About 'Alpha+Good'

Alpha+Good (a bad wordplay on Orwell's "double plus good" and old machismo - I'm the realest after all) is a side project that belongs to 'Onklare taal' ('Unclear' or 'Unripe language'), the umbrella of several literary projects in Dutch.

This section is almost exclusively in English and comprises my ongoing thoughts on progress, gender, politics and various other social themes. Why is this in English why everything else in Dutch? Because I want to gun for a much wider audience here. Also, my literary English isn't good enough, otherwise I would always write in English. In 2020, I released my debut novel 'Fragmentariërs' (it's written in Dutch, though who knows I may one day make an English translation).

Are you a little lost? This link will take you right back to my home page.

Monday, August 17, 2015

20 people I admire (VI): Geir Jensen

Who? Better known as Biosphere, an electronic music producer from Norway.

Why? In the deep world of ambient, Biosphere is almost an entity sui generis. Many reviewers note that the avid mountaineer and loner manages to import an Arctic, hardy sensibility into his music and it’s hard not to agree with that. His music often speaks in lingering, almost naturalistic tones of slow moving glacier ice, clear mountain streams or thin atmospheric currents. In addition, Biosphere keeps reinventing himself in his search for vast, desolate spaces: from the super-minimal sounds of outer space in ‘Autour de la lune’ to the sterile, high-tech world of nuclear technology in ‘N-Plants’, Biosphere finds the odd emotion in the absence of human business.

What resonates with me? As a busybody myself, Biosphere quenches my shadow’s thirst for being alone, undistracted and aware of being part of something far greater than myself. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that every now and then, Biosphere incorporated subtle Buddhist references in his music. In 2014, I had the honor of actually visiting Jensen's home town of Tromsø.

Best bit? It’s hard to top an album like ‘Substrata’, seen by some as one of the best ambient albums ever made. I still remember listening to the track ‘Antennaria’ for the very first time and feeling a chill descend over me, a chill that resonated with the unadulterated and quiet majesty of remote nature.

Next up: Margaret Atwood, celebrated Canadian writer.