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BIOSPHERE, "SUBSTRATA 2"
Geir Jenssen's 1997 Biosphere album has been remastered and nicelyre-packaged with a bonus disc for Touch. Disc 1 is "Substrata" properand disc 2 is a new, previously unreleased, commissioned soundtrack forthe 1929 Russian film "Man with a Movie Camera", plus the 2 beatinfused bonus tracks from the Japanese edition of the album. Bothdiscs, nearly an hour apiece, offer a continuous, deep ambient jigsawpuzzle - disc 2 being the noisier with a more urban/industrial aura. Weslowly, willingly drift along through chilled out spaces andcityscapes, natural hums and environmental residues, electronic padsand blips, the clutter of metals and trinkets, disembodied voices andappropriated musical passages, synth strings and plucked/strummedstrings ("Kobresia" in particular settles into a beautiful stringedstasis), softly malleted tones and some subtle rhythmic pulsations.Very soothing, very calming, very Arctic. Jenssen's reclusive Norwegianlocale undoubtedly influences the vast, dark and cold nature of hismusic. But what's surprising to me is how emotionally cold much of italso seems despite it's surface beauty ... a sort of depressing, lonelyvoid. That feeling overwhelms me here at times, but sometimes you wantto feel that way, know what I mean?
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