Biosphere

Most Biosphere fans know that You started out with Bel Canto, but was this really Your first project ever or had there been any earlier ones?

Geir: No Bel Canto was my first project and first record release. You know Bel Canto? Is it known in Estonia?

It’s not in the masses but in some scenes probably people who know Biosphere know also Bel Canto.But at the Bel Canto times who were Your main influences musically or non musically or first ever favorites.

Geir: Brian Eno, John Hassel, Harold Budd; You know the ambient music from the 80`s, and Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, 4AD and so on but also Detroit and German techno music. Non-musically films, books, life itself, everything.

You’ve used quite a lot of movie samples in Your music. What are Your classic and recent favorites in movies?

Geir: I’ve stopped sampling from films but I used to do that. A lot from „2010“and mostly lots of films from the 80’s. Recently I saw „Pirates of the Caribbean“and it was very bad. But I’ve been watching a lot of French and Spanish films from the 60`s and 70`s.

Also David Lynch films perhaps?

Geir: Of course. I’ve been sampling from „Twin Peaks“ on „Substrata“. What’s the sample...“I have to tell You something. The things I tell You will not be wrong. “That is a tall guy in Twin Peaks. This place* actually reminds me of the hotel in Twin Peaks.

Did You Leave Bel Canto because You didn’t want individuality and perhaps perfectionism dissolve in a collective. Or were there other reasons?

Geir: There were several reasons. There are too many compromises when You play in a band. You always have to discuss everything and it’s quite hard if You want to rehearse then You have to make phone calls and people don’t have time. The other problem was that they moved to Oslo and I wanted to stay in Tromso** which in 2000 km from Oslo. And it was also more fun when I brought the sampler along. It was more fun alone because it was so easy.

After the birth of Biosphere, You reached a wider audience. Biosphere was played on TV, on big shot company commercials and so on. Did You reach out or were You reached out to?

Geir: No people were asking me if they could use my music. I didn’t do anything to get these deals.

So R&S Records was doing good promotional work for You this time?

Geir: Yes. I also heard they are back in business. They will start again „Second Mission“is the subtitle on the label now.

Another movie question. Now about „Insomnia“ and the remaking of it in Hollywood.

Geir: Yes... I’ve seen it but I really didn’t like it at all.

How did You come up with the idea of making Your own soundtrack version for „Man With the Movie Camera“?

Geir: Actually I was asked by the Tromso International Film Festival in 1996 to make the music for this movie.

How do You feel about the previous Cinematic Orchestra soundtrack?

Geir: I’ve heard only one track and it was all right but I think ours is better in a way because we were trying to make sounds that fitted the sound with the image but they were just playing tracks. I don’t see the connection.

And You just released a double album with „Substrata“?

Geir: We have some plans we might release it on DVD. It’s not copyrighted.

When people hear Biosphere they know it’s Biosphere. It’s easily describable as unique. But have you ever heard anything the reminds You of Your own music?

Geir: Yes well I get a lot of demos from Russian artists because they think I would like to release their stuff. They are trying to make music like mine, to copy my style so I don’t see the point in releasing something like that. No, I can`t mention any other artist who makes the same kind of music. Only maybe Atom Heart, a German guy who has maybe made some albums that have the same atmosphere but nothing too specific.

You’ve also done remixes for industrial artists like Front Line Assembly, Download etc, given interviews for magazines like Side-Line and so on. What exactly is Your relationship with this so called „Dark electronic“scene and music?

Geir: A long time ago. I was listening to Test Department, Cabaret Voltaire, SPK, DAF (Deutsch-Amerikanischen Freundscaft), Einstürzende Neubauten and so on in the early 80`s. I had everything. But I can’t listen to it anymore. It has dated in a way. It feels like it’s old fashioned. The 80`s.

So it was more like a period. But it’s coming back very strong these days. You know the Cold meat Industry Record label (Raison d`Étre et.c)?

Geir: I like the band The Knife, the Swedish band too that did some tracks with Röyksopp. Their last album is my favorite album at the moment, I like it very much.

The „Shenzhou“album in a way is like a bow to Debussy. Why this composer over all others?

Geir: No actually I was away from the studio and I had my girlfriends’ computer with me with one simple program I was playing with some samples, making loops and so on .I just sampled Debussy for fun and heard that this quite good, I made like 15 tracks in maybe 5 days. Very fast work with one program and one sample.

Do You know how classical music experts and fans have reacted to this album?

Geir: No not really. Some tracks have been played on a BBC Classic Radio Station in England or something But I don’t regard to it as classical myself, it’s still more like electronic music.

Can You in some way be called a patriot of Norway? I mean the influences You get from the place You live in. The crystal purity of Your surroundings reflect, we find, in Your music. Not really the specific country then.

Geir: No definitely not a patriot. Surroundings influence me I guess subconsciously. I lived one year in Brussels in the late 80`s and made some more industrial music because I was going to bars where they played only industrial music. It has to do with the environment still. And I don’t think people would have said that that it describes New Zealand..

Are all Your albums equally dear to You or is there a secret and personal best and worst?

Geir: It’s very hard to tell because after I finish an album I don’t listen to it too often anymore. I just start working on a new one. It just belongs to the past.

Everything comes out as it had to come out right. It seems You don’t do too many lives/concerts. How do You pick out the places to whom You say yes to?

Geir: I mainly get these nice offers to play in different places. Like this here in Leigo to what I cant say no to. But I play 1-2 times a month and I think actually that’s quite a lot because it’s a lot of traveling.

So it was the Leigo atmosphere that lured You to Estonia?

Geir: Well I didn’t know too much about the place but my agent said that this was a really nice festival and I trusted him and he was right.

We’re all very glad that You did.

*The interview takes place in the cozy cottage house in Leigo
**400 miles north of the Arctic Circle