HORTE

HORTE was born into the Finnish underground psyche / postrock / stoner scene in the mid-2010s. They are inspired by their glacial landscapes filled with the northern lights to recreate a deep, enigmatic, astonishing and fearful sound, thus differentiating themselves from the SIGUR ROS and other EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY. An album which ignores the arbitrary limits of language, egos, creative processes and gender norms, and which lets the music speak for itself, the singing in Finnish accentuating and leading into dreams. They collect natural recordings in the field and then try to organize their music afterwards, a great musical challenge.

Music of reverberations, gothic waves, intoxicating percussions, the feeling of leaving in a bottomless and endless space time, to listen to in one go since a conceptual album! Fluorescent psychedelic shoegaze that we can actually listen to at night when the Earth is finally silent; yes I had to translate the title for you at one point, it's done.

"Pelko Karistaa Järjen" signs a rave opening with ethereal New Age sounds; nature tunes on a hypnotic mantra basis; a heavy monolithic bass with percussion punctuating the rise, a tortured guitar à la FRIPP, a dark interior journey of all beauty in achaic musical arcades, POPOL VUH in the distance. "Ilman Nurkka" follows with a sound that reminds me of DEAD CAN DANCE rantings for trance, its repetitive mechanics, soaring voices of fairies and other forest spirits. The synths amplifying it all. "Kilpemme" follows and plunges here into the atmosphere of SIGUR ROS, sober base and oppressive sound effects; Riikka's casting voice in her native language rests and captivates, the crescendo is simple but raw, obvious but intense, tortured again. The music no longer belongs to prog on all sides, it is retro-synth that nestles in this singular, austere, divine and confusing sound. '' Valoa On Liikaa '' continues on Frippian tricks of Discipline ', overwhelming spleen, dark beauty, minimalist; the sober electronic synths accompany the voice of violins and give hope to this title in which we risk getting tangled.

"Kun Joki Haihtuu" goes on, yes you read that right, this album is a concept: here trip hop like THE GATHERING was able to explore, smooth and predictable; the station wagon surprises with its rough, industrial, unstructured side, then the association sends on a Finnish mantra; final in moving, tearful and intimate decrescendo, superb; end which leads to "Väisty Tieltä" and a trance worthy of MY BLOODY VALENTINE, at the time when I was looking for prog since it was no longer. Heady dark melody on an intense bass-organ fuzz, angelic canticle voice, reverberating jerky rhythm, we believe in the broken record (ancestor of the CD for those who have known this age!); voice and music merge to create a musical state that takes between gothic, brainless new wave and ethereal; the final rise to make us reach a paroxysm of notes in waves reminding me of XTC a time. '' Konttaa, Ne Konttaa II '' with the resumption of a 2017 title, even colder. Austere, cold, disturbing, biblical, heralding the end of the world, the end of the album anyway.

This ephemeral post rock that can be listened to alone, that goes beyond the musical creative process, sensitive, sensual, mystical, soothing, enigmatic, indefinite or dreamlike, put in a trance on an addictive slowtempo, put in abyss on repetitions of samples, disturbing ; captivating as well as alienating; this sound will not leave you indifferent far from it. This strange group which draws its sounds from nature itself and which retranslates it to you with its instruments and its feelings to flood you with joy, that is what HORTE seated at.

Traditional good taste and catchy atmosphere created by HORTE should be maintained and additionally be seasoned with more desert-y dissonant flavour than the previous creation. In the very hot summer (maybe all around the world, owing to greenhouse emissions) in 2021, and under such a terrible pandemic situation, a Finnish post-rock act HORTE's third album was released to catch the hearts of Finnish progressive rock fans. Also in "Maa Antaa Yön Vaientaa" (in English, it means 'Earth Gives The Night Silence' ... what a meaningful, expressive, and suggestive phrase really) it sounds like HORTE would carry out their strong original intention of their post-rock interpretation. All around the opus, something sensitive, sensual, fascinating, addictive are dominant. And they never forget they stress dizzy, fuzzy sound metamorphism like a toxic love potion. Basically their musical mainstream is sorta slowtempo ambient dissonance, but their mystic melody lines and soft, smooth, and soothing voices are pretty impressive and innovative. It's definitely no exaggeration for us to claim this album has energy and power superior to their previous albums.

The first track "Pelko Karistaa Järjen" is kind of serious stuff full of ambient dissection and stickily repetitive melodic recognition. Under a dark sky and a tough circumstance, they would be pushing serious current reality into our inner mind. Something fearful can be felt via this entire track, but also a dreamy future may be seen. In "Ilman Nurkka" we touch more relaxing flavour regardless of slight upbeat catchy scape. Percussive synthesizer sounds are comfortable, and their chorus is dry-fruity like Krautrock but quite delightful and flavourful. On an instability and anxiety hard to express, the following one "Kilpemme" solidifies the guard around us. The middle part filled with loud, confusing sound unification is beyond expression. Wondering why they can launch such a stability with musical dissection. Anyway it's problematic too for us to get a bunch of inorganic light. "Valoa On Liikaa" would say that people all over the world want to live safe and sound I imagine? "Kun Joki Haihtuu" reminds us of the similarity to their first shot "Viimeinen Linja" but more of flatness and simplicity this possesses. Sounds like they deliver simple but important messages for us based upon such a plain melodic turf, I cannot understand Finnish though. The last "Konttaa, Ne Konttaa II" shows a tough, unclear near future under unsettled, disquieting 'political and infectious' situations, fully by dry scorching, potential ambience.

One last mention: surprisingly the sixth launcher "Väisty Tieltä" gets into the darkest, deepest, heaviest structure all over their creations, amongst their authentic calm moments. This seven minute song involves almost all of their excellent intentional invitations to another post dimension. My love.

This eponymous album veiled in a beautiful and mysterious sleeve was launched in 2017 via Svart Records by a Finnish Post rock outfit HORTE. My first HORTE was their second creation "Horte II" released in 2018 for Roadburn Festival 2018, that I'm completely immersed in because of their deeply fuzzy, heavily distorted, but mystically beautiful soundscape. There is definitely a considerable gap between loud, aggressive rhythmic basis and sensitive, fragile melody lines plus disappearing breath of voices, and we should get absorbed momentarily in this gap, which can be heard apparently also in their first album. Such a sound fantasia might be in the same vein of Godspeed You! Black Emperor or so. In any case, nothing but the word "noble" can be spoken off through my mouth.

And Side A: The first "Sekvenssi" is quite typical. The first part gets started with quiet atmosphere, and suddenly fulminant sound dissection attacks us. The melodic streams are pretty delicate and acoustic, regardless of extreme, excessive playing by the drums and bass. The core of sound is heavy and depressive, but actually we could lean upon their mellow melodic breeze. Simple lines go ahead for our relaxation. Fascinating voices and dissonant bass rumblin' are crazy addictive in the following "Taajuus", a short track full of slowtempo, acceptable musical texture. On the contrary, in "Viimeinen Linja" we can enjoy heartwarming sound dreams with brilliant psychedelic synthesizer-oriented seasoning under good mood and tempo. A pleasure really. "Konttaa, Ne Konttaa" leaning towards the following ep is a slender ambience and simultaneously a bridge over a tune river with a quiet but swift current, to the next step (and my favourite) "Helmi", another simple but vast nature of psychedelic / post rock. Yes simple, very simple indeed, but repetitive sticky hearty phrases based upon melting voices completely ring our bells.

Turning to Side B: "78" is, contrary to the persistent last track upon the backside, a superb speedy space rock filled with power and magnificence. "9" featuring echoic sensual voices sounds like a long earthquake of dissonance. Delightful beautiful graceful melody lines along with steady drumming footprints in "Koko Kalmo Pakassa" is the representative flavourful track of HORTE themselves. Not complicated nor polyrhythmic at all but quite emotional, inspirational. In the last treasure box "Saatto" are full of their splendid sound diversity especially mellowness, deepness, distortion, and unification of all essence. Wondering why they could shoot such an energetic, delightful, and evocative creation. The debut album has climbed the mountain top up, let me say.

13 minutes like a fantastic dream for me. Let me say thanks to Eetu for recommending a Finnish Post / Psych project HORTE (he's attended their gigs in Helsinki, what an envy really). They say this EP "Harha" was performed and recorded in Roadburn Festival 2018. At first, when I stumbled upon this album and listened to it carefully, I assumed this album would have recorded in a studio and remixed strictly, without any suspicion. That is, their performance in this creation was perfect and excellent. Dissonant electronic phases, noisy bass friction, sticky drumming based upon downtempo, stoner rhythmic ground, and dreamy, stimulative melody lines ? every single moment in their 'quarter hour' makes me crazy. They definitely have much more grandeur and delicacy in their inner soundscape than other Post-Rock / Psych-Prog outfits. Wondering what essence would bring up such gorgeousness or sensitiveness, and if I get immersed in their obscurity and mystique (nobody except themselves knows their real nature). Surely it's not just me, every post / psych fan should join their gig anytime soon. Highly recommended, again mentioned.

EDIT: According to Eetu's comment, this album was recorded in a studio and sold in Roadburn Festival 2018. Sorry for my misunderstanding, but absolutely it's crazy fascinating.