Born in Oslo in 1972, Espen Sommer Eide works under the Phonophani moniker. Norwegian digital expert Phonophani has declared that “the future artist will be a genetic engineer.” The same year fertility specialists Panayiotis Zavos and Severino Antinori forecast the arrival of the world’s first cloned baby, Phonophani issued his debut UK album. Drawn to the implications of gene manipulation, he draws a parallel between widespread resistance to genetic engineering and the suspicion often directed at sample-based music. The musician, who earned a Masters Degree in Philosophy, maintains that “sampling is a form of gene manipulation where you arrange and re-arrange sound parts from your own playing and the works of others to create new organisms of sound.” In his view, the act of lifting and disguising source material itself constitutes an artistic gesture. Phonophani aims to imbue his atmospheric modern-ambient compositions with an intensely emotional charge that can “overshadow the synthetic nature of the constructions.” His self-titled first album appeared on the Biophon label established by Biosphere’s Geir Jenssen. Sommer Eide also collaborates with Dag-Are Haugan in the duo Alog.
