Where is it from: Norway’s desolate North
What does it sound like: Norway’s desolate North.
Where’s the best place to listen to it: Norway’s desolate North.
Biosphere’s (Geir Jenssen) legacy has firmly been etched in electronic music’s archives since the 1990’s. Known for his immersive ambient textures; mediative Techno workouts; and innovational sonic palettes Biosphere is an unconventional pioneer in the field of electronic music, both in its most accessible form and its more experimental corners. The producer’s environment, the arctic North (Tromsø), often draws parallels to the icy sonic aesthetic he calls on and swathes in frozen atmospheric delays and reverbs as the immersive textures he conjures in his music. In the nineties his music flourished in the “chill-out” rooms of place like Heaven in London and offered a subtle counterpoint to the Aphex Twins and Authecres of the world while retaining a position amongst these artists as a true innovator.
His latest album, Departed Glories might not garner the same enthusiasm as past works like Substrata or Microgravity, but it’s most certainly a Biosphere album and for that you have to commend it. Jenssen deals with rather more minimal, reserved textures on this outing than in the past, and favours a warmer organic sonic palette where vocal choirs and plucked strings are not alienated amongst the exclusively electronic elements. It’s hard to say how Jenssen evolves the Biosphere sound through his records or what intrinsically makes it so unique but Departed Glories definitely proliferates the Biosphere touch without succumbing to any cliché other than being an ambient record. The reserved appearance of the record is Biosphere at his most solitary and listening to it alone while nursing a drink is a most rewarding listening experience.