05'00

HIA / BIOSPHERE Polar Sequences (RBAD17) Beyond 1997 06 Tracks. 57mins26secs.

HIA / BIOSPHERE Birmingham Frequencies (H002) Headphone 1999 07 Tracks. 48mins20secs.

Polar Sequences and Birmingham Frequencies are two parts of a same project. Polar Sequences, released in 1997, was recorded two years earlier, during Tromso’s Polar Music Festival. Tromso, hometown of Biosphere’s Geir Jenssen, is situated 70 degrees north, above the Arctic Circle, in Norway. In 1995, the organisers of the festival commissioned Geir Jenssen and Higher Intelligence Agency’s Bobby Bird, a series of three concerts, using environmental sounds recorded in the area. The concerts were given on top of a mountain, where the audience was brought to in turn by cable car. The second part of this project was put together by Bird and Jenssen, using a similar approach, this time set in Bobby Bird’s native Birmingham. The chosen venue was on the 12th floor of the Rotunda, situated in the heart of the city. The one off event also featured videos and digital images, as well as a café and one of the best views over Birmingham. The music created for the two events is very similar in form, the two artists creating a slow moving, chilled soundtrack. But where Polar Sequences feels very natural, using sounds of snow and melting ice, the only human interaction being the cable car, Birmingham Frequencies is definitely more urban. Voices of children playing in a park or a pelican crossing alarm are amongst the sounds used as the basis for the creation. These two records are complementary, and Jenssen and Bird both bring their own creativity and technology to a very interesting project. Absolutely unmissable. Polar Sequencies Birmingham Frequencies

TRACK LISTING - Polar Sequences 01 Cimmerian Shaft 04 Countdown To Darkness 02 Snapshot Survey 05 Corona 03 White Lightning 06 Meltwater TRACK LISTING - Birmingham Frequencies 01 Cannon Hill 05 Augusta Road 02 Gas Street Basin 06 Daddylonlegs 03 Narrowboat 07 Midpoint 04 The Rotunda

RELATED REVIEWS V/A - Arctic Circles 2

BIOSPHERE DISCOGRAPHY   MICROGRAVITY R&S Records 1993 Microgravity  Baby Satellite  Tranquillizer  Fairy Tale  Cloudwalker II  Chromosphere  Cygnus-A  Baby Interphase  Biosphere   PATASHNIK R&S Records 1994 Phantasm  Startoucher  Decryption  Novelty Waves  Patashnik  Mir  Shield  Seti Project  Mestigoth  Botanical Dimensions  Caboose  En-Trance   SUBSTRATA All Saints Records 1997 As The Sunn Kissed The Horizon Poa Alpina Chukhung The Things I Tell You Times When I Know You'll Be Sad Hyperborea Kobresia Antennaria Uva-Ursi Sphere Of No-Form Silene   BIOSYSTEMS THE BIOSPHERE REMIXES Beatservice 1999 Nicolette No Government In The Biosphere Alania L'Eglise (Deuxieme Partie) Biosphere Trekking Mix Download Attalal Remixed By Biosphere Illumination Hope To God Biosphere Remix Front Line Assembly Circuity Rmx By Biosphere Motion Control Digits 3 Biosphere's Astragalus Remix Mind over Midi It's Gonna Be Alright Biosphere's Angulaq Remix James She's A Star Andrea's Biosphere Mix

HIGHER INTELLIGENCE AGENCY DISCOGRAPHY   COLOURFORM Beyond Records 1993 Spectral Delta Speedlearn Empathy Mix Influx Conoid Tone Orange M+T=E Re-Echo Ketamine Entity Axiom Mix   FREE FLOATER Beyond Records 1995 Elapse Hubble Fleagle Thirteen Skank Tortoise Ting Pinkgreen U.H.I. Taz   DEEP SPACE NETWORK MEETS HIA Source Records 1996 Psyphonic Hexametre P.A.K. E-Z Wider Under Water Looking Up Zener Diode Ramp One Chai Balkonur Majoun T. Mat   S.H.A.D.O 2  [With Pete Namlock] Fax Records 1999 Intruder Detector Secret Location Space Interceptors Skydiver Maintaining Scan For UFO's

BIOSPHERE/HIA DISCOGRAPHY   POLAR SEQUENCES Beyond Records 1997 Cimmerian Shaft Snapshot Survey White Lightning Countdown To Darkness Corona Meltwater   BIRMINGHAM FREQUENCIES Headphone 1999 Cannon Hill Gas Street Basin Narrowboat The Rotunda Augusta Road Daddylonlegs Midpoint