Audiopile Review: There was a lot of distinctly fluffy ambient music in the 1990s. But Geir Jenssen (aka Biosphere) and Pete Namlook were always at the moody, uncompromising end of the scene. Heck, if you’d heard the name ‘Fires of Ork’ back in 1993, you might have assumed it was a black metal album, especially if you knew a Norwegian was involved. Certainly, ‘The Fires of Ork’ has more cinematic drama and tension than much of the era’s ambient music. It also has a lot of rhythmic momentum. This is very specifically ambient TECHNO, to a large extent. And that driving, kinetic aspect only adds to the album’s overall vibe of widescreen menace. That’s not to say it’s lacking in long, languid stretches of beatless ambiance, because there is plenty of that too. There’s a sense of narrative and pacing here which means that, taken as a whole, ‘The Fires of Ork’ is like a road movie for the mind (not to mention the ears). Only, the road is, like, in the sky, man. In any case, it’s quite the trip. What else would you expect from a collab between two top-tier ambient auteurs?

The Fires of Ork compiles two albums Namlook made in collaboration with another intrepid explorer of space music, Biosphere’s Geir Jenssen. For those familiar with the more austere minimalism of later Biosphere albums, this one might at first be startling. It hews close to the sample-based sounds of the early ‘90s, with snippets of voices taken from curious source material: Blade Runner, an old KLF Communications press release, and even Nietzsche. But these sprawling, dark ambient washes also build up to banging ambient techno—some of the finest in either man’s catalog.