Jonathan Geer is a composer\/arranger; a “film score” musician.
\nEssex<\/i> is Geer’s debut album of scores, and is not written
\nfor any motion picture. But listening to the record, it does sound
\nlike music for a film, or at least a story — and it is, for an old
\nstory of a whaling ship named the Essex.<\/p>\n
Before proceeding further with the review, it is imperative to
\ngive a brief description of the story of the Essex, without which
\nthe review and the album itself would sound as meaningless as
\nwatching a Jennifer Lopez video without Lopez herself being in
\nit.<\/p>\n
Essex was a whaling ship that left the coast of Nantucket,
\nMassachusetts in 1819 on a two-and-a-half-year voyage to the South
\nPacific to hunt Sperm Whales. The ship, however, met a tragic end
\nwhen it capsized after being attacked and hit by a Sperm Whale.
\nThough the crew members survived the attack, they fell prey to
\ndehydration, starvation and strife, and most of them died, with
\njust eight of the twenty-one men aboard surviving to tell the story
\nof the cataclysm in all its gory entirety. The story is long and
\ncan be accessed on a number of sites that show up upon “Googling”
\nthe word “Essex.”<\/p>\n
Moving on to the present discussion,
\nEssex<\/i> musically tells the story of the ship from the first
\nsong — “Nantucket” — to the last — “Captain Pollard” (the
\ncaptain of Essex) — and is hence best enjoyed if the story is
\nknown.<\/p>\n
Essex, like film scores in general, is full of lush orchestral
\narrangements. But all the music is performed by Geer alone. Hence,
\nelectronics are heavily involved, compensating for the standard
\nreal-life ensemble of 100 musicians playing together. Geer however
\nis smart, and does not try to create a whole army of philharmonic
\nplayers on his lone laptop. Instead, he has taken a different
\napproach to composing, much like the minimalist-composers did back
\nin the late-sixties\/early-seventies; his compositions incorporate
\nunusual sound effects, rather than electronically generated
\nfull-blown string-and-brass arrangements.<\/p>\n
As a result of Geer’s extensive use of sound effects to portray
\nthe different — mostly cataclysmic — events in the journey of the
\nEssex, most of the numbers on the record could very well be
\nmistaken for sound snippets from a Nine Inch Nails, (post-Kid A)
\nRadiohead, or Bjork LP. This makes the music not only interesting,
\nbut also all the more palatable to folks who find film scores
\nboring.<\/p>\n
Cuts like “Dehydration” (depicting the slow death of the crew
\ndue to lack of drinkable water), which has whale noises and sounds
\nof shoveling sand, and “Casting Lots” (a song for the survivors,
\nwho, in their desperation resorted to cannibalism by drawing lots
\nto see who should next be eaten, with the unlucky candidate to be
\nshot by one of his companions), which has effects resembling sounds
\nof grunting and gorging men, reminds of the avant-garde composers
\nof the nascent electronic age who resorted to using sounds rather
\nthan music for their compositions.<\/p>\n
There are tracks, like “Departure,” “The Attack,” “The Island”
\nand “Homecoming” that have “trip-hoppy” beats, like that of a
\ncreepy Massive Attack or a Sneaker Pimps song, and others like
\n“Nantucket,” “Essex Theme” and “Captain Pollard” that are classic
\nfilm-scores, complete with emotionally drenched strings, flutes,
\npercussions, and recurring themes.<\/p>\n
\nEssex<\/i> is not a usual “film score” record; nor is it a “pop”
\nalbum. It has the body of the former and the soul of the later. It
\nis a mix-tape of fine compositions, uncanny electronics, and
\nunearthly sound-effects.
\nEssex<\/i> makes for an interesting listen, and would enhance the
\nvisual impact to the story of the Essex, if ever it is made into a
\nmovie.<\/p>\n