说明:
(2020) Sverre Knut Johansen - Dreams Beyond
Review:
Calling an ambient-electronic artist isn’t inaccurate, but it’s also inadequate. As his fifth recording on Spotted Peccary so resoundingly demonstrates, he’s a composer, arranger, and sound designer of exceptional merit, with Dreams Beyond perhaps the most fully realized statement to date from the Norwegian producer. There is a grandeur to this musical tapestry that makes listening to it wholly engrossing. Like many a solo musician, Johansen’s studio is stocked with instruments, in his case guitars, synthesizers, electronic percussion, and sound design software. He distinguishes himself from others, however, in the way he uses those elements to create sweeping symphonic vistas and in the service of a methodically conceived compositional design. With the exception of a cello contribution by Henrik Silfverhielm to “Human Connection,” all sounds were created by Johansen, including the bird sounds on “Tatra Mountains” that were generated using a programmable music synthesizer. The nine settings suggest an inner journey having to do with the crystallization of human understanding; while each piece can be appreciated separately, Dreams Beyond has the greatest impact when broached as a suite-like totality. The impression of a fantastic voyage is reinforced by the music’s constant evolution. Meditative passages and muscular beat-based episodes regularly alternate, with Johansen’s assured command of dynamics and pacing making the transitions seamless. The presence of analogue synthesizers (or at least digital ones that convincingly approximate them as such) lends the music a classic feel, with a piece such as “Skylight” calling to mind ‘70s albums by Vangelis and Tangerine Dream. However, Johansen doesn’t copy their sound so much as draw inspiration from it for his own work. Any technical challenges involved in music production were no doubt laid to rest long ago, given that he’s been producing material for decades (his first electronic album appeared in 1994). That allows him to focus his creative energies entirely on a recording’s melodic themes, compositional design, and overall concept without having to worry about how to bring the material into being. The music is so dramatic it deservedly warrants the term epic (see “Tatra Mountains” for one example of many), but more than anything else, it’s the emotional aspect of tracks such as “Dreams Beyond” and “Human Connection” that sets Johansen’s music apart. In the former case he infuses the material with an intense melancholy and in the latter elevates the soundscape with gently soaring melodies and acoustic sounds of piano and cello. However synthetically based and electronically generated his music becomes, one is always aware that an individual human being is the creative force responsible for what one’s hearing.
Tracklist:
01 - Tatra Mountains (Introduction)
02 - Awakening
03 - Skylight
04 - Dreams Beyond
05 - Dawn
06 - Tatra Mountains
07 - Causeway
08 - Echoes of the Past
09 - Human Connection
Media Report:
Genre: ambient
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits |
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