Dropsonde

Dropsonde

Track Listings

1. Birds Fly by Flapping Their Wings

2. Fall in, Fall Out

3. Daphnis 26

4. Altostratus

5. Sherbrooke

6. In the Shape of a Flute

Tracks:

Dissolving Clouds
Birds Bly by Flapping Their Wings
Warmed by the Drift
In Triple Time
From a Solid to a Liquid
Arafura
Fall in, Fall Out
Daphnis 26
Altostratus
Sherbrooke
People Are Friends

Album Description

Biosphere is Norwegian composer Geir Jenssen and this is his fifth release for Touch. He is considered a pioneer of ambient techno, but unlike previous releases, this album has more of a jazz feel - the jazz of Miles Davis or Jon Hassell. A hypnotic combination of pleasure and dread. Touch. 2005.

Customer Reviews:

still going strong.......2007-06-11

Although not as ground breaking as their previous works, this album is still eons ahead of its competition. The track 'Warmed by the Drift' is an absolute gem, i can't stop listening to it.

JAMES KNAPMAN's igloomag.com REVIEW ::.......2006-08-19

JAMES KNAPMAN's igloomag.com REVIEW ::

(08.18.06) Subject to a confused and confusing release pattern, the new full length release by Biosphere arrived not a moment too soon, only to prove a crushing disappointment. Originally released in the latter half of 2005 as a six track mini LP, the CD version didn't emerge until February 2006. It expanded the album to eleven tracks and excluded "In the Shape of a Flute" that remains exclusive to the LP version. One can only guess why it should be released in this haphazard fashion, but it has done the album no favors at all.

All of this apparent randomness wouldn't be so bad if the material here was really top notch but sadly it's patchy and mediocre. The LP release is disappointing, the CD doubly so since it demands more than twice the amount of your time and delivers little extra. It would be churlish to expect more of the same from a new Biosphere album, especially since Jenssen has already delivered several releases that have been quite deliberately different from his previous, arctic works. On this occasion he has elected to throw a jazz twist into his ambient soundscapes, but this manifests itself as little more than simple jazz riffs or drums looped over field recordings for about six and a half minutes at a time. Obviously the jazz elements have been constructed in this way in order to tailor them to suite Biosphere's now trademark looped ambient/drone style, but it painfully misses the point of jazz music in the first place: there's no spirit of improvisation, no emotion, no soul and to add insult to injury, there's scant little atmosphere in many of the pieces.

Dropsonde kicks off promisingly enough, the hissing of "Dissolving Clouds" acting as a backdrop to gentle and discreet electronic chimes before giving way to "Birds Fly By Flapping Their Wings," one of the few tracks that possesses a sufficient level of atmosphere and depth to maintain interest and enjoyment for its entire duration. The looped sound of whistling winds is combined with dusty, smoky hi-hat drum arrangements, gentle pulsing synths and wowing, nervous pads. But it's mostly downhill from here: "Warmed by the Drift" sounds exactly like Geogaddi era Boards of Canada, but lacks the same spirit of nostalgia, and it lingers for too long; "In Triple Time" sounds like a Cirque cast-off, and doesn't seem to quite fit the album; "From a Solid to a Liquid" and "Arafura" seem to be designed to test the patience - the former containing more hissing undertones and chiming synths, the latter consisting of a muddy and listless looped melody that drags on and on and on over a warm and rich backdrop of washes; and "Fall in Fall Out" is a spectral mass of vinyl crackle, baton-twirling percussion and yet more chiming, which is apparently supposed to engage the listener for over seven minutes.

"Sherbrooke," on the other hand, is a wonderfully fresh, breezy mix of error-ridden ambient whirls and jammed, distorted hi-hat loops. The closing piece - the ten minute "People Are Friends" - is frustrating: a stunningly atmospheric background drone (that is subsequently joined by cut up spoken word samples) is almost spoiled by the inclusion of a rather whiney and monotonous synth part that meanders randomly, and then the piece abruptly cuts off, ending the album.

There are some genuinely exquisite pieces on Dropsonde, "Sherbrooke" and "Birds Fly by Flapping Their Wings" included, but they are crushed under the weight of an obese collection of bores that represent the product of an artist who no longer seems able to edit himself ruthlessly enough to create a truly engaging whole.

< < igloomag.com >>

How to outlive your own talent?.......2006-06-26

Biosphere's Geir Jenssen didn't make it very easy on himself. With his groundbreaking album "Substrata", the perfect ode to the Northern ice landscape, he created the ultimate ambient record. So what to do next?

For "Cirque" (2000) Jenssen went back a little in time, in the years that he made ambient records with a lot of beat and rhythm. (Namely "Patashnik" and "Microgravity"). Jenssen combined the soundscapes and sampled voices from "Substrata" with the "beats, percussions and rhythms from the past".
The result is difficult to describe. It isn't magic time as it was with "Substrata", that's for sure, but it stil is Biosphere, and that does guarantee us a certain quality.
One could perhaps say that beceause of this blend of rhythm and vast ambient scapes, it's a little more accessible than "Substrata".
Maybe "Cirque" is just "Biosphere for beginners".

Biosphere's next project was "Shenzhou" (2002), which excelled in the lack of rhythms and experimental sound samples. Jenssen's music was here even more introverted than before, almost creating a soundtrack to the vast expanse of the universe.
As eerie as it is beautiful, this album seems to be nihilistic in its output but is in fact multi-layered to people with a keen ear for detail.
At least one could say about "Cirque" and "Shenzhou" is that Biosphere didn't really try to repeat the unrepeatable by making a second "Substrata". These two albums are more rather moodful variations on his talent.

The real disappointment was "Au tour de la lune", a record that almost literaly didn't stand on solide gorund. No surprises, no reprises, too nihilistic, too much air, too much of nothing really. An "ode to the empty void" more likely, and an album quickly to forget.

Between all solo acts, Biosphere succesfully collaborated with other acts like Deathprod (resulting in the quiet "Nordheim transfromed"), Tom Opdhal (Jenssen was producer of his album "Black smoker") and Higher Intelligence Agency (resulting in the awesome dubble bill "Polar Sequences" and "Birmingham Frequencies")

But now, in 2006, Biosphere is back on his own with "Dropsonde".
Fans were still excited. Would Biosphere strike back hard and come back with another unequalled album? What kind of variation on his "Songs of the Northern Iceworld" would he bring us now?
Well, fans and enemies were surprised when information leaked out, stating that jazz was to be Geir Jenssen's main source of inspiration.

Soft, fluid ambient sounds start to stream out of our stereo equipment as soon as we start the record. There is a buzzing, fuzzing back ground noise. Almost liquid bell tones follow. Then cymbal-like percussion joins in. Tempo alters. Mood sets in. And the listener slowly starts to realize that maybe, just maybe, he is hearing the first two, three tracks of the Biosphere album that can come very close to the classic "Substrata".
And when we hear water flowing through track 5, another reminiscence to "Substrata", we know that Biosphere is more alive than ever.

And the only question remains: what will this guy come up next with? But it is an exciting question we have often asked ourselves when it came to Geir Jenssen.
And most answers were more than great.

Biosphere goes Jazz.......2006-02-22

So it's the latest effort of Geir Jensen. Totally different from he's last Album " Autour De La Lune " which was REALLY minimalistic drone based album. On dropsonde ( EP ) Geir uses jazzy old sounding beats and lovely soft melodies. Once again he change's he's style and that's what i like about him.. If you are a biosphere fan, you got to check out this ! if you are new to biosphere, try first " Substrata " or Shenzhou "

Average customer rating:

Dropsonde
Biosphere
Manufacturer: Touch UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
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Autour de la Lune

ASIN: B000CMNJS6
Release Date: 2006-02-21

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