March 7, 2007
Soup
So many months ago my journey to Soup began at Slashdot, where I was linked to Lasse Gjertsen’s “Amateur”, and in amazement followed the trail to his other clips and then to the reply videos, one of which was Erlend Viken’s “soup injection”.
Towards the end of Erlend’s vid the music swings into a “proper” part of one of his songs, Ambulance for Human. I really liked it, so I went to his one-man-band Soup’s Myspace page, hoping for other samples. At the time there were three full songs available via a flash music player — Prelude, My Justine, and Sagamore — which were all great. (He’s since added the full version of Ambulance for Human).
Hoping that Soup’s other website would have downloads, I followed the link. I gleefully downloaded My Justine and Sagamore, which played while I downloaded his previous album recorded under a different name, Final Concierge — Give it an Empire (link may change, use one above if so).
Give it an Empire’s There’s a City underneath the Ice part II & III is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever heard, building from a lonely, haunting sonar ambience into a delicate chime melody then a sorrowful rage against the lonliness. There’s a subtle trick with vibrato frequency thoughout the melody (particularly noticable around 4:30 into the song) that always freaks me out, since I have a soft spot for the kind of math-influenced melodies featured on the Pi soundtrack a few years back.
So just over a week ago I gave into temptation and ordered Come on Pioneer, Erlend’s new CD, via Paypal on his Myspace page. He’d replied earlier to my email asking about posting costs for Australia, and I was surprised that it’d be the same as the US rate.
Yesterday I collected my disc from the mailbox and was all excited, even more so when I discovered how nicely packaged it was. I’d heard about half the songs on the album before but now I had a physical CD in my hand, with the knowledge that the guy who made the music on it had also put the package together and sent it to me.
The Squash those miserable ants remake on the album is excellent. I’ve always appreciated the technique of cutting from a dark, haunting tune (Psycho) to a happy-sounding, melodic one (Squash), because it makes me carefully evaluate the latter and in this case I don’t think it’s a happy song. :P
Today while I was rifling through things to do, I was listening to Squash. Distracted, I thought I’d look up the lyrics. Unfortunately I didn’t find anything, but I ran over Uhort.no and to my great joy found another Soup song named Soundscape of a burning airofloat, about the Hindenburg disaster and containing parts of Herbert Morrison’s radio broadcast of the event. I’d never read about the Hindenburg disaster before and watching the footage overlayed with that broadcast is goddamned haunting.
Looking forward to more music from you Erlend. :)
I was wondering, what do you think of Soup’s album?
I’ve been considering ordering it myself, but I don’t know if it’s worth getting.
Probably best to reply to Firenut15@hotmail.com
Cheers
P.S. My name’s Alex, in case you were wondering.
I think it’s great overall, and definitely worth getting if you enjoy the samples on Erland’s Myspace page. Plus you’re funding the artist directly, and I really like having the cover sitting around and knowing the artist put it together himself.
The only issue I have with the CD, something that I really should have mentioned above, is the amount of compression applied. Some of the powerful tracks like the new version of “Squash those miserable ants” feel too loud and the details are drowned out. “Soundscape of a burning airofloat” and “Whore” are good examples of this. I hope Erlend will post less-compressed versions of his music later on.
Honestly, apart from “Grande Voyage” (which feels a little out of place even as an “outro” song) I love the album. I’ve still got the tracks on my MP3 player months after purchase.
I have to agree… I have played these songs over and over and over again. I have the music (with Erland’s permission) streaming on my land in Second Life, and I never get tired of it. I have been trying to persuade him to come in and talk to his fans in SL… and I haven’t given up on that yet!
Fee/Cali