How to outlive your own talent?
yorgos dalman | Holland, Europe | 06/25/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Biosphere's Geir Jenssen didn't make it very easy on himself. With his groundbreaking album "Substrata", the perfect ode to the Northern ice landscape, he created the ultimate ambient record. So what to do next?
For "Cirque" (2000) Jenssen went back a little in time, in the years that he made ambient records with a lot of beat and rhythm. (Namely "Patashnik" and "Microgravity"). Jenssen combined the soundscapes and sampled voices from "Substrata" with the "beats, percussions and rhythms from the past".
The result is difficult to describe. It isn't magic time as it was with "Substrata", that's for sure, but it stil is Biosphere, and that does guarantee us a certain quality.
One could perhaps say that beceause of this blend of rhythm and vast ambient scapes, it's a little more accessible than "Substrata".
Maybe "Cirque" is just "Biosphere for beginners".
Biosphere's next project was "Shenzhou" (2002), which excelled in the lack of rhythms and experimental sound samples. Jenssen's music was here even more introverted than before, almost creating a soundtrack to the vast expanse of the universe.
As eerie as it is beautiful, this album seems to be nihilistic in its output but is in fact multi-layered to people with a keen ear for detail.
At least one could say about "Cirque" and "Shenzhou" is that Biosphere didn't really try to repeat the unrepeatable by making a second "Substrata". These two albums are more rather moodful variations on his talent.
The real disappointment was "Au tour de la lune", a record that almost literaly didn't stand on solide gorund. No surprises, no reprises, too nihilistic, too much air, too much of nothing really. An "ode to the empty void" more likely, and an album quickly to forget.
Between all solo acts, Biosphere succesfully collaborated with other acts like Deathprod (resulting in the quiet "Nordheim transfromed"), Tom Opdhal (Jenssen was producer of his album "Black smoker") and Higher Intelligence Agency (resulting in the awesome dubble bill "Polar Sequences" and "Birmingham Frequencies")
But now, in 2006, Biosphere is back on his own with "Dropsonde".
Fans were still excited. Would Biosphere strike back hard and come back with another unequalled album? What kind of variation on his "Songs of the Northern Iceworld" would he bring us now?
Well, fans and enemies were surprised when information leaked out, stating that jazz was to be Geir Jenssen's main source of inspiration.
Soft, fluid ambient sounds start to stream out of our stereo equipment as soon as we start the record. There is a buzzing, fuzzing back ground noise. Almost liquid bell tones follow. Then cymbal-like percussion joins in. Tempo alters. Mood sets in. And the listener slowly starts to realize that maybe, just maybe, he is hearing the first two, three tracks of the Biosphere album that can come very close to the classic "Substrata".
And when we hear water flowing through track 5, another reminiscence to "Substrata", we know that Biosphere is more alive than ever.
And the only question remains: what will this guy come up next with? But it is an exciting question we have often asked ourselves when it came to Geir Jenssen.
And most answers were more than great.
"
Biosphere goes Jazz
H. Vartiainen | Finland | 02/21/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"So it's the latest effort of Geir Jensen. Totally different from he's last Album " Autour De La Lune " which was REALLY minimalistic drone based album. On dropsonde ( EP ) Geir uses jazzy old sounding beats and lovely soft melodies. Once again he change's he's style and that's what i like about him.. If you are a biosphere fan, you got to check out this ! if you are new to biosphere, try first " Substrata " or Shenzhou ""
