Geir Jenssen is better known as
Biosphere, the Norwegian electronic/ambient composer responsible for a half deck of albums on the Touch label between 1996 and 2006. He also recorded the soundtrack for the film version of Insomnia. Fewer still know that
Jenssen is an experienced mountaineer. He traveled to Tibet in September and October of 2001 and climbed Cho Oyu, a mountain on the Tibetan/Nepalese border; it's the sixth largest peak in the world and is 8,201 meters high, hence the title.
Jenssen made field recordings of all stages of his trip. It was rigorous: it took two weeks to get from Katmandu to the Base Camp in Tibet. The journey was taken slowly so as to avoid altitude sickness. Given that Tibet is literally the top of the world, making these recordings took some doing, whether it was the supply trucks blasting along mountain roads in the snow, transistor radios playing in high altitude, or birds that
Jenssen fed to try to lure them closer. The voice of the sherpa, or his exhibition mates climbing, yak bells, livestock, horses galloping, the wind itself as wicked hail hit the tents in the middle of the night. It's all charted here. But these are not purely field recordings. There are subtle edits made, and even subtler effects added, and some listeners will recognize a bit of what's here as the rough source material for pieces on the
Biosphere album Dropsonde, with sequencing done by the day, but perhaps not the exact hour. It's no matter, this is sound collage made from the rawest possible sources and then assembled, and it is a haunting, at times slightly harrowing experience. The listener is taken deep inside the climbing experience and how disorienting it is for a Westerner to exist in such a wild environment. One has to depend on the kindness of spirits, gods or one's own particular yiddam or protector deity. The overall feeling is that one is on holy ground, listening for the voice of the beyond, even among somewhat familiar sources -- though few are. This recording will not appeal to everyone, to be sure, so Ash International should be commended for releasing such an arresting work. For those who encounter it with an open mind, it is the stuff of the fantastic, the void itself speaking through this man and his gear. It's remarkable, hushed, sacred, without being religious. It's the sound of the world coming to the listener in bits and pieces, whispers and roars.
Cho Oyu 8201m is magical. ~ Thom Jurek