Substrata (album)

Substrata
Studio album by Biosphere
Released	June 1997
Genre	Ambient
Length	58:33
Label	All Saints Records
Producer	Geir Jenssen
Biosphere chronology
Insomnia (1997) Substrata (1997) Cirque (2000)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Sputnikmusic	[2]

Substrata is an ambient music album by Biosphere, released in 1997 by All Saints Records. It is considered to be a classic ambient album, consistently in the top 5 in surveys on the Hyperreal ambient mailing list.^[3][4][5]

It is Biosphere's first truly ambient album, and has a theme of cold, of mountains and glaciers, and of running water. Sounds of howling wind and creaking wood, although infrequently employed, create a chilling soundscape interrupted by sonorous but quietly suspenseful music.

In 2001, the album was re-released in a digitally remastered format with a second disc featuring a soundtrack for Dziga Vertov's 1929 film Man With a Movie Camera, as Substrata 2.

Track listing

1. "As the Sun Kissed the Horizon" – 1:47
2. "Poa Alpina" – 4:10
3. "Chukhung" – 7:34
4. "The Things I Tell You" – 6:28
5. "Times When I Know You'll Be Sad" – 3:44
6. "Hyperborea" – 5:45
7. "Kobresia" – 7:12
8. "Antennaria" – 5:05
9. "Uva-Ursi" – 3:00
10. "Sphere of No-Form" – 5:47
11. "Silene" – 7:54

Samples

• Track 4: The Things I Tell You - speech from Twin Peaks (Season 2, Episode 1) spoken by The Giant on his second visitation to Agent Cooper:

Sorry to wake you. [...] I forgot to tell you something. [...] The things I tell you will not be wrong.

• Track 6: Hyperborea - speech from Twin Peaks (same episode) from the scene where Major Briggs explains his vision to his son, Bobby:

This was a vision, fresh and clear as a mountain stream, the mind revealing itself to itself. In my vision, I was on the veranda of a vast estate, a palazzo of some fantastic proportion. There seemed to emanate from it a light from within, this gleaming, radiant marble. I'd known this place. I had in fact been born and raised there. This was my first return. A reunion with the deepest well-springs of my being. Wandering about, I noticed happily that the house had been immaculately maintained. There'd been added a number of additional rooms, but in a way that blended so seamlessly with the original construction, one would never detect any difference. Returning to the house's grand foyer, there came a knock at the door. My son was standing there. He was happy and carefree, clearly living a life of deep harmony and joy. We embraced, a warm and loving embrace, nothing withheld. We were, in this moment, one. My vision ended, and I awoke with a tremendous feeling of optimism and confidence in you and your future. That was my vision of you. I'm so glad to have had this opportunity to share it with you. I wish you nothing but the very best in all things.

• Track 7: Kobresia - "Это либо металл, либо... Если металл, то крашенный... холодная поверхность..." Speech in Russian sampled from a documentary recording about Russian telepathic Karl Nikolaev, who's sitting in a room trying to guess which item is lying on a table situated in a room two stages above him. This sample is taken from a Moscow radio broadcast translation. Near translation into English is:

This is either a metal or... If it is a metal, then it's painted... Cold surface... This is either a metal, painted, or could be a plastic... Colorful, there are... Bright... Seems like... Is this a toy? Probably. The surface is smooth, but... There are some bumps on it... Even the finger stucks in it... Probably it is... Some marks, or is this a letters?... Or just a bumps... Looks like a toy... Colorful metal, or a plastic... Painted metal... That's all... Stop.^[6]

References

External links

• Substrata on Discogs