It seems ridiculous, yet it’s genius. For the soundtrack to Ron & Val Taylor’s 1973 Inner Space documentary television series, chronicling life in the depths of the ocean, Norweigan born composer Sven Libaek felt that smooth Brazillian influenced Australian jazz would fit perfectly. And he was right. The resulting music is like nothing you’ve heard before, impossibly breezy, dreamy, wonderous and slightly eccentric without ever being close to difficult. It’s long been the holy grail of crate diggers everywhere and a couple of the tracks were even reused in Wes Anderson’s recent The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. There’s a certain sensual jazz exotica at play here, with vibes, sly horns, an ocassional plodding bassline, harp, keys, you name it. It really is incredible, you have never heard jazz, particularly Australian Jazz like this before. And though I’m not sure how it ended up melding with the images, this exotic underwater jazz music is truly a unique proposition and a real milestone in Australian film soundtrack.
Bob Baker Fish
