NEMESIS

— First review of this album —

It's sad that some artists (however good and internationally marketable they may be) don't get reviewed here. Such is the case for this leading Finnish electro-ambient act and their big, decades-stretching discography. Last February I wrote about their Living Statues album, so maybe it's now high time for another review. I think this is still their latest release, it came after Living Statues. Xenopus compiles live and studio recordings between 2006 - 2013, without suffering from a lack of focus at all. Material is written and performed with synths by Joni Virtanen, Jyrki Kastman and Ami Hassinen. This 64-minute album with excellent cover design by Kimmo Heikkilä was produced and mixed by Hassinen in March - April 2014.

Tracks 1, 2, 5 and 8 are live recordings from rehearsals (10th of May, 2009) for a concert in Sibelius Museum, Turku, 'Columbia' is from the concert itself, and 'SARS' is a collage of several rehearsal and live takes from 2006 - 2009. The tracks 4, 7 and 9 are studio recordings from 2006, 2013 and 2010 respectively. This music in general could be placed somewhere "out there" between 'Kosmische Musik' in the vein of early Tangerine Dream and the more modern progressive electronic music including the so called Dark Ambient. There are spacey, slowly building synth layers and lots of little details that may bring many different associations to the listener, from exotic landscapes to space travels or A.I., virtual reality or whatever SciFi-related things. Everything flows in a natural balance.

13½-minute 'Alastaro' is not only the longest track but it also has the strongest beat and thus feels perhaps the most adventurous one. Gracefully it's still not approaching EDM (electronic dance music), instead some Jarre connotations may come to mind. 'Memento' slows the pace again, with a psychedelic and watery soundscape. Nemesis are absolute masters of programming, even the rhythm elements never sound clinical or lifeless. 'For Neil' (Armstrong, I presume?) is a calm and moody piece that would be at home on "Apollo - Atmospheres and Soundtracks" by Brian Eno & co. My least fave 'Comfort Zone' has relatively sharp synth sounds and it reminds me of earlier albums of Roz Vitalis. 'Mare Tranquilitatis' is a great closing track for this excellently produced and mixed package of spacey electronic music full of fascinating ambience. In fact, this is among the finest examples I've heard of the whole style.

— First review of this album —

Having started already in 1987, NEMESIS are probably the longest running of Finnish electronic acts, still active to our days. The electronic scene in my country has never been very widely known or dealt in music magazines; I think I first heard of Nemesis roughly 8-10 years ago from the Finnish radio series Avaruusromua (=Cosmic debris) specializing in that kind of marginal music. The synth-focused trio consisting of Ami Hassinen (who's also played in space rock band Moonwagon), Jyrki Kastman and Joni Virtanen was finally added here last year, I suppose, and this is the very first review for them.

Living Statues has an interesting background as an album project. The music was inspired by the life and art of an "outsider artist" (related terms: DIY art, naivism) Veijo Rönkkönen, whose human figures -- one seen on the album cover and many more on the leaflets -- are crowding Parikkala Sculpture Park. Parikkala is located in South-East Finland near the Russian border, I haven't been there myself. When Nemesis were invited to play a concert in the park, they were deeply impressed by the place. "...the overwhelming totality of his vision, when viewed in the right environment where and for which it was created. The place is as close as you can get to a 'secret garden' in Finland", Hassinen says in the liner notes. "We decided to produce a proper studio album on the theme, based on the material we played at the concert. (---) Veijo's art is often portrayed as carnevalistic and fun, but I felt it also has melancholy and tragic elements (---). That perhaps explains why we ended up making more meditative and mystical music that one would expect to be generally associated with outsider art."

Hassinen's words are a good guide to the nature of the album, which of course can be taken also as pure music without any knowledge on the concept. Nemesis were originally influenced by e.g. Tangerine Dream and the European electronic music scene of the 80's in general, but especially on this album their music is rather meditative Electronic Ambient. Related artists include ROBERT RICH, STEVE ROACH, Mergener/Weisser, etc, and Nemesis doesn't pale in comparison at all. The eight tracks vary between 3 - 10 minutes in length, except the title track of near 16 minutes. That's one of the highlights in its hypnotic aura. Several tracks are more delicate and intimate, featuring hurriless, zen-like notes and minimum amount of distinctive rhythms. 'Airborne' (9:39) is slightly more intensive in tempo and soundscape, somewhere between KLAUS SCHULZE and SOFTWARE. 'Nightmare' is expectedly among the darkest pieces here, fitting well under the term Dark Ambient.

Nemesis is worth checking out to all listeners of Electronic/Ambient music, and Living Statues serves as a good starting point. A beautiful, introspective, well produced 59-minute album to accompany the listener's inner visions.