Osmose

About

OSMOSE Ambient Space Music in the Rainforest - a breath of fresh air ! LP first edition in 1978 - new CD in 2006 Creation of Osmose: Ariel Kalma was recommended to Richard Tinti who had just come back from Borneo with hours of rainforest ambiences in high quality recording. To their amazement, birds and keyboard, flutes and cricket, saxophones and frog, war drums and (vintage) drum machines had much in common in terms of pitch, melodie, rhythm, effect. Ariel decided to blend his compositions with the rainforest atmosphere, and thus Osmose was created Liner notes from Chris McNutt, Blur Record, USA: Ariel Kalma's magical and weird Osmose originally released in 1978 masterfully matches Richard Tinti's rainforest field recordings with Ariel's left field minimalist compositional idea. Rather than simply relying on the rainforest sounds providing a pleasant backdrop to the drone, the drones interplay with the pitches of the natural sounds to create melancholic, Popol Vuh like grandeur. The natural chirps and creaks blend with the music to become similar to ambient loops themselves; such that their very tonal nature shifts from being recognizable jungle sound, frequently phasing into blurred rhythmic elements under the electronic part. Ariel's musical minimalism avoids being serialist or academic, despite being part of the INA GRM studios for many year. So, neither is it concrete like Parmeggiani or Risset, nor is it classical like Philip Glass or Michael Nyman. If anything, Ariel's music is deeply cosmic, sometimes even a bit psych, ala the great Krauts of yore: old Tangerine Dream, Sand, Cluster etc. His cathedral like tones and running counterpoints actually give the rainforest noise a sinister edge. The music absolutely subverts the traditional idea of the rainforest as that of a happy hunting ground for cause riddled yuppies with Benzes full of Kruggerrand. Osmose reminds that not only is the rainforest a place of awe inspiring beauty, but it is also something very dense and alien. It is a place of removal; it is a place of isolation; it is a kind of inner space; it is an extraordinary and surreal church of sorts; and it is deadly. The album has a progression that's almost a story in toto, where the next rise is finally crossed revealing the huge, seemingly impenetrable expanse of lush green. The expanse is then explored with wide eyed wonder until the guide dies and the companions start succumbing to fever, ague, snakes and unseen primitives at home in the shadow. Appended by 3 previously unreleased tracks from the same session, this reissue finally allows the rainforest to live up to its natural state of untamed jungle. Tracks and description 1 Saxo Planetariel: Recorded during a concert under the stars of the Paris' Planetarium (1977) with soprano saxophone, circular breathing, long delay, keyboard, and effects (but no sample, loops or overdubs). Mixed later with the rainforest at night. 2 Message 18.10.77: "I wanted to send a musical message from earth that night." With keyboard, vocal, flanger, long delay, Q filter, and dusk creatures from the jungle. Recorded at GRM studio, Pari. 3 Planet-Air: Recorded on the newly tuned big harmonium of the small church of St Julien du Sault, France: the light of a full moon coming through the stained glass window, birds of Borneo. 4 Forest Ballad 77: A silver flute echoes ever changing harmonic waves of flanged keyboards and tuned reverbs amongst the trees of the rainforest, and as the sun gets hotter, morning birds and insect alike revel in a crescendo of sound. 5 Manege: Composed in the 'repetitive' style of the seventie, with 3 keyboards and their simplistic rhythm boxe, echoe, phasing, flanger and vocal. Recorded at Ariel's Astral Muse home studio, then overdubbed at the GRM studio with frog, fireflies and all kinds of night creatures' call. Ride the haunted rainforest merry-go-round. 6 Gongmo: Sound environment composed for a 1973 giant slide show named 'Voyage au Centre de la Tete' ('Journey to the Center of Your Head'), re-mixed with war drums of Borneo's indigenes that are 'played' into a 40 bands/channel analog filter, creating changing effects driven into the late night forest's ambience 7 Osmose Chant: Dusk cricket, bird, birdcall, harmonium, vocal, delay, keyboard, and a fly. 8 Saxo Forest: A saxophone gently stirs up the night forest. 9 Orguitar Soir: guitar and flanged keyboard (tuned in a Morrocan G'nawa music style) lounge in a summer glade, intermittently pierced by birdsong. .

via Last.fm

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