Customer Reviews

Polar Sequences

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Biosphere and HIA created a classic Ambient Cd, by making polar sequences. It's one long trip, one moment you're in the middle of a boring reception, the next on the edge of a melting glacier. If you like Biosphere, this CD is a must-have; if you don't, maybe Polar Sequeces will make you change your mind. And I mean chill. Difficult to find though...

"Polar sequences" is the first collaboration between to ambient powerhouses: Geir Jenssen's Biosphere and Bobby Bird's Higher Intelligence Agency. The second would be the Birmingham, Scotland orientated "Birmingham frequencies"

Biosphere is most known for its landmark album "Substrata", a true work of genious. A perfect blend of vast scapes of ambient and use of existing sounds and voices. Other work worth mentioning is the more introverted "Shenzhou", the little bit more beat orientated "Cirque" and the jazz-influnced "Dropsonde"

Also a collaboration with Deathprod ("Nordheim transformed") and Tom Opdahl ("Black smoker") are quite collectables for anyone interested in Biopshere or ambient in general.

"Polar sequences" here is an album that ranks among the best of ambient in general and of both artists in particular. It's a live performance in Oktober 1995 on a mountain in Tromsų, Norway (Jenssen's hometown), in the Artic region. In summertime, the sun shines night and day, in winter time, the darkness creeps in and seems eternaly, until the dawn of next year's summer kisses the horizon again.

Samples of the machinery of the local cable lift, snow, moving crusts of ice, and more were used. The result is as mesmerising as Biosphere landmark album "Substrata".

The last track "Meltwater" is as hypnotic as it is astonishing. Pieces of ice seem to float in icy water and produce hollow cracking sounds as the crusts scrape along side each others edges. Literaly moving and mesmerising and a true work of art.

GRATE ALBUM.

I don't really want to share my listening experience from this album, because it may influence your comprehension of what you are going to hear on this CD, by pre-defining feelings and images. Take your own journey in to soundscapes of the "land of the midnight sun"

Relax and enjoy...

I'm sure you would like to know this. This is printed on the inlay of the album:

<< In october 1995, as part of the annual polar music festival, Geir Jenssen of Biosphere and Bobby Bird of the Higher Intelligence Agency, were commissionned by nor concerts to collaborate together on a musical project to take place in Geir's home town of Tromso, Norway. The brief was for them to perform three concerts, using sounds sourced from the area as the basis of the music,- the machinery of the local mountain cable lift, the snow, the ice etc...

The performances from which this recording is taken, took place on top of a mountain above Tromso, in a cabin reached by the cable car, in which the audience were transported up the mountain in turn. >>

H-I-A and Biosphere are, as few people appear to know, excellant techno/dance groups. Their albums are mesmerizing in sound and originality. The smooth tones and mellow grooves are paving the way for a new era in the musical genre. Yet, like the live albums of any groups today, this album does suffer slightly due to the sounds of the crowd. On a normal CD by Biosphere, such as Substrata, the music goies on and on uninterupted, yet on this live album, the listener is frequetly jolted out of their relaxed state by a lone-loud cheer in the crowd. And just the racket between tracks is enough to take the cd down another star. But, it's still a great album, and H-I-A is incredible. So, if you're a fan, I would recommend this to you. It may be irritating upon first listening, but as you play it time and time again. The crowd and the harsh noises are barely audible over the whispering sounds of the Arctic.