The sinewy piano compositions of this Finnish collective, dappled with mutating electronic atmospheres and granular flecks, brim with a languid, windswept resplendence that is meditative, gently hypnotic and oftentimes completely involving. Theirs is a skewed energy, a music that relies on creating clouded visual impressions of its sonic inputs.
From the beginning, eerie, plaintive piano chords collide with helter-skelter harmonics, are torn asunder by divergent responses, or are filled out by interjections of vast reverberant chasms. Many works are thereby richly spatial; and the slightly discordant or otherwise murky electronic accents act as a cut or traumatic obstacle that, to the albums advantage, unsettles the smooth operation of its self-satisfying melancholia. A track such as ˇMetsaˇ, for one, is notable as a result of its ability to disseminate organ chords into atmospheres of swirling vapor, which rush through a slipstream of trippy surges and twittering insects.
On occasion, the group decides to get rid of these ’dark spots’ and renders their sound more fully exposed. During these sections, the previously gentle, atmospheric gambits are gradually transformed into a megaton stomp or otherwise lurching rhythm section, a move which, perhaps counter-intuitively, over constrains these pieces and all but suffocates them in the clean air. Nonetheless, for a debut effort, it no doubt shows promise, as the hazy mirages of the aforementioned moments are endlessly absorbing and fertile.
Max Schaefer
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