Cleaning Women's sophomore album Aelita reissued for the first time on vinyl in June by Svart Records

At the beginning of their career, Cleaning Women were a live band that was not intended to record at all and initially performed for a maximum of 15 minutes. However, Kari Heikonen's BV2 Produktions persuaded the band to record their first album. By the second album the trio had already played a plethora of gigs with many of them abroad, especially in Russia. The band had also, semi-coincidentally, become involved in silent films, so the theme for the second album was one of the first ever feature-length science fiction films, the 1924 Soviet silent film Aelita directed by Yakov Protazanov, to which Cleaning Women had performed a live score the previous year.

The material on the second album consists mainly of themes from the film, but some of the songs were rearranged for the album. The album also contains a few pieces not entirely related to the film and includes songs that are not part of the live score but are linked to the events of the film. Overall, the band describes the album as a kind of musical commentary of Aelita’s live score and the band's mental landscape at the time.

The album features a guest appearance by Yevgeny Fedorov of the St. Petersburg band Tequilajazzz, who rewrote the lyrics for and sang on the track Teknigrad. Fedorov, the front man of the band, which is very well known in Russia, is currently living in exile after publicly opposing the war launched by Russia in Ukraine.  

The album was recorded in a basement studio on Albertinkatu in Helsinki by Sakke Pietarila and mixed by Jyri Riikonen, who has recalled the mixing process being challenging. The sounds of the rather primitive instruments, when recorded, were not quite what the band thought they would sound like. The band also experienced challenges in realising their vision during the recordings, and now, twenty years later, they admit that the album features not only homemade instruments but also a few factory-made percussion instruments. This is something the band still deeply regrets.

The album will be released on 13^th of June on vinyl and digital platforms, and the band will play a special Aelita-focused show at Semifinal in Helsinki on 4^th of July.