Substrata,
released in 1997, is one of the finest purely ambient
record ever released. From his remote part of the world,
Geir Jenssen, better known as Biosphere, has slowly become
an artist in the true meaning of the word, as his work
for art galleries or moviemakers took him to explore sound
in a different way. Substrata was the result
of this new direction, and Touch now releases a remastered
version of this masterpiece, together with the soundtrack
for Man With A Movie Camera, commissioned by
the Tromso International Film Festival that same year.
Substrata is inhabited by the vast spaces spreading
across the artic region, endless nights and midnight sun,
sub-zero temperatures and Northern lights. Never a record
had been so intimate with nature, so close to the sounds,
colours and smells of its environment. Jenssen emphasises
the intensity of these elements by bringing them into
his beat-less compositions, allowing them to take control
of this new organic world. From time to time, more urban
sounds come into the spectrum, when voice samples telling
abstract stories, or a melancholic guitar offering support
to an unlikely song emerge, but always, these components
get swallowed in by the magma-like ambiences. The listener
becomes a helpless witness of the beauty and cruelty of
life. Jenssen’s unusual vision, similar to Eno’s,
In the year Substrata was released, Geir Jenssen
was commissioned by the Tromso International Film Festival
to write a new soundtrack for 1929 Man With A Movie
Camera film, by Russian director Dziga Vertow. Jenssen
worked with fellow Norwegian Per Martinsen, aka Mental
Overdrive, from Vertow’s instructions for musical accompaniment.
Each musician worked on every other part. There are numerous
similarities between Substrata and Jenssen’s
compositions for this soundtrack. Elaborating from common
samples, he creates equally intense sound structures.
However, Man With A Movie Camera is not as arid
as Substrata. Field recordings collide with orchestras,
accordions, beat patterns and samples from old French
movies to create a multicoloured patchwork of incredible
diversity.
The second CD composing this release also includes two
tracks originally only available on the Japanese version
of Substrata. If The Eye Of The Cyclone
is an upbeat affair, evoking more Jenssen’s composition
on Microgravity or Patashnik, Endurium
reaffirms that Biosphere is now turned towards cinemascope
horizons and natural ambiences.
As Geir Jenssen continues to work on various projects,
all more or less related to music, Substrata 2
is a healthy definition of the work he has produced over
the last five years. This second Biosphere release for
Touch is an essential record.
5/5 |
