Biosphere's Geir Jenssen hails from Tromso, Norway, a city 500 miles above the Arctic Circle. A founding member of quasi-new age Norwegian trio Bel Canto, Jenssen recorded a pair of albums with that group for the Belgian Crammed label before departing to record solo, first as Bleep, then as Biosphere. He released a number of Bleep singles through the late '90s on Crammed subsidiary SSR, as well as the full-length "The North Pole by Submarine", issued in 1990 and an acknowledged precursor of what became known as ambient techno. Fusing elements of composition derived from environmental experimentalists such as Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, and Walter Carlos with the rhythmic backbone of urban dance styles such as techno and acid house.
Jenssen's first material under that name, the full-length Microgravity, appeared in 1991 on the Norwegian Origo Sound label, and was picked up for international release by R&S subsidiary Apollo the following year. In 1993, in addition to a score for the Norwegian film Evige Stjerner ("Eternal Stars") and work for a multimedia installation, Jenssen collaborated with German ambient composer Pete Namlook on the Fax release "The Fires of Ork", reissued the following year by Apollo. Jenssen returned to Biosphere in 1994 with a second full-length, "Patashnik", and a subsequent live tour, the success of which landed one of Jenssen's tracks ("Novelty Waves") in a Levi's commercial. In 1995, Jenssen collaborated with Higher Intelligence Agency's Bobby Bird, performing the live improvisational piece "Polar Frequencies," released by Apollo in 1996. The Biosphere releases "Substrata" and "Insomnia" followed in 1997;
In the year 2000, Biosphere arrives at Cirque were his music keeps getting further and further away from Techno and the mutation is finally beyond recognition.
Carefully crafted throughout the last years, in between scattered commissions and collaborations, Cirque is what Geir describes as his playground, the territory where he has dictated his own rules and created his own visions without any form of outside pressure or compromise.
In 2001, he received the Norwegian Grammy for the album “Cirque“. Commissioned by Radio France, his latest work," Autour de la Lune", is an adaptation of a radio play based on Jules Vernes’ novel „De la Terre à la Lune“. With its combination of natural sounds, field recordings, electronic soundscapes and deep, meandering bass-drones, Biosphere frequently evokes associations with landscape imagery.
"The mercurial widescreen sonic cinematic syntax of Biosphere & Egbert Mittelstädt has graced the CineChamber screens for many seasons now after their live milestone residencies in 2007. Their timeless program that remains is a signature memory capsule that introduces RML's surround canvas in the most spatially sublime sector of the Recombinant archives." (RML)
> www.biosphere.no
Appearances:
› CTM.11 › CINECHAMBER MODULE 3
> CTM.05
