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Days of Rona: Lauri Kivelä of PH (aka Mr. Peter Hayden)

Posted in Features on April 20th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.

Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.

Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan

ph rehearsal space

Days of Rona: Lauri Kivelä of PH (aka Mr. Peter Hayden) (Seinäjoki, Finland)

How are you dealing with this crisis as a band? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?

Everybody is well, all good. As a band we adapt very well to situations and are rather well trained with adversities and obstacles. We had a European tour coming up, but obviously it got canceled. As most of the summer festival might be canceled as well, we now have plenty of time to work in studio.

What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?

All traveling must be avoided, bars and restaurants are closed until June, meetings of more than 10 people are banned and those who can are advised to work from home. The biggest thing is that the Uusimaa region is isolated from rest of the Finland for at least three weeks. That one is affecting our work a bit also as one of us is now stuck there.

How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?

Well, there are less people in the city and more in the forests. When modern activities are either closed or you avoid them for your safety people get back to basics. Seems like nature has become a big thing.

I hope this little forced retreat is taken advance of. What a possibility to concentrate on your art and dive deeper than ever before. On the business side I hope things will get back to normal as soon as it is possible.

What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?

We keep working on our next album, exploring the unknown and reaching the unimaginable. Most of the basic tracks are already recorded and the dive continues. It might just be that we have once again seen the future. And for Europe: We are sorry to cancel once again but we promise to be back next year, in very good company!

www.mrph.net
www.facebook.com/mrpeterhayden
www.instagram.com/mrpeterhayden
http://mrph.bandcamp.com/
www.svartrecords.com
www.facebook.com/svartrecords
www.youtube.com/svartrecords

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PH (aka Mr. Peter Hayden) Announce April Tour Dates

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 4th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

ph mr peter hayden (Photo by Muromaki)

Seems pretty clear the organizing principle around which the experimentalists now called PH — formerly Mr. Peter Hayden, which seems to be a name they’re keeping in their back pocket should they want to return to it later; fair enough — is the appearance they’ll make April 19 at Roadburn Festival 2020 at Tilburg in the Netherlands. It’s not their first time there, but it is something of an occasion nonetheless as they go supporting 2019’s Svart-issued Osiris Hayden (review here), which brought their stylistic barrier-melting to a new level in embracing electronica textures and pulsations in place of elements more commonly thought of as organic. It was a bold move for the band, but certainly consistent for a group who, several records in, decided to rename themselves after the light-up logo they bring with them on stage at shows.

These guys are awesome, by the way, whatever you want to call them. I’m only looking forward to the chance to see them again.

They’ll be out with Sum of R for the following shows:

ph tour poster

PH (Mr. Peter Hayden) – Tour Dates

We are pleased to announce that we will be touring Europe in April and May supporting our fifth album ‘Osiris Hayden’, out now via Svart Records?. Sum Of R? joining us in their current incarnation reinforced by selection of Dark Buddha Rising members.

You are invited to witness this uncanny marriage of primeval savagery and digital futurism and join us on this trance-inducing adventure reaching apocalyptic ecstasy while enjoying the acid sensations full of charm and drugged magic.

13.4. Slow Club Freiburg, Freiburg
14.4. Freakout Club, Bologna
16.4. The Bruch Brothersthers, Luzern
19.4. Roadburn Festival, Tilburg
20.4. Magasin 4, Brussels
21.4. ‘Ess’Pace, Paris
22.4. La Scène Michelet, Nantes
23.4. la malterie, Lille
25.4. Oetinger Villa, Darmstadt
26.4. Zukunft am Ostkreuz, Berlin
29.4. Pawilon, Poznan
30.4. Chapeau Rouge Prague, Prague
1.5. And?l music bar Plze?, Pilsen

‘Osiris Hayden’ is the fifth album by PH, previously known as mr. peter hayden. Released via Svart Records on November 1st 2019.

Band photo by Muromaki.

www.mrph.net
www.facebook.com/mrpeterhayden
www.instagram.com/mrpeterhayden
http://mrph.bandcamp.com/
www.svartrecords.com
www.facebook.com/svartrecords
www.youtube.com/svartrecords

PH, Osiris Hayden (2019)

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PH Post “Origo” Artwork Video; Osiris Hayden Due Nov. 1

Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 15th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

ph

Peel open your brain and embrace the Hayden. An artwork-based video is the most appropriate outlet for PH at this stage in their seemingly ongoing evolution. As the Finnish atmospheric heavy experimentalists prepare the ground for the Nov. 1 Svart Records release of their new album, Osiris Hayden (review here), rife with cinematic soul-stirring synth, electronic soundscaping and a vague sense of futurism that’s neither u- nor dystopian, they’ve got a duly purple clip up for “Origo,” the nine-minute highlight/focal point of the offering and arguably its deepest plummet into the depths of weighted ambience. PH — also known as Mr. Peter Hayden at their outset — have never been a group to compromise their creative impulses, and their path has led them continually outward into climes (and climbs) both weirder and more gloriously spaced. In that regard, Osiris Hayden fits right in with the bunch.

So is this the part where I warn you about flashing lights and stuff like that? Oh, most definitely. “Origo” isn’t the most visually abrasive, by any means, but if you’re particularly sensitive to such things, you’re going to want to watch out. Still, it’s hard to imagine a song like this presented another way. It wouldn’t work as a band-in-rehearsal-space video, or even live unless it was done with some kind of visual twist maybe, but what the artwork clip allows PH to do is remove the human element from the creation itself and focus instead on the sound and atmosphere of the track, letting that shine through as what really matters and give their audience in some way a purer glimpse at the work than they might otherwise get. With the sense of immersion that “Origo” brings, it becomes all the more visually hypnotic as the pink/purple and black swap in rapid succession around the logo that has also become the band’s moniker, PH, as seen in the photo above. These guys have spent the last decade out on their own wavelength. With Osiris Hayden, they sound more at home there than ever before.

Dig into “Origo” on the player below. Preorder links for the record, live dates in suitably reverse-future order and further PR wire whatnot follow.

Please enjoy:

PH, “Origo” official video

Visual video for ‘Origo’ on Svart Records’ Youtube channel. Audio available on Spotify and other digital platforms. ‘Osiris Hayden’ album to be released on November 1st on LP/CD via Svart Records.

Pre-orders available at:
Svart Records: https://bit.ly/2kqyRdN
Levykauppa Äx: https://bit.ly/2lZ2Qdi
Shiny Beast: https://bit.ly/2m534PX
Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/2m0GeJz

Upcoming live shows:
December 13th, On the Rocks, Helsinki
December 6th, Bar 15, Seinäjoki
December 5th, Suistoklubi, Hämeenlinna
November 21st, Henry’s Pub Kuopio, Kuopio

PH on Thee Facebooks

PH on Instagram

Svart Records website

Svart Records on Thee Facebooks

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Review & Track Premiere: PH, Osiris Hayden

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on August 29th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

ph osiris hayden

[Click play above to stream ‘Justified’ from PH’s new album, Osiris Hayden. It’s out Nov. 1 on Svart Records.]

Say hello to sonic infinity. Experimentalist-prone Finnish outfit PH bring expanse to bear throughout their new album, Osiris Hayden, with a cohesion of purpose that borders on the frightening. Their second release for Svart Records behind 2017’s Eternal Hayden (review here), the album comprises a nine-song/47-minute run that uses drone soundscaping and massive industrial churn, electronic beats and synthesized sprawl, in order create an atmosphere all its own. Each of PH‘s records has played off the one before it, going back to before they re-branded themselves PH after their stage-light logo and were Mr. Peter Hayden across their initial trilogy of full-lengths, 2010’s Faster than Speed (review here), 2012’s Born a Trip (review here) and 2014’s Archdimension Now (review here). It may well be that Osiris Hayden is the second installment of a new trilogy that began two years ago and will conclude with their next album — and if so, watch out — but whether or not whatever story PH are telling is self-contained or too big to be told front-to-back in one batch of material, this collection remains no less blinding.

And I do mean that in the sense of light. Although the artwork digs into deep purple hues and a series of interconnected circles — a use of color that feels all the more conscious after the yellow and blue of the last outing — much of the album’s sound is a flash of brightness surged directly in the face of the listener. There are plenty of ambient experiments like in “Justified” or the subsequent “Uhrilahja,” and a progressive culmination that turns into an evil disco on the nine-minute “Origo,” but as Osiris Hayden essentially functions as one linear entirety, indeed these pieces intertwine and play out one into the next with a marked fluidity and, again, distinctive sense of purpose behind them. Not to harp on it, but the wash PH create here is absolutely stunning, whether it’s the synthesized drone of “Sun Sets for One” or the rhythmic consumption of “Tachophonia,” with the album’s title repeated in effects-coated vocoder as yet another inhuman aspect at play, vague spoken whispers somewhere in back of the mix — is that a sample? does it matter? — as an apex that feels as much philosophical as aural. What was once the band known as Mr. Peter Hayden has, as the four-piece PH, emerged as a stirring cosmic entity unto itself. Get your headphones, get your mind blown.

The scope begins in earnest on opener “Thr33 of Wands,” with a six-and-a-half minute unfolding that will no doubt remind some listeners of Jesu in its melodic/electronic blend, but quickly sets out on its own path. A similarly-titled complement arrives in the penultimate “M47eria Prima,” the numbers obviously intended to appear as letters. Their use of those particular numbers is somewhat opaque — 33 is the sum of three cubes and 47 is prime — but whatever the case, to call what unfolds across Osiris Hayden cinematic feels lazy and apt in kind, since it’s true but it’s kind of like calling the globe a circle in its leaving entire dimensions unaccounted for. “Thr33 of Wands” works toward a linear progression of its own, as does the later “Ad Coronam,” while the shorter stretches of “Emergence” and “Uhrilahja” or even “M47eria Prima” operate on their own wavelength, but what matters more is that everything PH do on Osiris Hayden is intended and is successful in feeding the overarching impression of the whole. The arrival of the title-line in “Justified” is a standout moment, as is the post-psychedelic explosion of sound that ensues, and as PH make their way deeper into the proceedings en route to “Origo,” the sense of pushing further into some vast interstellar reach is palpable in their use of elements organic and electronic.

ph

As to what might be happening to the universe as “Origo” resolves itself in dance beats and swirling chaos, I don’t know, but if it’s alternate-reality space rock or alien tribalism, it’s no less righteous for its blend of influences and impulses. Ultimately, it’s one more manner in which Osiris Hayden engages in an act of world-creation, the album essentially casting its own setting through its atmosphere, bringing the listener into its breadth and shimmer at a full submersion, not to induce a claustrophobia, but to in some ways demolish the expectation not just of what they might do as a band, but of what the effect of music on the person interacting with it should be. If that sounds like hyperbole, fair enough. The whole album sounds like hyperbole — an idea taken to its extreme, simply the most of the most of its own thing, the drama coming to a head in “Tachophonia” as the band wind their way toward the finish leaving a trail of light-years behind them.

Whether or not Osiris Hayden is meant to be a part of a longer cycle of offerings from PH, one is definitely left after “Tachophonia” with the question of what happens next. Where have they gone, what have they found there? Are we inside or outside, up or down? Does it matter? Are we matter? One could go on, but consider the questions as evidence of the effectiveness of Osiris Hayden in removing one from the ground and putting their audience in this position of dimensional disorientation. That, too, is purposeful as they push themselves outward along this unknown trajectory through sonic territory that is yet unclaimed by genre. One can listen to Osiris Hayden and hear krautrock, prog, post-metal, drone, doom, EDM and whatever else one wants to hear, but the potency with which PH combine these and whatever else they seem to have found along their path is what makes the album so rich and fulfilling on a galaxial scale. They have become a band unto themselves, and likewise, Osiris Hayden feels like a landmark of the sonic growth to which they remain committed. That is to say, whatever they do next — and I wouldn’t be so silly as to attempt a prediction — the only expectation is that PH will continue to move forward. Across five full-lengths to-date, they’ve never done it any other way.

Now, which way was forward again?

PH on Thee Facebooks

PH on Instagram

Svart Records website

Svart Records on Thee Facebooks

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PH Set Nov. 1 Release for Osiris Hayden

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 19th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

ph

I’m pretty sure I’ve heard everything PH have put out at one point or another, going back to their beginnings as Mr. Peter Hayden, and I still have no idea what to expect from their new album, Osiris Hayden, which is out Nov. 1 on Svart Records. Furthermore, that’s one of my favorite things about the band. There is no shortage of artists and groups out there who toy with the conventions of genre, but fewer and farther between as those for whom such lines are genuinely meaningless. There’s not much that’s beyond the reach of PH, and their most recent work, 2017’s Eternal Hayden (review here) rewarded those ears adventurous enough to take it on with a listening experience that genuinely stood alone. If you could dig it, you dug it. I’d expect no less of a challenge and payoff this time around, but as to what the thing might actually sound like, beats the crap out of me.

So, yes, I’m very much looking forward to it, thank you.

The PR wire brings enticingly descriptive language:

ph osiris hayden

PH set release date for new SVART album

Svart Records sets November 1st as the international release date for PH’s highly anticipated fifth album, Osiris Hayden, on CD, vinyl LP, and digital formats.

Frank Herbert once said, “Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens.” On their new album, PH (formerly Mr. Peter Hayden) have shed their blistering, snake-like skin and wound their unusual path into a new garden of unearthly delights. Still referring to themselves simply by the PH monogram, their fifth full-length release, Osiris Hayden, embraces a deep symbolic form of rebirth and regeneration.

Lauri Kivelä from PH explains their motivations best when he says, “Each album of ours has always been a step forward, and that is the only way we can do this. We are keen on going forward, a bit further than anybody else, and we do not need to stick to any genre on scene just to feel safe – quite the opposite. We are, and have always been, all about on moving on, forging our own paths.”

Recorded in their home country of Finland by Vesa Vatanen, Kimmo Nyssonen (who has worked with Dark Buddha Rising), Tom Brooke (NYOS, and who has previously worked with Domovoyd and Oranssi Pazuzu), Osiris Hayden is zenith of masterful music production, created by some of Finland’s foremost heavy psychedelic pioneers.

Like an Ostrobothnian Föllakzoid, experimental electronic soundscapes pulverize with panache and a pop-like sensibility. Osiris Hayden is contemporary Finno-Ugric Krautrock, in keeping with the band’s earlier work but much more cinematic in scope than ever before. Vangelis-inducing, distorted Blade Runner landscapes give way to the march of slick Terminator machines crushing human bones under foot. Psychonaut futurism from a band fusing genres ahead of their own time, and in a strange but logical evolution of the PH journey.

There is a jazz-like affection for the alchemy of sound-craft at play on this record. As Hesse said, “Who would be born must first destroy a world,” and worlds of sound are destroyed and recreated again and again. From the emerging resonance of pulsing drones to euphoric dying synths, we’re taken through a cascading, continual resurrection of the principle of sound and rhythm, emphasizing the PH mission statement. Punishing industrial Nine Inch Nails beats and abyssic static-laced Gary Numan-esque chants beat a white-noise pulse into your subconscious. On tracks like “Sun Sets For One” and single track “Justified,” there’s an almost anthemic ecstasy to the way the evolving song structures coil and unwind themselves.

There’s no surprise why festivals like Roadburn, Roskilde, Flow, and Tuska have championed this group to represent one of the finest examples of the modern Finnish experimental rock scene. Referring to PH, Julian Cope urged people to “get this stunning quintet out of the cold weather and into the charts.” Osiris Hayden feels like the album that will now propel them out of the smoke-filled sub-basement venues that birthed them, on to the à la mode coffee tables and dancefloors of even the most discerning and cutting-edge audio savant.

PH’s 20 years of psychedelic space-travel lend them a gargantuan understanding of the roots of music, towards the core meaning and power of transcendental sound. Fine-art museum-level workmanship for apocalyptic illegal factory raves and lysergic come-downs. Look no further for a sound beyond the limits of modern psychedelia. These Finns are way out there.

First track premiere to be revealed shortly. Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for PH’s Osiris Hayden
1. Thr33 Of Wands
2. Emergence
3. Justified
4. Uhrilahja
5. Sun Sets For One
6. Origo
7. Ad Coronam
8. M47eria Prima
9. Tachophonia

www.mrph.net
www.facebook.com/mrpeterhayden
www.instagram.com/mrpeterhayden
www.svartrecords.com
www.facebook.com/svartrecords
www.youtube.com/svartrecords

PH, Eternal Hayden (2017)

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