Widely revered Norwegian musician Geir Jenssen, under his Biosphere alias, has been making electronica / ambient for more than 30 years. Since 1991, he’s released something like 25 studio albums, plus a handful of live and isolation sets, on labels such as Apollo, Rune Grammofon, Smalltown Supersound, Touch and since 2012 largely his own, Biophon. Biosphere’s latest, The Way Of Time, is his second for London imprint AD 93. 

The music consists of stately keys and chimes. Slow, synthetic waves, swells and strings. Gentle, repeating, soft muted sequences. Symphonic sighs that encourage introspection. Small sections of prose, lifted from a 1950’s radio reading of Elizabeth Maddox Roberts’ 1926 novel, The Time Of Man, serve as narration. The book, while concerned with the coming of age of a poor Kentucky farmer’s daughter, delicately veils much bigger questions. 

The language is simple, delivered in an American southern accent, but its poetry is dealing with something complex. On the song of the same name, the actress, Joan Lorring, asks, “What is the time of man? Is there a time of rocks?” Innocently observing our place in the universe, and the fact that once you start measuring, you render that thing it finite. Now, we can suppose is humanity’s time drawing to a close. Was it an opportunity wasted? 

The sound throughout is cinematic. On the title track, it suggests weather brewing. Like The End Of The World has its swirling loops and pizzicato patterns “dance” to a heavy, moonwalking beat. All The Stars Have Names features field recorded crickets and frogs singing in amongst its sharp, darting details. Its programmed percussion initially quietly filtered, way down low. Lifting those filters releasing a distorted thumping heartbeat-like boom. The sampled words in this case find our protagonist contemplating the size of the cosmos. Marvelling out loud about all the stuff she hasn’t seen. All the stuff she’ll never see. Not with regret, but with wonder. The album, if taken in its entirety, is actually a profound experience. Hypnotic, haunting, a little too thought provoking to be relaxing, it battles with existential sadness and seeks, instead, to celebrate the beauty, the magic and mystery, all around us. 

Biosphere’s The Way Of Time can be ordered directly from AD 93.