I am a devout listener of ambient/electronic/new age music since 1987, when my first album of this genre was Steve Roach's "Dreamtime Return." I first heard Biosphere on channel 932 Comcast, Music Choice, when they played "the things I tell you" from substrata. At first, I couldn't believe what I was hearing, because I was so used to the mundane commercial tracks of mainstream artists. I tried to find this disc at my local music store, only to be disappointed that it was out of print. I found it on Amazon.com and put it in my shopping cart.

I received it today in the mail. I was like a little kid with a new train set. The pure genius of this album comes through with the first track, "As the sun kissed the horizon," where instantly I was teleported to the year 2341, or some time in the distant future. I actually felt like, finally, some music that was so far ahead of its time that I could become instantly attuned to the vibrant, melodic vibrations and flowing waveforms, and ereatheral pings that instilled the vastness of space, not unlike John Serrie's "And the stars go with you". By the time I got to track 8, "Atennaria" I forgot about the Suns/Spurs basketball game I was watching--20 minutes went by like it was ten seconds--where I reached the dark but haunting beauty of "Uva-Ursi." "Sphere of No-Form" and "Silene" have no sufficient words to describe the utter beauty and soundscape of the composition.

My album has the last track as "Silene" but the list above here has it as "Silence." Is this a typo on the production side, or does Amazon.com have it wrong and assume that it is "Silence" and not "Silene"?

There is just no way to measure the quality of this unsurpassed ambient sound recording. And it's no coincidence that my birthday is the release date. I am just so blown away by the technological proficiency of producer Geir Jenssen that I now have to bump Tangerine Dream, John Serrie and even my prior favorite Steve Roach down a notch, surpassed only by "76:14" by Dedicated. "Substrata" will probably be too hard to top, when your best work comes out first, so I will cherish it. The sheer brilliance emanating from my speakers right now is amazing to say the least.

Wow!

Granted I have just began my journey through the ambient music genre, but this was one of the first artists I checked out, and boy am I glad I did! Biosphere in general is my favorite artist in the genre of ambient/space music or whatev they call it. This album has got to be the number 1, with the only serious competition coming from "Stalker" by Robert Rich and Brian Lustmord. I usually dont write reviews and I pretty much believe the people who do are usually loner dorks, but these guys deserve it!
This is the next best thing to a real expedition to Antartica, my dream vacation to Iceland, or being rich enough to enjoy the new space tourism craze!

After listening to so many ambient artists and albums, Biosphere comes out on top with Substrata. The album captures that strange sense of being half awake and half asleep. Simply amazing.

I only got my hands on substrata today and I have to say that its fantastic. If your'e looking for a TRUE ambient masterpiece look no further. The album is silence in its most beautifull form ... haunting ... emotional ... soothing.

After listening to the album for a whole day i cannot get the music out of my head and to top it off, there is no way to sing it , or even whistle it ... its pure audio bliss ...



Its been 9 years since the first release of Substrata and it sounds perfect!

It is difficult for me to encapsulate in words the depth, the texture, the feeling and the soul of this album. Don't be put off by the genre of "ambient"-- this is certainly not music to act as a sleep aid. Instead, this is some of the most powerful and gripping soothing music. Each time I listen I unravel a new layer and interesting layer in the structures of the album-- how can I fall asleep with something this interesting?