Siinai are no strangers to the concept album. In 2011 the Finish instrumental outfit released the Nordic Music Prize-nominated Olympic Games, a celebratory tribute and encompassment that acted as both a musical alternative and a narrative arc to the event. In 2014 they released Supermarket, a concept album conceived as a soundtrack for supermarkets; a hypnotic odyssey through shelves, aisles and consumerism. When not busy creating such unique concepts to explore, the group are also frequent collaborations with Moonface, one of the many aliases of Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes) releasing two albums with him on Secretly Canadian.
In 2017, after a brief hiatus, the group are back with a new concept and this time exploring the cyclical nature of life, the endless loops of light into darkness and back again, as explored through shimmering synths, rich ambience and deeply emotive melodies.
“We were forced to have a break from playing together due to various reasons. After our short hiatus was over this album burst out of us. Like when a ketchup bottle loses its cap when you are violently shaking it.” the group say. By not having any lyrics in their music, the outfit can instead express thoughts through themes and imagery, as they do so profoundly on this record as it dips in and out of tones, tensions and atmospheres, moving from moments of quiet, dark reflection to surging, euphoric bursts of light – creating something that feels otherworldly. “With this record we were seeing a lot of space imagery, specifically like in the movie Interstellar.” They says of the album’s outer planetary explorations.
However, much of the album was rooted in the real and on earth too. The by-product of some difficult periods, the music became a means to get over that. “It was definitely a form of catharsis to make this record. Sometimes you have to force the music out of you and sometimes it just comes so easily. And this record was one of those easy, happy ones. The music isn’t that happy though, probably because of the things we’ve been through in our personal lives.” That said, the music isn’t overtly happy or sad, it exists in a spinning cycle that reflects life’s ever-changing moods. Ultimately, it’s this process that the record captures, the cycle of life itself presented through gentle space-rock, hurtling post-rock, krautrock-tinged rhythms and a sense of scope that feels intensely cinematic in its explorations.
“Making music is, for us, a cycle of its own. Not positive or negative, just life happening. Life is like a cycle – sykli – that just goes on and on. Darkness will become light but be wary, it will become darkness again. It is inevitable. From buying bread every day to making music, sometimes you feel this sykli of life is boring and meaningless but for us it is exciting, again and again.”
