Patashnik
album by Biosphere

Patashnik is the second album by ambient house musician Biosphere. It was originally released in 1994 by Origo Sound in Norway and by Apollo in the rest of the world. Its track "Novelty Waves" was used for a 1995 Levi's ad campaign.
Overview
According to Jenssen, the word patashnik is allegedly Russian cosmonaut slang for "a traveler" or "a goner", a cosmonaut who didn't return from a space mission because his security cable disengaged and he was lost in space. There appears to be no such word in contemporary Russian, but such surnames do exist, 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. A music video made for the track "The Shield" was often played on MTV's Chill Out Zone show.
In 1995, Levi Strauss & Co.
The public source identifies “Patashnik” as album by Biosphere. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Patashnik, album and Biosphere.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3368632. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994 and 1995.
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This entry incorporates text from “Patashnik” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.