‘Väisty Tieltä’ by Horte | New Album ‘Maa antaa yön vaientaa’
Exclusive video premiere of ‘Väisty Tieltä’ taken from Horte’s new album ‘Maa antaa yön vaientaa’. Out August 27 via Pelagic Records.
‘Maa antaa yon vaientaa’ is as captivating as it is alienating. The sophomore album by Finnish experimental post-rock extravaganza Horte is a dark and mesmerizing journey that is best consumed in one sitting – or else you’ll miss all the dramatic arcs.
Horte’s music feels intangible and immaterial, yet candid and real at the same time. There are moments when it feels like the band draws you closer, but they never quite let you pierce the veil between you and them. “Our principal goal is to keep the focus on the music without highlighting us as individuals”, says singer Riikka.
It is her otherworldly but ultimately pacifying voice which inevitably places Horte’s dreamy, psychedelically distorted soundscapes in the far North. Besides the vocals, the bass is the most prominent and most tangible element in these soundscapes, standing tall between eerie synth clouds, broken beats and a voice that oscillates between subdued aspiration and bitter laments.
Field recordings and sound collages stand at the beginning of the group’s songwriting process, collected material from differing stratums that gets processed into a skeletal pre-composition, before the whole band arranges the pieces together. “Our way is to work with the material as long as it takes for the piece to figure itself out. Sound comes with it. There is always a compositional vision of how the pieces should sound in a broader sense”, says Riikka.
The Finish Four piece released their self-titled debut album via Svart Records in 2017, heralded for its dense atmosphere between post rock, shoegaze and nordic psychedelia. “Materialising as if from nowhere, it’s just possible the Finnish enigma known as Horte really are from another realm“, Ja Ja Ja Music wrote. The band made an impression at the 2018 edition of Roadburn Festival, to which they have returned this year as part of the Pelagic Records showcase.
‘Maa antaa yon vaientaa’ (“Land Lets the Night Grow Silent”) was recorded by the band at their homes and at Tonehaven Studio in Lievestuore, Finland. As an outside observer, Juho Vanhanen (Oranssi Pazuzu) worked with Horte on the production. The album was mixed by Saku Tamminen (Sink, Dark Buddha Rising).
‘Maa antaa yön vaientaa’ by Horte releases August 27, 2021 via Pelagic Records
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