a thread about biosphere

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substrata is great!

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:38 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

i don't like that one where he sings, though. boring singer-songwriter nonsense ruining the flow of the record. it would have been perfect otherwise.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:40 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

it's quietly become one of my most played records of the last 18 months. you can recommend me other areas of the biosphere catalogue if you wish.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:44 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

Well, it's simple: up to now, all albums have been worth checking out. But start digging with Patashnik and Shenzou (the latter without any beats and including lots of Debussy samples).

― Roger T (Roger T), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:48 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

isn't substrata without beats as well?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:49 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

i find people describe a lot of albums as beatless when they aren't really, but substrata seemed to quite genuinely fit the description.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:50 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

True. But the others albums - except Shenzou - do include beats and are even danceable at times.

― Roger T (Roger T), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:50 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

The first half of Patashnik is great, the second is a bit weaker. Except for the "intergalactic DJ" track, you could definitely dance to that.

Did anyone else notice that vocal samples on Substrata are from Twin Peaks? Kinda weird, considering that theme of the album is supposed to be Himalaya, at least according to a Biosphere interview on Trance Europe Express 3.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 20 February 2004 14:56 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

I love Shenzhou, but I'm afraid of the stuff with beats - what i've heard I don't like as much. I think I would appreciate it more if I heard a full album of it. Or maybe a half album. I'm confused, are there beats on Substrata? Should I get that, then?

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Friday, 20 February 2004 15:25 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

there are no beats on substrata and sonny, you should purchase it immediately. i had a similar experience to kilian in that the album quite stealthily became something i constantly played. it's perfect ambient music. the cover art on the touch rerelease is absolutely gorgeous, too. plus the touch release comes with a bonus disc for biosphere's soundtrack to man with a movie camera. i have shenzou, but it doesn't come close to substrata imho.

― tricky disco (disco stu), Friday, 20 February 2004 15:42 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

five months pass...

what about autour de la lune? is it boring monotonous ambient without ideas or is it a subtle album which almost reaches the unsurpassable beauty of silence. i think it has beats. house shattering ones even.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:02 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

It has been getting abysmal reviews everywhere, I'm a bit hesitant to buy it, considering I'm also still not feeling Shenzou.

― Siegbran (eofor), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:26 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

abysmal reviews? pitchfork 7.8, almost cool 7.75 and the bbc review is very enthusiastic as well.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Friday, 13 August 2004 15:39 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

no beats that i heard unless you consider pulsing and leslie-like whirls to be 'beaty'. i stopped feeling shenzou too, but find this one to be quite anti-gravity.

― jean jeudi, Friday, 13 August 2004 19:21 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

this is a new biosphere album, alex? i hadn't heard about it...

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 13 August 2004 22:39 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

I liked it the one time I heard it, but I have yet to give it a relisten, and unfortunately I haven't yet heard Shenzou to compare it with.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 13 August 2004 22:43 (fourteen years ago) Permalink

one year passes...

Cirque is really lovely, almost as great as Substrata. It's more sample heavy (in a klf Chill Out sort of way), and *sigh* there are few a beats here and there. Definitely a stand-out artists among the deluge of ambient out there... His records have a spontaneity to them.. A spontaneity of which I can't quite locate the source.

― gaseous (gaseous), Saturday, 15 April 2006 05:47 (twelve years ago) Permalink

i've been listening to Dropsonde a fair bit recently. it's pretty great.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 15 April 2006 10:06 (twelve years ago) Permalink

Yes, Dropsonde is excellent -- the vinyl version was great enough but the CD extended one knocks it out of the ballpark.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 15 April 2006 13:33 (twelve years ago) Permalink

five years pass...

Autour de la lune is a monumental record, f a beat imo

― Mo Money Mo Johnston (Noodle Vague), Monday, 5 March 2012 12:30 (six years ago) Permalink

Anybody like his Tibetan field recordings record? There's a night time recording of a radio conversation with an aeroplane that for some reason is my favourite thing ever.

― sleigh tracks (1933-1969) (MaresNest), Sunday, 18 March 2012 14:26 (six years ago) Permalink

two years pass...

another collab with deathprod coming up
http://www.discogs.com/Biosphere-Deathprod-Stator/release/6652491

― brimstead, Sunday, 15 February 2015 03:13 (three years ago) Permalink

I haven't listened to anything Biosphere has done since the second Fires of Ork album, has his sound changed much? Because I love most of his 90s stuff, but it's not like has a particularly wide palette, at some point it just felt I don't need anymore of the same stuff. The Fires of Ork albums are fun because he and Namlook had such a different approaches to ambient (minimal vs. all-encompassing, environmental vs. cosmic), so it's cool to hear how they mesh.

― Tuomas, Sunday, 15 February 2015 11:16 (three years ago) Permalink

His sound has changed hugely since the 90s, he's been all over the place. From jazz drumming (Dropsonde) to orchestral work (L'Incoronzaione di Poppea) to minimalist drone (Autour De La Lune).

― Siegbran, Sunday, 15 February 2015 12:05 (three years ago) Permalink

Yeah, Dropsonde is fabulous, you need to check it out, Tuomas. Cirque is also great, kind of more of a Substrata style but more "collage-y" and more beats. Both albums are totally classic and unique, imo, you've got to hear them.
Sheuzou (sp) is really immersive and hard to describe.. never got really into it but it's interesting.
What I hears from n-plants was terrible, however. Sounded like some 90s Pork productions thing.

― brimstead, Sunday, 15 February 2015 20:33 (three years ago) Permalink

And yeah, 2 years xpost but I love his Tibetan field recordings disc. Boots crushing snow, yak bells, wind... Good times.

― brimstead, Sunday, 15 February 2015 20:34 (three years ago) Permalink

ergh i meant Pork Recordings, yknow lame instrumental hip hop.

― brimstead, Sunday, 15 February 2015 20:35 (three years ago) Permalink

I love the Tibetan Field Recordings too, there's a track on there called Camp 1: Himalayan Nightflight that is really spooky and brilliant.

― MaresNest, Sunday, 15 February 2015 20:52 (three years ago) Permalink

ten months pass...

https://firesofork.bandcamp.com

I posted this to the general FAX thread, but might as well post it here too. Apparently the rights for the FAX releases have begun to revert back to the original artists, so the two Fires of Ork are now available for digital sale on Geir Jenssen's own label. You should check them out!

― Tuomas, Sunday, 10 January 2016 20:02 (two years ago) Permalink

six months pass...

New album coming next month on Smalltown Supersound

https://soundcloud.com/smalltownsupersound/biosphere-sweet-dreams-form-a-shade

― groovypanda, Monday, 1 August 2016 10:12 (two years ago) Permalink

It's very good, it is.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 1 August 2016 13:12 (two years ago) Permalink

one month passes...

https://anost.net/en/Products/Biosphere-Departed-Glories/

― djh, Thursday, 22 September 2016 20:47 (two years ago) Permalink

(I'm not actually sure that adds anything to groovypanda and ned's posts).

― djh, Thursday, 22 September 2016 20:48 (two years ago) Permalink

Welcome reminder that it's out now

― groovypanda, Friday, 23 September 2016 08:30 (two years ago) Permalink

I'd want to buy this album, but I don't get why I have to pay extra 15 euros for a 2LP+CD package, if I just want the CD? Who listens to ambient on vinyl anyway?

― Tuomas, Friday, 23 September 2016 10:38 (two years ago) Permalink

Hmm, seems that you can buy just the CD on Amazon for 10 euros... Weird that label itself doesn't offer that option.

― Tuomas, Friday, 23 September 2016 10:41 (two years ago) Permalink

two years pass...

Audax off the new one is fucking immense

― Uhura Mazda (lukas), Monday, 8 October 2018 17:15 (two months ago) Permalink

actiually "immense" wrt Biosphere likely carries the wrong connotations, let's call it, ummm ... an anthem? uhhhh

― Uhura Mazda (lukas), Monday, 8 October 2018 17:18 (two months ago) Permalink

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