Biosphere
Departed Glories

Biosphere, the artist I've always tried to study and delve into but who never fully captured my attention. I've listened to "N-Plants" extensively, but it never really engaged me much, and the same goes for other albums like "Dropsonde" and "Patashnik," and his most famous "Substrata." One day, like a bolt from the blue, I settled into my chair in front of my stereo system to listen to "Departed Glories," strongly recommended by a friend. Recommendations aside, I was also captivated by the album cover, which for some reason immediately appeared unsettling, different from the usual, giving me the premonition I was about to hear a different Biosphere.

The music starts and I immediately understand that this time I have to put aside every kind of "ambient music" known so far. "Departed Glories" is one thing... drones, just drones. An album that took the artist five years of silence, a complex work and in my opinion perfect in every tiny detail. From the little information I managed to gather, the artist talks about this album as a sort of psychoanalytical regression with a naturalistic background. Indeed, starting from the cover, we find confirmation in the words used by Biosphere; it is, as mentioned, sinister, unsettling. There is a woman immersed in the greenery of a forest, among spectral trees and yellow flowers; she appears "not very human," more like a specter. A cover that could easily be exhibited in the best art shows.

But let's talk about the content of the album, and here things get even more complex. The listening is not at all "easy" and doesn't transmit positive vibes. Instead, it seems to want at all costs to unsettle the listener, frighten them with its damned sinister nature combined with voices lost in the wind. All this is already possible to perceive from the first track "Out Of The Cradle." As we move forward, the work becomes "spectral" in every sense, a bombardment of echoes, rustles, and only God knows what else. At this point, we are totally immersed in that damned forest where perhaps the specter of that woman hides. Specifically, Biosphere takes inspiration from a particular forest, Las Wolski. Midway, total darkness comes into play; as much as possible, Biosphere manages to bring a music to life that is even more unsettling and cold than what was heard just moments before.

We reach the title track, which certainly doesn't spare any further gloomy harmonies. The listener who loves to listen with closed eyes and see with the mind understands at this point that Las Wolski has now become a green labyrinth where you can only get out if you reach the end of this delirium-masterpiece, a music-room for haunted places, so to speak. In the final part, we can't delude ourselves into finding even a shred of light. Instead, the specters that have accompanied us through all the tracks seem even more "present," and their breath penetrates the ear of those who listen...now resting at a point of no return.

Like all dreams or like all nightmares...they end...and they end when we open our eyes, when we wake up...in this case, when the final track puts an end to a hallucinatory and unsettling journey, which is precisely why it’s fascinating and wonderful. If I may express a personal opinion, I can say that if you have a nightmare and you are aware that it is just a nightmare, you can afford to have an extraordinary experience. I believe that those who can have "lucid dreams" can confirm my theory. In any case, "Departed Glories" was a true experience, tragic, dramatic, unsettling, yet at the same time, wonderful and fascinating. An album "not for everyone," I think it's primarily aimed at those who do not reduce music to just a specific rhythm, a particular chord progression. "Departed Glories" is a work of art that does not necessarily need to be understood; it requires instead a total abandonment of the listener into the darkest depths of sound.

I really hope that you Debaser users, who are decidedly better than me at writing and reviewing, go and give (if you haven't already) a listen to this work, so maybe you can write a nice review here, and I will read you and surely discover things about this record that I do not know now. Ignore the duplicity, for talented reviewers like you, this album is great to analyze, always, according to my very humble opinion.

VinnySparrow