Lars From Mars – Marsopolis [Granular Spectrum]

Music, like other types of artistic expression, is always in constant evolution, and even more so with the rapid technological development to which we have been exposed in recent decades. Many years ago, it was unfeasible for a composer or an artist to evolve in a very extreme way, since in the course of his life he would probably have modified his methodology or his condition as a musician. Pierre Schaeffer’s early studies brought about a change in the way of understanding the different properties of sound and also opened up new fields, new ways of creating sound structures and evolving.

Lars Graugaard is the paradigm of musical progress, his compositions and research throughout his career have been linked to classical genres such as operas, symphonies, ensembles, works for chamber orchestras, as well as jazz, electronic music and in recent years, he has been involved in different sound exploration projects.

Lars From Mars is the solo project of this Danish composer and producer. His latest release, Marsopolis, shows his great qualities of adaptation to any environment. My Broski, the opening track of the album, exposes a rhythmic pattern that is used as a core, however, this hesitant techno that appears in the first bars is enriched by Graugaard’s harmonic ability to generate random patterns. Eachother follows a similar pattern to the previous track, although this time with a penetrating punch and a cadence that starts fast and ends up accelerating at breakneck speed. With Code Five Eight there is a complete change of scenery, the rhythmic forcefulness disappears, dominated by subtle percussive elements and a prominent bass line, as well as the addition of several soft melodies. More As Whatever is created from a variable metric in which a large part of its components participate.

Like Not is a track with a fast tempo, however, Lars manages to make the speed seem to be subject to a constant acceleration point due to the elaborate conjugation of all its sonic parts. With Flatforming we can see that the border between techno and IDM is narrower than we think. Space Between is a track difficult to label within a specific musical genre, it is the kind of cut that details the creativity and heterogeneity of its author, with a bass line that manifests its hegemony over the rest of the elements. Elfven mixes the voluminousness of his lower frequencies with polyrhythm. S is the ninth and final track on Marsopolis, and like the rest of the tracklist, it is unlike any of the other eight tracks. S has an unpredictable metric and its combination of textures gives it a narcotic character.

Release date: May 29th, 2021.