Jens Carelius – Opsi
Jansen Records – 13 September 2019
Opsi is the rarest of discs, a tale of Norwegian musician Jens Carelius’ great great grandfather, Fritz ‘Opsi” Doerries, who at the age of 25 left Hamburg to experience the mysteries of Eastern Siberia. Over the course of the next twenty-five years, Doerries kept a diary outlining his experiences in entomology, documenting over 50,000 specimens of butterflies, along with a pygmy woodpecker named after him. The diary also chronicles a series of hazardous oceanic voyages, crossing Japan by foot, surviving merciless winters, and the incredible beauty of Siberian summers.
Carelius, a gifted acoustic guitarist creates incredibly intricate structures, with the help of Lars Horntveth (best known as a founding member of Jaga Jazzist) explores a new musical form, based on his folk roots yet going far beyond them. Keyboards and synths develop organic themes in stunning new ways. It is truly a musical equivalent of Opsi’s own entomologic explorations.
Opening the album, Lay Me Down, is a love story. During Opsi’s time in Siberia, he made several trips back to Germany. As Jens explains, “When you really miss someone, you forget about any trouble, pride, and drama that being with them stirs up. You just want that person and that love to be there, even though you know the ordeal it could bring.”
Opening with strummed guitar the song literally explodes with passion as it builds again and again.
The delicate flutter over guitar strings of Hunting Butterflies, in turn, becomes a much more intense string and drum-driven number suggesting that Opsi is a much more involved creature than your average entomologist. The concluding countermelody suggests there are hidden depths to Fritz Doerries. With Even Beauty Grows Old the repeated refrain, “We’re waiting, what are we waiting for?” leads one to question if the quest for this fragile beauty is worth the cost.
All this travel can’t be measured strictly in monetary terms. The Weight suggests there may also be a psychic cost. And what starts as a guitar-driven piece, by turns becomes more and more keyboard dominated with synthesized strings and horns holding sway. Like a shapeshifter Carelius’ songs change colour and size as they develop, generating a constantly evolving canvas.
The genius of Opsi lies in the ability of Jens Carelius to capture a portrait of a man who was fascinating not only for what he did but who he was. In an era before technology offered such intimate exposure of our lives, the portrait we observe is of a man in total, complete with gifts and faults, but a man well worth knowing.
Opsi is out now. Order via Amazon
Jens Carelius is a musician, composer, graphic designer and a painter, working in Oslo. Find out more here