Biosphere - Wireless - Live At The Arnolfini Bristol

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First ever live CD from hugely influential Norwegian master of ambient, Biosphere, recorded live at The Arnolfini, Bristol, 27th October 2007.

This concert was part of Touch 25 Live, which also featured a performance of Storm [by Chris Watson & BJ Nilsen]. Biosphere is Norwegian composer and performer Geir Jenssen, and this is his sixth release for Touch. In the early 1990s he was a pioneer of so-called "ambient techno," but since then, he has refined his sound into something more magnetic and enduring.

His last album, Dropsonde, wasn't a soundtrack like the interwoven Substrata, nor an episodic journey in the way that Autour de la Lune is. It pushed new directions towards the jazz colors of Miles Davis and Jon Hassell, while re-invigorating the pulse and projection of his signature sound: a hypnotic combination of pleasure and dread. Here Geir Jenssen takes this further, incorporating samples of field recordings by Jony Easterby and trumpet by Anders Karlskas, invoking a sparser, more arresting sound. A landmark release for Biosphere, his first live album, heralding new beginnings without jettisoning the past.

5...according to futurestar.

Using a track or two off all his previous Touch Music label albums except Antour de la Lune, Geir Jenssen opens and closes set with new material - Pneuma. In doing so he crosses a threshold unprecedented nor heard in his music before. Label mates Chris Watson assist with the live recording and B J Nilsen ably handles mixing and mastering. This is not a mishmash of 'best of' but a calculated and strategical vault into the other reaches. One step beyond for all mankind proves to be a work of beauty and awe.

Rating: 5 out of 5

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