Biosphere
L’incoronazione di Poppea

Published in 2012, commissioned by the Ingun Bjørnsgaard Prosjekt, the new album by Geir Jenssen (known as Biosphere), is a techno-ambient remix inspired by the opera "L'Incoronazione di Poppea", a masterpiece by Maestro Claudio Monteverdi, born in Cremona in 1567 and died in Venice in 1643, a great innovator of Italian music. It was Monteverdi who would steer Italian Renaissance music towards the Baroque period.

The original opera is composed of a prologue and three acts. We are in ancient Rome of the first century after Christ, with all the wickednesses and dissolutions (and atrocities, why not?) of the period. In short: it tells of Nero who, interested in marrying Poppea (who wouldn't want to marry Poppea?), has to get rid of Ottavia. He will succeed thanks to the usual court conspiracy. The opera is a frontal attack on post-Renaissance Papal Rome. The libretto is written by Giovanni Francesco Busanello, a member of the Accademia degli Incogniti, a group of Venetian intellectuals strongly critical of the Pope and his desire for secular dominance over the rest of Italy and, thus, also on the Republic of Venice (this issue isn't new to me!).

The approach of the Norwegian Biosphere to Monteverdi's work is very simple. He very gently attacks the classical sound by permeating it with his classic ambient curtain. The rustlings and electronic tremors of a Fennesz-like mold merge with the lyrical choruses. The fusion is very engaging for the curious listener. The emotion is palpable, goosebumps often arise. Music for a sedentary and solitary listen, for a listener dazed by a long eating marathon, for those who need protection, for those fleeing or who can no longer stand the confusion. Fancy music for those who want to show off. So if in the bar, by mere chance, someone, while sipping on bubbles, pontificates to you with a "Hey, you know 'L'Incoronazione di Poppea' by Biosphere is just too beautiful", feel free to tell them off by saying: "Loser, Biosphere is just one person".

Enjoy your listening. 

P.s. For those who would like to listen to the entire album.