|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
FR 069CD
|
This is the first release from Finland's Kemialliset Ystävät since 2007. Kemialliset Ystävät equals Jan Anderzén. He is one of the few Finnish musicians to have achieved renown in the international experimental circuit. In the case of Anderzén -- who also plies a trade as a visual artist -- this is not a matter of juxtaposition between experimental and mainstream, or a calculated career choice. Using music and images, he is busy creating a world that is a law unto itself, a world of exceptional freedom and beauty. Earlier KY albums have been peppered with contributions by individuals such as Islaja, the members of Avarus and Sami Sänpäkkilä. It is not easy to distinguish who plays what on Kemialliset Ystävät recordings. Rather than a side project consisting of solo parts, the band is an ecosystem within Anderzén's reality. One of the essential techniques applied by Anderzén is collage, in sound as well as image. He is no conventional instrumental virtuoso; his music is created with a fluctuating array of instruments and equipment. The focus is less on instrumental prowess and more on the overall sound and impression as well as the tension between the various materials. As a manipulator of these elements, Anderzén is in a league of his own. His sampler-based solo performances as Tomutonttu have left no doubt about that. A close listening of Anderzén's music reveals its near-architectonic precision. He is known for an exceptionally painstaking approach to creating his music. All this hard work is readily evident in the finished product, not as an accentuated complexity but rather as a clear, independent vision. Kemialliset Ystävät is like a natural phenomenon. It is difficult to imagine anyone having consciously constructed it, such is the ease with which it presents itself to us. To be in the presence of Anderzén's work is captivating in the same way, simple yet inexplicable, as it is to stare into fire. It truly takes a master to create such an experience, but listening to this Kemialliset Ystävät album evokes just that: a feeling of lightness.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
FR 050CD
|
This is the fourth full-length album by Kemialliset Ystävät on the Fonal label, originally released in 2007. Pulsating, radiant and turbo-charged, this music shares the groove of a junk pile AND a wild foal. It comes with the lovely smell of the chemical they spray on apple trees. It's a highly ambitious effort originally planned to become a defiant message in a bottle, limited edition of one, addressed to the Man. Kemialliset Ystävät has been rocking out for some time now and there is no end in sight. Without all the experiments of the past, this record would not exist, and there's still plenty of fresh perspective in the mix, too. Listen to Roope drum his belly, Laura play tambura and Jaakko go berserk on a Chinese flute. Lots of energy went into the mixing: a million voices from friends are twisted into one hypnotic, over-the-top sound textile that vibrates and grows in every direction, resembling a living organism, a merry beast. Give it a hug and you will gain power -- it is like shooting up echinacea. Wrap it around you and tune in to the blizzard. Sit down and blast as loud as possible.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
FR 021CD
|
Reissue of this album, originally released in 2002. Kellari Juniversumi has been hailed as a masterpiece and has been out-of-print for a long time. Reprint includes a new 24-page booklet. Many are the rumors that revolve round the Tamperean tribe called Kemialliset Ystävät ("Chemical Friends"), regarding, for instance, the recipe for their brand of magic potion and their ethnic background. Contradicting common beliefs, this group does not consist of elves, gnomes or some lesser-known folk of the forest, but is mainly the product of one human risen from the rotten ditch of Nekala (a Tampere suburb). With his vast set of allies, he has by the power of his spirit carved a whole multitude of caves into the cellar of an otherwise unsuspect-looking house. From that "Cellar Yuniversum" (a rough translation of the disc's name) originates this record, which is actually their first, as its many predecessors have been either halves of a long player, or virtually unobtainable partial re-releases. "Now, at last, as we venture deeper into the cellar than ever before, we see the aforementioned elves and gnomes in their festivities, as the urbanization process has cut down the Tampere backwoods and has thus forced them to flee into the caves of Kemialliset Ystävät, who naturally are on good terms with all tiny earthlings with pointed ears." --Ralf Normaali, a lowlife from the capital area.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
FR 038CD
|
Originally Lumottu Karkkipurkki was released on cassette on the Huutomerkki label, and re-released on double 8" lathe-cut on the Celebrate Psi Phenomenom label. Now finally available on CD, remastered and remixed, originally released by Fonal in 2005. Notes from Ralf Normaali: "Lumottu Karkkipurkki ("the enchanted candy jar") is a musical work with two concepts: a song cycle based on an obscure Finnish children's book of the same name. The plot is simple; a boy buys a candy jar from an old, witchy shopkeepress. Every time the boy takes a colorful drop, his surroundings change unexpectedly and completely. He meets strange beings in the nearby forest. The atmosphere is exciting and slightly scary. Ville eats all the drops and craves more, but the woman with the shiny green ring is gone and so are the candies. The other concept, 'Vapaa Systeemi' ('free system') has something to do with plucking stringed instruments." Lumottu Karkkipurkki is for the creepy, late hours of the night.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
FR 033CD
|
Their second full-length album on the Fonal label, originally release in 2004. "After recovering from a long illness, I started searching through the shores and woods. I finally managed to locate Mr. Anderzén in the middle of an Arctic desert. He sat there cross-legged, eyes closed, calm as if on top of a mountain or in the bottom of the sea. No trees nor any other objects apart from ourselves interrupted the plain white landscape. Sun dragged itself slowly over the horizon. The air was still. 'My retreat will soon be over.' His husky voice seemed to emerge from the field of snow itself. I didn't see his lips moving. As I asked about the last nine months he had been away, he mumbled something about contemplation. 'Remember what Cocteau wrote in Opium about revealing the essence of plants? -- I have gained sights of that different kind of speed of vegetation and I have heard the screams of plants he talked about.' After six long days of silence spent mostly eating reindeer meat, Mr. A spoke again: 'I had the strangest of dreams. There was no space, no people, no traces of action, just this plasmoid machine out of which erupted sounds. And then, as I was receiving those aural secretions of an ultra-physical automaton from the seventh uppermost world, I woke up due to a butterfly itching in my ear. There I was, all covered with sweat, heart beating furiously, yet the ear was empty. It took a long time to be able to sleep after that night.' Heed my words, dear friends; that butterfly preserved in the ears of ours which weren't there, is Alkuhärkä." --Ralf Normaali
|