Biosphere
Cirque

In my opinion, this work by Geir Jenssen aka Biosphere deserves some attention, an album that has evoked entirely personal sensations and visions in me. A particular light shines within the grooves of this album… Perhaps it’s due to the cover, which reflects the immobile icy expanses of the Nordic countries, to which the music in a sense calls, yet it’s not just that.

Peace, solitude, intimate and personal explorations, other worlds, things you wish existed, references to certain places on the planet, to certain situations, forever solitary visions, where man is only an occasional presence. It opens with "Nook & Cranny", one of the most intense and personally most felt of the whole album: a subdued beat, almost like a beating heart, accompanied by a faint melody of keyboard set to sound like a violin, hidden, subdued, ethereal. Everything seems to lose importance, there's only a great sense of peace. It moves on to "Le Grand Dome", more "earthly" atmospheres, a muffled breakbeat holding the tempo, voices lost in the void. Ideal for relaxing after a hectic evening, with the lights off in the car, and the full moon casting its light first on a field, then on the surface of a lake, in solitude. "Grandiflora" is just an interlude introducing "Black Lamb & Grey Falcon", an irregular bass syncopation that persists throughout the track, various dark, dreamlike, timeless musical inserts, giving a sense of impending threat, creatures inhabiting a forest, while the wind blows over the ridges, a (guitar?) arpeggio "fractures" the atmospheres to render them more abyssal, dark and unsettling.

"Miniature Rock Dwellers" another interlude introducing "When I leave", track on themes similar to "Le Grand Dome" but with a more dance-like approach. "Iberea Eterea" proceeds in progression, is animated by an inner "energy" that makes it soar towards distant horizons: a high-altitude ridge swept by the wind, with snow rising and swirling, or the vision of the landscape in motion while you're in a small plane flying low, with houses, fields, trees, woods, beaches, flashing by beneath and around you. "Moinstered & Tried" the minimalist peak of the album, an almost imperceptible ambient air accompanies the fall of tiny drops impacting who knows where. Subdued and dispersed, surreal and magical, simple but highly effective. "Algae & Fungi" pt 1 and 2 struck me less, a promising start that degenerates into a frenetic and somewhat bland breakbeat section, perhaps Jenssen's strong suit isn’t rhythm***. ;-) "Too Fragile To Walk On" the closing of this record on more dramatic atmospheres that, slowly, accompany you to the end of this journey.

To be listened to only in the "right" moments and, perhaps, under suitable landscape conditions, decidedly not suitable for the city and very chaotic areas! (excluding "Le Grand Dome", "Black Lamb & Grey Falcon") However, these, like the review, remain entirely personal interpretations, absolutely non-shareable. ;-)

*** Regarding "Algae and Fungi" I recommend listening to the "candelaria version", which appears on the touch ep. (No.13) A whole different ball game! It also includes works by Fennesz, Hazard, Light.