Substrata is an ambient music album by Biosphere

Biosphere (musician)

Biosphere is the main recording name of Geir Jenssen , a Norwegian musician who has released a notable catalogue of ambient electronic music. He is well known for his "ambient techno" and "arctic ambient" styles, his use of music loops, and peculiar samples from sci-fi sources. His track "Novelty...

, released in 1997 by All Saints Records

All Saints Records

All Saints Records is a British independent record label. It was established in 1991 by Dominic Norman-Taylor. They have published Ambient music from the likes of Brian Eno or Biosphere.-History:...

. It is considered to be a classic ambient album, consistently in the top 5 in surveys on the Hyperreal ambient mailing list.

Biosphere's first truly ambient album, it has a theme of cold, of mountains and glaciers and 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

Dziga Vertov

David Abelevich Kaufman , better known by his pseudonym Dziga Vertov , was a Soviet pioneer documentary film, newsreel director and cinema theorist...

's 1929 film Man with a Movie Camera

Man with a Movie Camera

Man with a Movie Camera , sometimes called The Man with the Movie Camera, The Man with a Camera, The Man With the Kinocamera, or Living Russia is an experimental 1929 silent documentary film, with no story and no actors, by Russian director Dziga Vertov, edited by his wife Elizaveta...

. See Substrata 2

Substrata 2

Substrata 2, also written as Substrata², is a double album by ambient musician Biosphere which was released on 6 June 2001.The first disc is a remastered version of Substrata, and the second disc is a soundtrack for Dziga Vertov's 1929 film Man with a Movie Camera, commissioned by the Tromsø...

.

The track "Antennaria" is included in the soundtrack for the video game Osmos

Osmos

Osmos is a puzzle video game developed by Canadian developer Hemisphere Games for different systems as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. The game was made available on Steam on 17 August 2009. The Android port was also hinted to be in development...

.

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 6: Hyperborea - speech from Twin Peaks
  Twin Peaks
  Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
  
  from the scene where Major Briggs explaining his dream 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 recordings about Russian telepathic Karl Nikolaev, who's sitting in a room, trying to guess, which item is lying on a table, which is 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."

External links

• Substrata on Discogs