its predecessor. Similar to Isms, Talisman too is a very visual album, bringing to mind images familiar from works of science fiction. Each song is a separate piece of the larger whole, building a world of its own that does however fit into the framework.
There are other Divinorum tracks, both unreleased and separate releases not included on these two full-length albums. Of these one worthy of mention is "The Welcome Rain", an amazing atmospheric piece which was for me the first contact I had with Divinorum. This track could be described as Mark Snow's "X-Files" music meeting the Robert Miles hit, Fable. Atmospheric, multi-layered and beautiful, The Welcome Rain creates stunning visual images in the listener's mind.
In the end, it all comes down to trying it out for yourself. Divinorum tracks are widely available at sites like mp3.com, but perhaps the best site to visit is http://www.divinorum.com, Divinorum's official site. Bjørn Lynne's page, http://www.lynnemusic.com is worth checking out as well, as it contains music samples from a variety of his projects, including Divinorum.
Sources used: http://www.divinorum.com and http://www.lynnemusic.com
The author of this node wishes to be contacted in the case of larger updates concerning the status of Divinorum in order to keep this node up to date. | 
