Higher Intelligence Agency* | Biosphere - Polar Sequences

This is less ambient music but space music, indeed. Very driving yet sober and clean like a deep space/sea trip. The filter work is fantastic and comes to real life on a good speaker system (I own a pair of Tannoy 638 guided by a straight-ahead NAD amp). I have no idea whether the guys used analogue machines but this sounds fresh as a new production and is so comfortably wise in a synchronous way. Very good album.

This is a live recording from the 1995 Polar Music Festival, in Tromø Geir Jenssen's hometown. Recorded on the top of a mountain above the town, the music uses only samples sourced locally - people speaking at the festival, the cable car which brought people to the performance, the melting snow and ice, et cetera.

The result is a stunningly accomplished and balanced piece, musically, technically, emotionally. It bridges uplifting, glacial sounds with a dark moodiness without ever becoming tired and clichéd, neither natural nor electronic, but somewhere out on its own. An absolute essential for all ambient heads and discerning listeners out there.

Limited to 5000. This is one of my favourite ambient albums of all time, I love the fact that they've taken sounds from their natural surroundings to make a lot of the tracks. An incredible album.