Various - Two A.D.

Various - Two A.D. (Volume Two Ambient Dub) (Waveform Records, 1995) (320)

This is my favorite of all the Waveform comps. There are just so many great tracks. And my first exposure to the killer Biosphere.

01 Starseeds, The - Behind The Sun (Deep Ambient Mix)

02 Coldcut - Autumn Leaves (Irresistable Force Mix Trip 2)

03 Sounds From The Ground - Triangle

04 Groove Corporation - A Voyage On The Marie Celeste

05 A Positive Life - Pleidean Communication

06 Biosphere - Baby Interphase

07 Higher Intelligence Agency, The - Tortoise

08 Human Mesh Dance - Sunken Garden

09 Insanity Sect - Late Night

10 A Positive Life - Aquasonic

Check it (email me)

Info

008Biosphere & Higher Intelligence Agency - Polar Sequences

Biosphere & Higher Intelligence Agency - Polar Sequences (Headphone Records, 1996) (320)

Review in previous post.

Here's some pix.

Check it (email me)

007Biosphere & Higher Intelligence Agency - Birmingham Frequencies (With Video)

Biosphere & Higher Intelligence Agency - Birmingham Frequencies (Headphone, 2000) (320)

A great review from here.

Polar Sequences and Birmingham Frequencies are two parts of a same project. Polar Sequences, released in 1996, was recorded two years earlier, during Tromso’s Polar Music Festival. Tromso, hometown of Biosphere’s Geir Jenssen, is situated 70 degrees north, above the Arctic Circle, in Norway.
In 1995, the organisers of the festival commissioned Geir Jenssen and Higher Intelligence Agency’s Bobby Bird, a series of three concerts, using environmental sounds recorded in the area. The concerts were given on top of a mountain, where the audience was brought to in turn by cable car.
The second part of this project was put together by Bird and Jenssen, using a similar approach, this time set in Bobby Bird’s native Birmingham. The chosen venue was on the twelfth floor of the Rotunda, situated in the heart of the city. The one off event also featured videos and digital images, as well as a café and one of the best views over Birmingham.
The music created for the two events is very similar in form, the two artists creating a slow moving, chilled soundtrack. But where Polar Sequences feels very natural, using sounds of snow and melting ice, the only human interaction being the cable car, Birmingham Frequencies is definitely more urban. Voices of children playing in a park or a pelican crossing alarm are amongst the sounds used as the basis for the creation.
These two records are complementary, and Jenssen and Bird both bring their own creativity and technology to a very interesting project. Absolutely unmissable.

Check it (email me)

006Biosphere & Deathprod -Nordheim Transformed

Biosphere & Deathprod - Nordheim Transformed (Rune Grammofon, 1998) (320)

A discogs review:

Very dark, sometimes abstract. Biosphere and Deathprod took turns "transforming" and manipulating fellow Norwegian (and electronic music pioneer) Arne Nordheim's original recordings.

The result is satisfying. I think Biosphere's influence restrained Deathprod, as there isn't as much of the noise and dissonance associated with their other releases. It's also a landmark Biosphere release because it was the first release after the masterpiece "Substrata" and saw Jenssen turning even further away from his origins in pop electronica and more towards experimental and classically-influenced music.

There is a spare and melancholy northern European aestheticism here, with drones and tones winning out over traditional musical structure. I don't think the artists set out to intentionally make "dark ambient" music, it just kind of turned out that way.

This is music for lonely winter nights, for abandoned warehouses, and rocky arctic coastlines...

Check it (email me)

002Various-Biosystems

Here's a rare one. Biosphere remixing a bunch of people.

Various - Biosystems- The Biosphere Remixes (Beatservice Records, 1999) (320)

01. Nicolette - No Government (In The Biosphere)
02. Alanïa - L'eglise (Deuxième Partie) (Biosphere Trekking Mix)
03. Download - Attalal (Remixed By Biosphere)
04. Illumination - Hope To God (Biosphere Remix)
05. Front Line Assembly - Circuitry (Rmx By Biosphere)
06. Motion Control - Digits 3 (Biosphere's Astragalus Remix)
07. Mind Over MIDI - It's Gonna Be Alright (Biosphere's Angulaq Remix)
08. James - She's A Star (Andrea's Biosphere Mix)

Check it (email me)

001Biosphere-Cirque

Let's start things out here. So, I've been meaning to do this for awhile. Here goes...

Biosphere - Cirque (Touch 2000) (320)

This is my favorite album of his, even though Substrata is probably better.

Gorgeous ambience.

Here's the obligatory Boomkat review:

'Cirque' was originally released by Touch seven years ago in 2000, and they have finally seen fit to re-issue the record so those of us who missed it first time around can hear what all the fuss was about. Interestingly too, it hasn't dated much at all - of course there are things where you have to think about the context of the time, but Jenssen's expert blend of minimal dub-leaning techno and gorgeous ambience is masterful and hugely enjoyable. This is where he really began to experiment beat structures and the framework of 'dance' music, yet he submerged the rhythmic elements so far beneath his expertly crafted drones and field recordings that it's difficult to place this in the same genre as more dancefloor oriented work. Take the Basic Channel influenced 'When I Leave'; vinyl crackle and dissonant pads float around gloriously before being punctured by a pulsating bassline and then a simple, minimal 4/4 thud to bring the track together perfectly. Elsewhere 'Iberia Eterea' takes a jazzy hi-hat rhythm and pushes it through a haze of lo-fidelity noise and buzzing synthesizer drones giving it the quality of an ancient movie seen through the eyes of David Lynch. It's easy to see on this album where acts such as Deaf Center managed to mine so much inspiration - Geir Jenssen's work has served to influence so much modern electronic music that it is almost crucial to re-visit everything the man has to offer. A gorgeous record - buy.

Check it (email me)