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To liberally borrow from my own previously-written take of the original:
Substrata opens with the spacious eco-industrial thrum of As The Sun Kissed The Horizon (1:47), which becomes the ethereal melancholia of Poa Alpina. In these 11 pieces, a variety of haunting moods and styles (generally of vaporous, cyclical natures) are presented... from
the gentle, strummy Times When I Know You'll Be Sad which becomes the
electro-bio-mechanical slur of Hyperborea, to Kobresia's muttered Russian voice and symphonic string
passages, to the elegantly cinematic swell of Antennaria.
A scratchy old dialogue (apparently from the very early days of recording) serves as the
Prologue (0:19) to the seven parts of Man With a Movie Camera; applicably, many of these pieces seem to be sepia-tinted and haunted by forgotten ghosts. Dappled with windchime clatter, the low tonal pulses of The Silent Orchestra recede into the distance. Spoken/whispered (English) words are tossed into the hypnotic emanations. A dark and moody
City Wakes Up to brooding bass ripples and whispery ephemeral cymbals.
In Freeze-Frames, something like slow-motion helicopter blades meets with old-time songs, barge wails and antique machinery perhaps. Other scenes of these soundtrack include sonic occurences such as watery flows, faraway baroque music, buzzy electrons, spooky piano, rumbling drones and radar-like blips.
The final two tracks are from the Japanese release of Substrata; amid gray breezes, The Eye of the Cyclone opens on an uncharacteristically-bouncy islandic style which gives way to a dancier (and lengthier) electronic theme. Natural soundscenes are overtaken by the trancey waves and soft beats of Endurium (10:47).
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