Looks like they don't have their own thread yet. I really like the dense, avant collage-rock of their last couple releases.
Press release on their upcoming summer release, Ullakkopalo on Fonal.
http://www.fastnbulbous.com/kemialliset-ullakkopalo.jpg
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 the new Kemialliset Ystävät album evokes just that: a feeling of lightness.
― Fastnbulbous, Friday, 16 April 2010 18:46 (fifteen years ago)
three months pass...
So the new album is, as expected, nuts. Some songs make, say, Tones on Tail's "Slender Fungus" seem normal.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 2 August 2010 03:13 (fifteen years ago)
three years pass...