Tiny Mix Tapes

Finnish collage-pop collective Kemialliset Ystävät announce paradox-filled new album Siipi Empii, out on Leaving Records AND not Leaving Records!

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If you’re listening to Kemialliset Ystävät — the long running experimental psych pop collective headed by Finnish multimedia artist Jan Anderzén — and suddenly get the urge to go all Jackson Pollock on the interior walls of your residence, rest assured, the effect was intended. It’s basically a natural consequence of their hearing their music, which sounds like a spontaneous party that was loosely planned beforehand.

Remarking on the general process for the project’s music, the leader says, “The music stays alive only because of the input from my collaborators…The method produces half random, half directed sound events where independent elements intertwine into unpredictable music.”

Siipi Empii is Kemialliset Ystävät’s newest iteration of playful erraticism. It’s due out April 6 on Leaving Records/IKUISUUS and promises to be a combination of deliberate and lighthearted experiment. The overall experiment consists of the usual array of instruments (like found sounds and electronic woodwinds, in the case of this new release), and the dichotomy of “deliberate and lighthearted” also plays out in the album’s title (which translates loosely to “A Wing Hesitates.” As Anderzén explains, “the English translation unfortunately loses all the music and rhyme of the Finnish title, but the meaning’s still there, kind of. The title is aiming to describe the movements of a butterfly and the weight/heat of the idea that every single flap of the wing can cause a storm/revolution.”

Either way, dichotomously listen to/watch the video for the track “Hengitä Sisään Ulos” below and don’t hesitate to pre-order the album on cassette and digital here — OR on vinyl from Finnish label IKUISUUS here. Oh, the paradox of choice…

Siipi Empii tracklisting:

01. Äimän Tähkä
02. Ikkunan Takana
03. Kuriton Painovoima
04. Lahjapaperin Tuolle Puolen Piirrän Kilpikonnan Kuoren
05. Kultatulkut
06. Hengitä Sisään Ulos
07. Merirosvohymy
08. Pujottelua
09. Siunaa Koko Maailma
10. Kukista Portaan
11. Askel Askel Askel, Raikas Aamutuuli
12. Messukeskus