Patashnik

Patashnik
Original cover
Studio album by Biosphere
Released	1994
Genre	Ambient house
Length	66:04
Label	Apollo
Producer	Geir Jenssen
Professional reviews
Allmusic link
Biosphere chronology
Microgravity (1992) Patashnik (1994) Insomnia (1997)

Patashnik (1994) is an ambient house album, the second release by musician Biosphere (alias Geir Jenssen). Its track "Novelty Waves" was used for the 1995 campaign of Levi's.

Overview

According to Jenssen, the word patashnik is allegedly Russian cosmonaut slang for "a traveler"^[1] or "a goner", a cosmonaut who didn't return from a space mission because his security cable disengaged and he was lost in space.^[2][3] There seem to be no such word in contemporary Russian but such surnames exist,^[4] and it still sheds light on Jenssen's intent with the title.

Through Patashnik, Jenssen continued to explore his ambient-house stylings to an even greater extent. Patashnik contained the first hints of the reduction in beat-driven song structure that would mark later Biosphere releases. Unlike the first album, Patashnik was quickly picked up by a comparatively large international audience, which brought Biosphere greater recognition.

In 1995, Levi Strauss & Co. was searching for a new angle to add to their television advertisement campaign (which up to that point had never featured electronic music), and they decided to use the uptempo track "Novelty Waves" from Patashnik. Shortly thereafter, "Novelty Waves" was released as a single (featuring remixes by various other artists), and managed to chart in several countries. Although Jenssen never regretted his approval for use of the track, he also never sought this kind of fame and subsequently turned down various requests by his record company and peers to collaborate with well-known techno and drum 'n bass artists or to create a follow-up album in the same style.

In 2007, Patashnik was reissued by Beatservice Records with a new cover and the same contents.

Track listing

1. "Phantasm" – 4:50
2. "Startoucher" – 5:02
3. "Decryption" – 6:04
4. "Novelty Waves" – 6:27
5. "Patashnik" – 6:13
6. "Mir" – 5:18
7. "The Shield" – 8:54
8. "Seti Project" – 5:58
9. "Mestigoth" – 1:43
10. "Botanical Dimensions" – 5:43
11. "Caboose" – 5:12
12. "En-Trance" – 4:40

In addition to the eponymous track, other titles are obvious space references: the Mir space station and the SETI project.

Credits

All tracks written by Geir Jenssen, except "Botanical Dimensions" (written by Karsten Brustad, arranged and remixed by Geir Jenssen). "The Shield" was commissionned by Concerts Norway. 2007 reissue: With "Thanks to Helge Gaarder (1953–2004)"; CD photography and design by Hanne Brochmann.^[5]

Samples

As is usual in Biosphere's music, the album incorporates several known or obscure speech samples:

• Track 1: Phantasm – "We had a dream last night, we had the same dream" speech from the movie The Krays
• Track 2: Startoucher – "So, you're really into this space stuff...?" speech from the movie SpaceCamp
• Track 3: Decryption – "So frightening to lose yourself..." speech from the movie Scanners
• Track 5: Patashnik – Russian speech from the movie 2010
• Track 7: The Shield – "Will I dream?"/"What do you mean?" speech from the movie 2010
• Track 8: SETI Project – "Can you imagine, an extraterrestrial disc jockey..." speech from the movie SpaceCamp

References

• Biosphere, Patashnik, 2007 CD reissue, Beatservice Records, BS106CD
• O'Brien, M. A. 1944. New Russian-English and English-Russian Dictionary. Courier Dover Publications — P. 237: "пташ/ка s. (gpl. -шок) & -ечка s. (gpl. -чек) dim. bird."
• Pettersen, Tomas Lauvland. 25 July 2003. "De la Terre à la Lune". Music Information Centre Norway: www.mic.no (2005 Archive.org copy) — "Jenssen’s fascination for everything space continued with 1994’s Patashnik (R&S/Apollo). The title is the Russian phrase for those cosmonauts that didn’t return from their missions in space."
• Temirov, Vadim. 2 June 2004. "History of patashnika in the classical epoch". Topos magazine: www.topos.ru (2007 Archive.org copy machine-translated from Russian by Babel Fish) — "Patashnik is the Russian cosmonaut, who, after leaving in orbit, without ceremony took a step into open space, yes so it did not return - was disengaged cable."
• Thompson, Dave. 2000. Alternative Rock: The Best Musicians and Recordings. Miller Freeman Books (ISBN 0879306076) — P. 198: "[...] the next Biosphere album, 1994's Patashnik (Russian for 'the traveller')."

Notes

1. ^ Thompson 2000
2. ^ Pettersen 2003
3. ^ Temirov 2004
4. ^ The Russian -nik suffix is well known, but no word or root for "patash" is found in usual Russian dictionaries. It could derive from a misspelled or misheard word "ptashka" (пташка, a bird – cf. O'Brien 1944) or "propavshij" (пропавший, lost, missing in action); and in Ukrainian, "ptashnik" means "aviary, poultry house"[1]. Indeed, the Russian surname Пташник[2]/Ptashnik[3] and the variant Паташник[4]/Patashnik[5] abounds. However, though ptashnik/patashnik may mean "a bird-like thing, a traveler", no direct source could be located that such word was an actual slang for a "lost cosmonaut" among space-faring Russians.
5. ^ Biosphere, 2007 CD reissue.