Customer Reviews

Substrata 2

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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.

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.

Containing 2 discs, one being the original 'Substrata' album re-released and the other being a soundtrack composed by Geir Jennsen for a Russian silent movie of 1929.

What else can be said of 'Substrata' than it's the best album in the field of ambient music. For me it surpasses the best of Eno and others. From its opening chimes of arctic winds, it leads the listener on a beatless, ambient journey through soundscapes of wind, tinkering electronics and distant, almost medieval, noises. If you don't have it, get it now while you can, particularly when you get another new Biosphere CD with it.

The second CD has much the same feel. But although ambient, it ditches the arctic landscape in favour of an urban one and there are more industrial hisses and textures to certain tracks. The final two tracks, taken from the Japanese version of 'Substrata', sound like Biosphere circa the 'Microgravity' era and are probably the best tracks on the second CD.

If you like ambient music, or you want a relaxing record, or even if you're just interested in electronic music, get this record now, you won't be disappointed.

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.

This is widely regarded as the "must have". And I agree it is, a perfect blend. Track 8 and up are what did it for me.

As said this is a re-release, and you do get a bonus CD, which I am listening to now, and it ALSO is wonderful!

If you have the original, and want to get the new CD, if you find it cheap get it, if you don't have the original , then I cannot stress enough how good this CD is.

GET IT. That being said, don't get ripped off either, I found it fairly cheap on Ebay for only 15.99 + shipping (used)

Jim

This is a re-release of Biosphere's 1997 ambient masterpiece Substrata with a second disc of soundtrack music for a 1929 Russian silent film and two bonus tracks from the Japanese version of Substrata.

Diverging from the "ambient house" or beat- oriented material of past Biosphere releases, the musical concept of Substrata is primarily composed of gentle waves of electronic sounds, organized in minimalist soundscapes with a compositional simplicity similar in method to Brian Eno's ambient works. The soft layers of arctic reflection that characterize each segment with the beautiful motion of glacial elegance produce ambient phases both terrestrial and universal. Using occasional light guitar and environmentally atmospheric sounds such as running water, wind, falling rain, and chirping birds captured on field recordings along with calm washes of synth, the music creates a highly visual and hypnotic experience of cold streams and clear winter silence through which an inner clarity of thought processes is reached to a level of serene contemplation. These songs use a soothing repetition and subtle harmonic texturing of sounds in the intention of establishing a central mood carefully enriched through delicate rises in tone, with perfectly sequenced fade-outs, without much variation or directional patterning, allowing each song to settle its particular mood through duration and recurrence.

What makes this such a classic work of ambient music aside from the creator's lucid imagination and effective realization of purpose, is its deep presence of tranquil yearning that permeates every layer of sound just as it seeps into every fade into silence, without ever penetrating, and thus disturbing, the peaceful flow of the music's graceful motion. The effect of this almost nostalgic longing is most clearly experienced in the repeating synth pulses of "Chukhung" with its gravitating, extended background echoing dance of distant guitar, or the fragile guitar lightly guiding the fading moments of "Kobresia" , further developing and persuading the pre-generated atmosphere towards a new sound-realm of related sentiment, or even, though not nearly as subtle, in the unexpected and initially disruptive voice-sample and bleeping electronic sounds contrasting with a layer of soft synths in "The Things I Tell You". This is visualized and shaped so effectively that it is unmistakable to the attentive listener despite the careful subtlety with which it is executed. Because these songs are so elementally sparse and minimalist in design, it is fascinating how a rich variety of mood is established throughout this disc, each related in the connective sound-picture to the general ambient program, yet within that sphere an abundance of atmospheric sensation is achieved.

Within the traditional design of pure ambient, the music quietly transcends the expected result of subliminal presentation of absorbing images and mood-impressions, to mysteriously reacquaint the listener with sensations and experiences thought somehow only to possess reality in dreams, but is something intimately familiar to the essence of being. All of this flows in a lucid and sincere musical current of ambient harmony to portray in striking visual potency the connection between environmental stillness and wonder, and the inner tranquility of private mental serenity. Its ambience is cold and solitary like icy mountains surrounding frozen streams at dawn, as if pondering the profound motionlessness and immensity of the landscape. Through the distinctive recurrence of its main idea, each piece offers the anticipation of an immersive depth and atmospheric magnificence. This works without distracting musical variation because Biosphere (Geir Jenssen) stretches the main idea, with the aid of slight enhancements and subtle contrasts, over the course of a perfect duration to the degree that all sense of time becomes unnecessary and absent, only fully realized in reflective study of the music, or once the defining elements forming the substance of the main idea have satisfied the artist's intention.

It is quite remarkable how through the sparse arrangement and thoughtful application of the constructive elements of each track, all to flesh out one single idea, results in such an astonishing experience of striving and exploration, on individual and universal levels. The impact of its atmospheric presence is one of winter solitude, of reflecting upon the beauty and grandeur of environmental processes, and identifying the connections between all observable phenomena, closing the eyes and breathing deep the fresh, cool air of a clear winter morning as if to inhale its very essence. In this way the music is not in any substantial way defined by a certain time in existence, because the soul of its communication is universally experiential through all time, and its representation is of a reality existing beyond human orientation, yet only truly known through human perception.

The most extraordinary feature of this music with its mysterious reverberations and moods that are clearly apprehended on the surface level, is the genuine way in which its definite substance is transmitted through a main idea, representing an eternal and therefore nonmaterial experience of unchanging universal reality, represented through observable material of temporal phenomena, but the undying essence and truth of which lies within endures through manifold passing forms and locations. The finest exemplifications of this are successive tracks "Hyperborea" and "Kobresia", two songs that represent different moods and images yet strangely related through their reflective contrasts emphasized by their sequential pairing. "Hyperborea" is Substrata's eeriest moment due to the effect of the sober and reflective Twin Peaks voice sample played against the dark soundscape and patterned, blinking electronic noises, producing a disorienting ambience of celestial dislocation, like being adrift in deep space, surrendering all subjective interest to the stars. This track seamlessly blends into "Kobresia", an exquisite illustration of transcendent ambient featuring a gentle synth riff of fantastic vastness and global immensity, like slowly approaching Earth from a spacecraft, watching in wonder as the planet's surface features slowly come into view, suspended in a sublime experience of universal perspective. Like "Hyperborea", a voice sample in "Kobresia" is significant in the establishment of mood, but here the character of the voice is a feeling of sad departure, like an old, dying man speaking farewell words of wisdom to a younger companion in the final moments of a close and cherished friendship, as the floating background atmospheric synth suggests the event is taking place on the top of a frigid mountain overlooking a vast winter landscape, as soft guitar, faint pulsing bass, and running water sounds to guide the piece to its end of fading eloquence.

There exists knowledge of insight and meaning in the universal quintessence embodied by all tangible reality, if only we are sensitive and receptive enough to its truth to understand it.

The second disc is a collaborative soundtrack to a 1929 Russian silent film Man With A Movie Camera. This disc is more sonically eventful and varied in moodscape, featuring a few elements from Substrata reworked to suit the conceptual context, mostly haunting atmospheres and film samples in a cinematic framework, defined by the suspense of conflicting textures, best portrayed in "Freeze-Frames" as sampled female voices are looped and set against changing musical themes for an unsettling though intriguing effect. The two bonus tracks are beat-driven, techno-ambient tracks that are perhaps more suitable to a club environment than the mesmerizing splendor of Substrata.

You're coming to consciousness in a dark alley. Maybe in the middle of a frigid snowstorm.
Light just slowly trickles in, drop by drop. Tension just swirls in the air. You feel yourself becoming one with the atmosphere of the song.
Then it all drops.
A voice steps out from the ringing drone...
"Sorry to wake you... I forgot to tell you something... the things I tell you will not be wrong."
Something just carries you through the rest.
You're suddenly drowning in glacial run off. The cold chills you past the bone. You ARE cold, in its sole definition. There's an unparalleled blue beauty to everything. You've been here a million times.
It's almost pointless to review this CD based on the music it contains. It's easier to let it just take you. These are all places you've been before. It's all about just how badly you want to go back. The electronic dawn haze of "The Things I Tell You", the gravity free trilogy of "Hyberborea", "Kobresia", and "Antennaria", or the bleak confrontation of "Sphere Of No Form".
Welcome back to Earth.

Excellent album.

I noticed that there are several copies for sale on this site starting at $40. Yesterday (05/14/06) I bought a new copy at Amoeba Music in Hollywood for $17, and they had at least three more. So look around, you might find a copy at a normal price.

I have many ambient albums, starting with Brian Eno's releases and branching into more current artists. I discovered this album on Amazon and listened to song samples at another website. I was instantly hooked. The songs seamlessly morph together/apart and form some of the most interesting soundscapes I've had the pleasure to listen to. This ambient music doesn't put you in one place--it moves you in and out of spaces across the globe. I realize that doesn't quite describe it to the uninitiated, but just listen and try to figure out where you would hear this..and this..and that..

While purists would say the first CD (a remastered version of Substrata) is the better ambient album, I have to say I prefer the 2nd one. It has some of the same uttered phrases (one from the US TV show Twin Peaks!) it ends with two extra Japanese tracks that are ultimately danceable in a chillout way.

CD1 is 58-1/2 minutes; CD2 is 53-1/2 minutes. I easily could have handled an additional 20 minutes on both! You won't be sorry, this is excellent stuff.

The original Substrata by Biosphere was their first truly ambient album. The theme is Antarctica, imagining desolate plains of ice, snow-covered, windswept peaks and vicious crystalline glaciers. There are actual glacial sounds (creaks of ice) and wind in this stunning ambient, almost environmental album. It is great for relaxation and setting a mood as the music is hardly interrupted. The vocal sampling is from "Twin Peaks", the cult TV series by David Lynch.

This album is a remix of the orignal Substrata and includes a bonus cd of a soundtrack from "Man with a Camera", a Russian silent film.

The most interesting thing about this album is the environmental nature of the sound. A very soothing but sometimes unsettling experience. If you like Brian Eno and Harold Budd, this is less instrumental but just as mysterious sounding. I love listening to it in a darkened room or with an eyemask and headphones. Great for relaxation.