Biosphere

Geir Jenssen, the Norwegian ambient producer who has been working the genre since the mid-’80s and operating as Biosphere since the early ’90s, can these days take solace in the notion that his substantial body of work played a significant role in propping up the quiet decade or so between mid-’80s Brian Eno and the mid-’90s digital renaissance of the chill out room. If we are grateful to Jenssen for anything, it is his fusion of subtle techno textures with the ambient realm. And although not all of his outings have aged that well, the venerable Touch label has begun to reissue some of the more seminal Biosphere releases. And so the impressive Cirque, the fifth Biosphere album and his first for Touch, returns seven years after its original release pretty much in tact. The track listing remains the same, although Jon Wozencraft has provided new photography for the packaging. It’s a lush, deep and haunting album. Coinciding with the reissue, Touch sub-label Ash International has issued Jenssen’s project of Tibetan field recordings. Immaculately packaged, Cho Oyn 8201m shows off Jenssen’s current interest in the more organic texture of found sound and a more progressive inclination towards digital arrangement. Some two decades on, Geir Jenssen is still finding ways to stay ahead of the curve.