Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like an ice pick straight through your heart, December 22, 2004
Sometimes, just sometimes, you could do with a little less talent. You need it to survive your own gifts. If you are too good, too soon in your carreer, you might never devellop any more, or improve, because you're all ready at the top.
Norwegian ambient artist Geir Jenssen seemed to have this problem with his re-released Biosphere record 'Substrata'. Such a sublime album might never be succeeded, not even by it's own creator. And Mr. Jenssen isn't that old yet, he still has to go through a couple of decades, filling our hearts with his etherical, icy tones.
With his next to albums, 'Cirque' and 'Shenzhou' he doesn't quite seem to know which way he wants to go; the latter even seems more like chilled piece of inner conflict, of hesitation and a momenterally loss of direction.
Don't get me wrong, they're still two beauts, each in its own way, but they lack the magic and the mystical and the sheer brilliance of "Substrata"
"Au tour de la luna", Jenssens most recent effort, must have been some sort of nihilistic mistake, a quicky of some sort, best be forgotten by both fans and artist.
'Substrata' here, however, is a collection of a dozen pieces of transcendental music and undiscribable atmosphere; but they can also been seen as one long track, for every piece of 'audio landscape' that is being produced smoothly connects with the next one. They flow over in to one another. They come to be, the exist and then drown into the next one.
Jenssen combines his ambient music with sound scapes and spoken words and together they form a collective meditation on deeper feelings of alienation and loss. But not without a warm heart beat though.
From the melancholical sounding opening 'As the sun touches the horizon' to the highlight of the album, the desolate 'Sphere of No-Phorm' in which the outstreched polar landscapes seems to surround you completely.
It's all hauntingly beautiful and lyrical eerie, and so is the second instalment of the 2-disc set: 'Man with a movie camera'. This is the newly made soundtrack for an old silent Russian film, Jenssen was commissionned to do.
Parts of the music are samples from 'Substrata', but the piece stands on itself and is much more than just a re-mix. Cold and heart shattering in it's own way, it's a solid counterpart of 'Substrata' and a partner at the same time.
Stripped down and desolate like the real North Pole, 'Substrata' is a milestone for the musical genre and for Geir Jenssen specifically. And it's a reccommendation to everyone who is into this genre, or, for that matter, into moody, atmospherical music in general.
|
|
|
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not realy volume 2, July 2, 2004
This album is a remix of the original Substrata with a second CD--the soundtrack written for the Russian silent file, "Man with a Movie Camera," and two bonus tracks included in the "Japanese version" of Substrata.
The music is wonderful, make no mistake. But if you buy it thinking it is something else you will be disappointed.
|
|
|
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great album, December 6, 2004
I discovered Biosphere while listening to Internet radio "Cryosleep". First I heard Antennaria. Each time this piece was playing, I found it very special, it put me in a special mood with its warm repetition. Than I checked the title and the artist name and looked for mp3s... Now I'm buying the album, since I find it really special from A to Z, not dark, only relaxing, good to accompany the reading I'm doing right now, Dune by Frank Herbert. I'm a big Brian Eno and Steve Roach fan. The nature sounds -- rain, fire (?), wind -- are great mixed with the pieces, simple and clean. A multi-senses journey, listening to this music is like seeing sounds. It's just a great discovery.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great album
Thisis thebest ambient cd ever,combination of dark ambient,acid,ambient house,ambient techno,Atmospheric, Soothing,Clinical, Detached, Hypnotic, Laid-Back/Mellow..........
Read more
Published on July 6, 2004 by Ardavan
|
|
See all 11 tracks on this disc
by Biosphere 
