Biosphere-Shenzhou

First off, I gotta say I love the deep WATMM love for Biosphere, and without a doubt, Substrata was a mindblowing great pallette of treacherous winter soundscapes. I listened to it on the travels to and fro work (about an hour each way) and I wanted something to drone out too as my route is particularly banal. I listened to Substrata first, and then put in Shenzhou. I remember purchasing Shenzhou at the date of release because I was basically an in love Geir fan-boy. But I never really thought anything of it. Perhaps it was because it wasn't as easily accessible, or "grand" as Substrata was, and my expectations were a bit too high.

Goddamn, I think I might be of the opinion now that Shenzhou is his best work, at the very least in conceptual terms. When I heard he was making a pastiche of Debussy influenced ambient, my first instinct was the stomach-tightening, "oh no here we go with generic pretty tinkly piano music..Harold Budd did it fine twenty years ago." But he perfected his craft on this one. It instills this weird feeling of mysticism and tribalism in me, the slow bass pulses feeling like ancestor's drums booming faintly in an imaginary background. And its dark...hoo boy is it dark. And dark in the best way. Not for shock, but for the genuine shroud of mystery woven throughout almost every track.

My two favorites are Ancient Campfire and Path Leading to the High Grass.

Here's Ancient Campfire for those that aren't familiar:

[youtubehd]dopMB2jguF8[/youtubehd]

this track right here is an inspired goddamn moment of unbridled genius. Everytime I think of it my mind weaves together this tale in movie format, a genuine story of unsolved mystery behind the nooks and crannies of old houses and forests. Ancient Campfire plays at the exact apex of the film, a tooth-grinding suspense-fest when suddenly the terrible secret of ....something? is revealed.

So many feelings encapsulated within this one song that I very rarely feel from other artists and it is so very welcome.

Path Leading to the High Grass has that same feeling: slow tribalistic rhythms on their own in a sparse void....then suddenly a high flute sounding like a shrill hunting call to the others across the plain. A slow trudge towards night, or perhaps the rhythmic transference of the hunt from generation to generation. That's another thing that I absolutely love about this album: the track titles are absolutely perfect. Path Leading to the High Grass sounds exactly like the title. The mystery of exploration, the slight anxiety about where the trail leads, and whether anyone has come back from it, etc. etc.

So anyway, maybe this post is tl;dr, but I just felt the need to try to expound on why this is now one of my top 20 ambient albums of all time. Anyone else feel the same way?

edit: found Path Leading!

[youtubehd]AAnKYaZb10I[/youtubehd]

Shenzhou is great.

But Dropsonde is the most overlooked Biosphere album. It's a masterpiece.

Not really on topic, sorry. But I just had to write it somewhere.

Dropsonde is a great album, no joke, but it seemed a little too scattered, whereas Shenzhou is such a fucking-perfect cohesive whole and concept that it makes me shit sprinkles

Dropsonde is definitely in my top 10 of favorit albums of all time. It's almost as good as Substrata I would argue. I just love almost every track on that album (except Arafura and Altostratus).

Anyway. Back to Shenzhou.

I think it's his best listen-all-the-way-through album besides Substata. My favorit tracks on the album is Spindrift, Bose-Einstein Condensation and Ancient Campfire.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

  Quote

It instills this weird feeling of mysticism and tribalism in me, the slow bass pulses feeling like ancestor's drums booming faintly in an imaginary background. And its dark...hoo boy is it dark. And dark in the best way. Not for shock, but for the genuine shroud of mystery woven throughout almost every track.

This is a good way of puting it. I can't think of any album that plumbs the same sort of deep wonder that Shenzhou does.

I think it was my first Biosphere album after I read that some mediocre black metal solo artist was heavily into his music, it all made so much sense (the only ambient I knew then was Aphex - SAW II). Actually I first heard the unreleased track "Bevegende Rytmer", which I think fits pretty good in the Shenzhou style. That track made such an impact on my "young" self (I was 15).

But Shenzhou is definitely my favorite Biosphere record, I had it on repeat for pretty much every time I played Diablo 2, especially the combination of Shenzhou and Act 3 are things that are forever connected for me, both so nostalgic! I rarely play it, mostly deep in the night on hot summer days, but when I do it's one hell of a dark trip.

Good thread. It seems like pretty much all of his post-Substrata albums have gone kinda unnoticed on various forums and what not, with the exception of N-Plants. Not sure why. Even Autour De La Lune has some great tracks.

Anyways, I think at this point Shenzhou could be my favorite Biosphere album as well, maybe tied with Cirque. Overall I think it sounds like taking a submersible down to the ocean deep. The album cover says it all I guess. Beyond what he did with the samples, the loops he picked are choice; Green Reflections is money. And I agree with Smettingham that it's his most cohesive album, though Cirque does have this cool narrative quality to it (if you connect what the album is inspired by with how it progresses).

My only complaint with the album is that it's reallly, really quiet. It's pretty much only playable in headphones, and I still have to turn it up a fair amount. Using speakers/monitors is a lost cause imo.

I play Dropsonde a surprisingly huge amount of times. Those jazzy ambient tracks In Triple Time and Fall in Fall Out always get me relaxed and focused on something, and simultaneously with feet out of this world.

Shenzhou is a wonderful marriage between electronic ambient and classical music.

Microgravity and Patashnik are pretty good artic ambient techno records which are essential for me.

Biosphere is definitely one of my favorite and most played musicians.

  On 2/17/2012 at 12:43 AM, Tauhid said:

My only complaint with the album is that it's reallly, really quiet. It's pretty much only playable in headphones, and I still have to turn it up a fair amount. Using speakers/monitors is a lost cause imo.

I dunno, I play it in my car on the work drive and it came through pretty clear....i have noticed this particular vehicle has a very odd soundsystem...so you are probably right.

So glad Im not the only one with love for Shenzhou.

Also, in addition to my OP, when I said the album was dark, its like the darkness in front of you in a cave, not necessarily TERROR FROM THE DARKEST OF EVILS dark. On the way back from one of my classes I couldn't help but imagine Plato's Cave allegory playing out to Ancient Campfire.

This thread made me listen to Substrata again, and realize how much I love it. I've never listened to anything else by Biosphere other than Substrata, so I'm going to go get Shenzhou sometime soon and come back to this thread with my reaction.

Don't forget to listen to Cirque, Capsie. This one is essential and superior to Substrata too.

I've just realised that I bought this album years ago and listened to it only once and was in a foul mood. Time to reacquaint myself with it this weekend I think.....

  On 2/17/2012 at 5:45 PM, Enter a new display name said:

Don't forget to listen to Cirque, Capsie. This one is essential and superior to Substrata too.

Also listen to Man With A Movie Camera, Insomniac, Dropsonde, Polar Sequences, and Nordheim Transformed!

All of Biosphere's catalogue is top notch and Substrata, while a great album, gets too much attention.

This thread inspired me to listen to the album again. And I must say it's whole lot better than I remembered it. Not that I thought it was bad before, but it has gone from great to awesome for me now.

I'm always amazed by how consistent Biosphere is in his material. I even enjoy the early ambient techno stuff. But for some reason Autour De La Lune is my favorite of his.

  On 2/18/2012 at 12:28 AM, zkreso said:

I'm always amazed by how consistent Biosphere is in his material. I even enjoy the early ambient techno stuff. But for some reason Autour De La Lune is my favorite of his.

Translation is killer.

  On 2/17/2012 at 11:57 PM, Npoess said:

This thread inspired me to listen to the album again. And I must say it's whole lot better than I remembered it. Not that I thought it was bad before, but it has gone from great to awesome for me now.

im so happy people are digging and relistening to this....that was the entire purpose of this thread!!! goddamn this album is amazing....still listening to it twice over 3 times a week.....

if anyone really digs on the "ancestral call" feel from Shenzhou...I highly recommend Steve Roach's "Early Man"....only other ambient record Ive ever heard that conveyed a similar feeling...and that album is fucking massive and amazing in its own right.

Finally, some Shenzhou love.

Yes, I love this album as well. Can't express how much I love it.

I was surpised when I first listened to Debussy's La Mer years ago. Incidently, they were the recordings that Biosphere sampled from. At the time, I did not know 10 of the 12 tracks were based on Debussy's orchestral works (... gotta read album info more carefully), so I was very surprised to hear those familiar bits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66hX8Ms0FwE

You can spot some between 0.00-0.30, and 3.08-3.22

I remember finding more in the third movement, and other works, but I forgot which ones.

I'm just amazed how he can spot this litte thing, loop it, and create this completely different, amazing atmosphere. That's what I love about Biosphere so much. He can make these perfect atmospheres that completely makes sense to me. Perfect in every way. Even on his old albums. Only album I didn't feel that was N-plants, but I haven't listened to that much yet.

What I also love about Biosphere albums (particulairly Substrata and Shenzhou) is how they remind me of nature. I just love how these nearly all-electronic songs can give you this cold, sunsetting, foresty feel.

Also, my favourite of Shenzhou must be Gravity Assist. Fuck, I would do anything for him if he makes an entire album like that track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLFBGGK2QsI

  On 2/18/2012 at 12:28 AM, zkreso said:

I'm always amazed by how consistent Biosphere is in his material. I even enjoy the early ambient techno stuff. But for some reason Autour De La Lune is my favorite of his.

autour is soooo austere I love it to death.

Everyone always talks up the orb and others as "spacey" and "out of this world." Sure they do a fantastic job of making a pastiche of space cultural stereotypes, but Autour always felt like what space would ACTUALLY be like. Cold, lonely, barely audible one moment, ear shatteringly loud and low the next. Amazing!

just biking in to say that dropsonde is indeed a masterpiece. it's the most jazz inflected/influenced (probably because of all the particular drum samples used) and i really like it for that.

i'm just listening to shenzhou for the first time and i can see what you guys mean here too.

  On 2/16/2012 at 8:53 PM, Npoess said:

Shenzhou is great.

 

But Dropsonde is the most overlooked Biosphere album. It's a masterpiece.

 

Not really on topic, sorry. But I just had to write it somewhere.

Completely agree. I love Substrata, but Dropsonde is probably my favorite, don't think it gets enough credit. I definitely like the drums and rhythm more than Substrata.

Geir rules. warrior poet from the far north, Tromso, and this is his best work by far, imo.

the debussy transformations are subtle and totally engrossing.

he got back into mountaineering around this time afaik. i explored his stomping grounds last year and i think i could see where he is coming from.

well, i could write a whole lot more on this but not now.

(btw, those "stomping grounds" were the Lyngen Alps)

I've looked through most of those. Awesome stuff. His account of the Cho-Oyu trip is especially fascinating, and the pictures are great.

Also, I read through this interview again and apparently he finished Shenzhou in two weeks:

http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/interviews/biosphereiw.htm

"Shenzhou was based around the work of Claude Debussy. What started the project, and how did you work on it? Did you have to follow a different process than usual?

Yes, Shenzhou started with a loop. I bought Debussy’s Complete Orchestral Works looking for orchestral samples. The first loop became the first track, the second loop became the second track, etc… and the whole project was finished in just two weeks. A very simple approach: one track consists of just one loop plus effects."