The most adventurous DeBaseriani will have organized, at least once, a trip to the regions of the far Northern Europe, namely in those lands characterized by a cold climate and endless winters, marked by the long polar night.
These users, during these days, will be dreaming of those distant landscapes, as our country is grappling with one of the hottest and driest summers of the New Millennium. What better opportunity, then, to leave the fiery Italian peninsula and project ourselves into a stretch covered by a white blanket or onto the majestic Lyngen Alps, mountain ranges perpetually snow-covered that magically rise from the North Sea?
This refreshing escape can be facilitated by music, which, besides accompanying us on our walks, has the power to make us travel with our minds. All that remains is to find, among our listens, the musician who more than anyone evokes the arctic chill, the rugged heights, the solitude of the hiker. I am of course talking about Geir Jennsen, better known as Biosphere.
Born in Tromsø, Geir has honed over the years a completely personal sound, based on the use of loops, field recording, and vocal samples taken from films and other unknown recordings, a suggestive mix that found its masterpiece in Substrata.
After reaching the pinnacle of his artistic exploration, Biosphere takes three years of well-deserved rest. In 2000, Cirque comes to light, a work that, while fitting into the groove traced by the previous album (the cover leaves no room for doubt), contains novelties worth noting.
If Substrata stood out for featuring suspended tracks that conveyed a sensation of stasis or immobility, the new album by Geir Jennsen immediately appears more dynamic, thanks to the inclusion of rhythmic patterns with sometimes high bpm ("When I Leave", for instance, is close to ambient-house, while the two parts of "Algae & Fungi" wander in drum and bass territories).
The result, albeit far from the excellence of its predecessor, can be considered quite positive, and in the most successful moments of Cirque, we find ourselves truly on some remote mountain in Scandinavia, in the company of French and North American explorers with whom we will spend the night after having a pleasant conversation (it's their voices that surprise us among the dissonances of "Black Lamb & Grey Falcon" and especially in the hypnotic "Le Grand Dôme", one of the best pieces of the LP).
Even the choice to opt for muffled sounds proves to be winning, as well as that of mixing the tracks among themselves, almost as if they were part of a single large suite. And when "Moistened & Dried" starts, with those drops creating counter-tempo beats, one cannot help but appreciate the fusion between art and nature, electronics, and life.
Yet in the "circus" of Biosphere not everything goes smoothly: some combinations turn out to be risky (I am referring to "Black Lamb & Grey Falcon", with those orchestrations that end up clashing a bit with the ambient backgrounds), but the biggest issues concern precisely the sometimes unsuccessful attempts to insert rhythms into the compositions (the breakbeat and drum and bass inserts in "Algae & Fungi" are rather messy).
Despite these inaccuracies, Cirque remains a pleasant album and perhaps can serve as a sort of introduction to the world of Biosphere, before moving on to his more celebrated works. And in a sultry summer like the one we are experiencing, it allows us to leave the heat for an hour and immerse ourselves in the icy vibrations of the Norwegian Finnmark.
Awaiting the next swim or a new exciting ascent.
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