nujumi
Beautiful intimacy has always been something of Sontag Shogun's music, and this new record, thanks to the collaboration with Lau Nau has taken this further. It is possible that the use of lyric and vocals becoming more prominent has encouraged this sense of closeness, but simultaneously the lushous textural layering has continued to remain at the core. As such the record strikes a perfect balance of staying true to Sontag Shogun's previous form whilst also charting new territory.
Full-color art booklet featuring lyrics, notes, artwork, and photos by the artists.
- 20 pages
- 8.5 x 5.5 inches
- 80# text weight paper stock
- Conservation 100% post-consumer recycled paper
- saddle stitched
- designed by Studio Bernhardt
- printed in Portland by family-owned Brown Printing.
- Edition of 200.
ships out within 3 days
2 remaining
Purchasable with gift card
$10USDor more
Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
$8USD or more
Black Vinyl LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
140g black vinyl LP. Edition of 300. Ships from Portland courtesy of Beacon Sound.
Includes unlimited streaming of Valo Siroutuu
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
Black Vinyl LP + Art Book
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Get a small discount on the LP + Booklet bundle when you purchase together.
Includes unlimited streaming of Valo Siroutuu
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Valo Siroutuu ("The Light Scatters") is a collaborative song cycle written on and for the island of Kimitoön, Finland. Incorporating in-situ field recordings, impromptu outdoor songwriting, contemplative and patient chamber arrangements and lyrics delivered both in Finnish and English, the album thematically pursues observations of and meditations on place, time, nature, home, play, and language. Less a record of songs and more a continued, braided rope of ephemeral moments and turbid musical events, this work exists in a suspended dream or flow state, billowing up momentarily like wind breezing through spruce leaves or cresting over like the initial breaking waves of an oncoming high tide, yet always eventually rippling out back into quietude and solace like the patient floating fractures of light scattered across water's surface.
"Valo Siroutuu (The Light Scatters) begins with endearing sounds: a child’s voice, a badminton game. Guitar plays; water splashes; a bell rings; birds tweet; cars pass. How can one not love this album? And it’s only just begun. As is typical for Sontag Shogun, the sound design is spectacular, with full use of the stereo field... As their sonic world expands on “Leikkikalu” (“Toy”), we begin to drift backwards into nostalgia and forwards into hope... Light comes into play midway, the closing lyrics of the title track leading to “Suddenly This Darkness Comes Over Your Face,” the repeated title battling the perky music. It’s as if the observer knows the darkness will not last. The song summons the mood of late 2019, and is extended on “On Perceiving Time,” but forestalled by a return to intimate sounds such as piano, rooster and cat (none are hurt) and a feeling that the light scattered is being collected." – A Closer Listen
"One of the year’s most enchanting collaborative records... Valo Siroutuu is alive. Beyond the lilting soundscapes and hushed vocals, the sound of children playing, obscured conversations, or scratchy footsteps are the living, breathing tendrils spreading into infinite directions. Questions become assertions; conjectures become memories... The way Valo Siroutuu springs from spacious, emotive sonic environments to intimate vignettes adds to the feeling that this is a sprawling life story; the narrative of a place through time. “Kuiskaan Itseleni” begins with bubbling modular synthesizer and acoustic guitar laying a latticework of aural mycelium that spreads wildly into verdant swathes. Lau Nau’s voice flickers, breaking off pieces of the primordial web so that the distant path can drift forward, becoming ingrained in the sounds of tomorrow." – Foxy Digitalis
credits
released April 8, 2022
Laura Naukkarinen - vocals, violin, modular synth, glockenspiel
Jesse Perlstein - vocals, synths, field recordings, tape
Jeremy Young - guitar, oscillators, radio, amplified objects, tape
Ian Temple - piano, Moog minitaur
Recorded in Kimito, Finland in 2019, with overdubs and arrangements produced in Montreal, New York, and Los Angeles in 2020.
Mixed by Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets.
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios.
Artwork and layout by Studio Bernhardt.
Splash! Puzzling shoals pour from lips. Bubbling buoys of song tickling ears with ripples, fuzzy feels, a jacuzzi in your shell-like, an intimate sea of sound. Blissful but not becalmed. Jump in!
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