Oddarrang – Agartha: Exclusive Album Stream

Experimental Finnish quintet Oddarrang stream their fourth album, Agartha, exclusively with The Independent

Oddarrang, from left to right, Ilmari pohjola (Tero Ahonen)

Finnish quintet Oddarrang blend a congruous mix of shimmering orchestral scope, post-rock dynamics and subtle electronics into a uniquely diverse, utterly sublime melting pot. Having been compared with such musically diverse luminaries as Sigur Rós, Boards of Canada, Björk and Mogwai, truthfully the sound Oddarrang create is only really comparable with themselves. The band’s sound has been categorised as jazz, classical, post-rock and even world music, and whilst there are elements of all 4 genres, none are really entire wholly accurate in summing up the extraordinary music created here. Oddarrang are set to release their fourth album, Agartha, through Edition Records on Friday 23^rd September, but you can hear the fruit of their labours now exclusively with The Independent.

Oddarrang’s sound is a beautiful heady mix of the old and the new, with traditional elements of jazz and classical colliding with a more modern post-rock approach. Whilst dynamics are key, the band never fall into the classic post-rock quiet/loud/quiet trap that so many of their contemporaries do. Instead, they create beautifully expansive percussively led soundscapes that hypnotically draw the listener in to their unique. Oddarrang’s unconventional mix of traditional and modern extends to instrumentation, with the band employing the use of trombone and cello alongside the more contemporary guitar, bass and drums.

The band are led by Olavi Louhivuori, who had this to say on the making of the album. ‘Agartha has taken on a new energy for us. The writing and recording process was so rewarding and inspiring for us all, we’re very happy with the new music. For the band, the music is special, it’s part of all of us and brings together our own personal tastes and vision.’

Olavi also talked us through the new album track by track:

Aletheia

This is Lasse Lindgren’s (bass, synth, voice) song and was one of the first songs to be selected for the album when we started to compose new material. Lasse had made a demo of the song improvising with his old synths. When we heard the demo, we were all completely mesmerized, so I decided to use that demo on the final version on the album too; many parameters on his synths were improvised while playing, so it was impossible to have another similar version of it. We just played some additional layers on top of that track and added vocals by Lasse Lindgren and guest Aino Peltomaa.

Central Sun

This song is the first song I ever composed starting from a drum beat as the first primary idea. I was driving in my car and playing around with some polyrhythms on my limbs, when I suddenly figured out the beat that eventually became the foundation of this song.

Mass I-III

I wrote the two first parts before the third, which was actually composed weeks before. I was playing around with my bass in the cellar and came up with this two chord progression that we loop over and over again. I later decided to combine these parts together, so it became a suite with three parts. Some people have asked if the name refers to physics or religion but for me it’s not relevant. Why couldn't it mean both!?

Admiral Byrd’s Flight

Admiral Byrds Flight is Osmo’s (cello, synths, voice) song and differs from all the previous Oddarang songs since it’s the first track ever to feature lyrics. We recorded the track as an instrumental, but when Osmo read the story about Admiral Richard E. Byrd - US Navy pilot who supposedly found the entrance to ‘Hollow earth’ on February 19th 1947, while exploring Antarktis - he felt the song needed some lyrics.

Telos/Agartha

The composition starts softly, slowly moves in to another even more bizarre world and finally comes to a cathartic end. So in a way it’s a suite too. This was the second take, and almost everything was played live. The middle part is completely improvised. The word Telos has connection to the myth, and it also means ‘end’ in Greek.

Age of Cronos

Age of Cronos is the kind of song we’ve never dared to write before and that’s exactly why we needed to do it! Even though it has quite a simple and melodic theme - something you might even hear in an old western movie - the whole song is based on that EDM stylish, looping synth riff and all those funky rhythms. The song came to be, when Osmo started hearing the rhythm part of the synth riff in his head. He made a quick demo of it and first we just jammed the rhythm together. Osmo later added the chords and the melody behind it and the structure became clear gradually. Osmo did a lot of synth programming on this and I played multiple tracks of drums and percussions. Although everybody liked the song, it just didn’t seem to fit in with the other songs on the album, which is why it’s being released as a bonus track.

The band play UK dates in November

16th Nov - Rise, Bristol - In Store Performance 6pm

17th Nov - Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff (w/ Slowly Rolling Camera)

18th Nov - Rich Mix, London Jazz Festival (w/ Slowly Rolling Camera)

Agartha, the fourth album by Oddarrang, is released Friday 23^rd September and is available to pre-order through Edition Records now