Some crossover here between Uleåborg Festival of Psychedelia 2022 and what would’ve been the fest in 2020, most notably Sweden’s Agusa making the trip from Malmö to Oulu, Finland (about 20 hours by car), to serve as headliners. Radiopuhelimet and Estonia’s Zahir are back as well, and it seems to me that the fest has packed more into a single day here than it was planning on doing for 2020. Perhaps that has something to do with the free-shows-around-Oulu idea, so that it’s less about standing in a room for 12 hours and watching band after another set up and break down their gear to play an abbreviated set, and more about immersion in a culture of psychedelia that extends beyond those bounds.

Thinking of it that way, you might not see everything if you go, but there’s a lot to be said for the experience. And you can hit up Tukikohta later on, anyhow. Presumably that’s where Agusa will be.

Details came straight from the event page on Facebook, and here they are:

ULEÅBORG FESTIVAL OF PSYCHEDELIA – July 16, 2022

Uleåborg Festival of Psychedelia returns after two years break!

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/664943631384972/

UFOP 2022 festival is arranged during one day on Saturday 16th July and the new gig orienteering concept includes free gigs around the city of Oulu. So take a map and head for a multidisciplinary and multidimensional art experience!

The festival will include a wide variety of artists and gigs from midday till late night in different locations. The day’s psychedelic path will lead to Tukikohta, Välivainio, where the payable main event will be held.

By buying the ticket to the main event you will also support the arranging of the free gigs! Yet again the festival will include a wide variety of local visual artists, psychedelic visualizations and surprises.

Tickets: https://www.tiketti.fi/tapahtuma/81489

Line-up:
Agusa (SWE)
Haamusoittajat
Hebosagil
Horte
Illyana
Kas Kan
Mesak
Otilia
Radiopuhelimet
Seli Seli
Skyjoggers
Tuomas Henrikin Jeesuksen Kristuksen Bändi
Zahir (EST)

Turn on, tune in and UFOP 2022!

https://www.facebook.com/events/664943631384972/
https://www.facebook.com/UFOpsychedelia/
https://www.instagram.com/ufopsychedelia/
www.uleaborgfestivalofpsychedelia.com

Agusa, En annan värld (2021)

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Heikki from Highwalker

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I’m pretty sure I can speak on behalf of the whole band in saying that Highwalker is an expression of ourselves and the way we came to be together is simply due to the the fact that likeminded people are naturally drawn together. We started with another band but can now explore other sides of music that we fancy (with less blastbeats).

Describe your first musical memory.

Probably rocking out to Lion King soundtrack in my childhood home. Still works!

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Difficult to say, first gig, first tour, first album, just a bunch of firsts. Gotta add first gig with Highwalker after corona induced 2.5 year absence from stage.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I’m trying to maintain faith that Batman is still a really cool guy even though he’s a billionaire.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

You basically become better equipped to reach unexplored territories.

How do you define success?

Well that’s pretty basic, do what you like without harming anyone and create rather than just consume.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

This is a tie between Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Star Wars Episode IX – Rise of Skywalker.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

Own novel, collection of short stories or a movie script.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To bring forth something which we all feel and share, something about life and existence which could not be expressed in any other way. To form pieces of the “truth.”

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Summer and the start of the Finnish football season that comes along with it.

https://www.facebook.com/highwalkerband
https://www.instagram.com/highwalkerband/
https://highwalkerband.bandcamp.com/
www.argonautarecords.com
www.facebook.com/argonautarecords

Highwalker, “Burning Temple”

Prog as fuck and a fair shade darker than was their self-released 2018 album, Duel (review here), the new single from Oulu, Finland’s Onségen Ensemble arrives with the formidable countryman backing of Svart Records and heralds the arrival of their third full-length, FEAR, sometime before the end of 2020. The band, as announced last December, hit the studio in February with producer Jamie Gomez Arellano at London’s famed Orgone Studios, and you can hear the results in the breadth of “Stellar,” for which there’s a video streaming at the bottom of this post. Sounds deep, and calls to mind some of Finnish psych’s more extreme fare, the quiet moments of Dark Buddha Rising stretched in another direction, perhaps.

Would you be surprised if I said I was looking forward to hearing more? Probably not if you clicked that review link above. These guys hooking up with Svart only makes sense — I said as much in that review — and if their path has taken them to someplace more grim for the LP as a whole — and there’s no guarantee it has; their sound is plenty diverse — then all the more so.

The following came down the PR wire in the reaches of morning:

ONSÈGEN ENSEMBLE and SVART RECORDS announce a worldwide partnership for the band’s upcoming album. New single out!

What happens when the prog-oddity ONSÈGEN ENSEMBLE and ORGONE STUDIOS’ world-class producer JAIME GOMEZ ARELLANO huddle up in the studio to record the band’s third album FEAR? The odds are that you’ll be mesmerized. The full-length album will be released by SVART RECORDS in late 2020.

Onségen Ensemble is a group of musicians from northern Finland. Being faithful to its own purpose, the spiritual home of Onségen keeps its doors open for everyone to enter. FEAR takes you to a mystical trip with excursions into wonderfully cinematic and flamboyant landscapes.

This constantly evolving ensemble was born in 2004 followed by two mini-cd releases Hiukkavaara Sessions (2005) and HottoïzzoH (2007). The debut album Awalaï was released in 2016 and the sophomore effort Duel in 2018.

New single ‘Stellar’ out now:
https://youtu.be/SKrkvaTDMp4
https://open.spotify.com/track/5IB4EtVBttj21wZyhgZyZ5?si=CJNTZM4NSha9lE4d0pvTlA
https://onsgenensemble.bandcamp.com/track/stellar

Onségen Ensemble, generation twenty-twenty – personnel in FEAR:
Pasi Anttila, Heikki Häkkilä, Esa Juujärvi, Merja Järvelin, Sami Lehtiniemi, Samuli Lindberg, Joni Mäkelä, Niina Vahtola and Mikko Vuorela.

https://www.facebook.com/onsegenensemble/
https://onsgenensemble.bandcamp.com/
http://www.onsegen.com/
www.svartrecords.com
www.facebook.com/svartrecords
www.youtube.com/svartrecords

Onségen Ensemble, “Stellar” official video

It’s been two weeks since the last Argonauta Records signing, so it’s good to know that at least some facets of existence are managing to return to normal after what I’ve called ‘corona-season’ is over. Seems like an ambitious designation to me, particularly for those of us in the US, but though Italy got hit hard initially by the firelung plague, Argonauta is back up and running, picking up acts and putting out albums. Flashes of life in the before-time. I keep waiting for more European tour announcements to start showing up again and give me a whole new working definition for “bittersweet.”

Now then, on to Finland’s Deep River Acolytes. You might recognize their hometown of Oulu as a psychedelic hotbed, but these guys are on a different trip. Their quizzically-titled Alchemia Aeterna album will be released through Argonauta this Fall. It’s the band’s third full-length overall, and falls in with a darker take on straight-up heavy in the newly-unveiled “Under Her Spell.” That the band was once called Deliverance doesn’t particularly surprise me, but neither does the fact that they changed that name, no doubt because the association to C.O.C.‘s landmark album didn’t capture the entirety of their sound. Or they stopped being Jon Voight fans.

To the PR wire:

DEEP RIVER ACOLYTES Sign Worldwide Deal With ARGONAUTA RECORDS

and share first single from upcoming album!

“Alchemia Aeterna” coming out October 30th!

Hailing from Oulu, Finland, heavy rock / metal act Deep River Acolytes has announced the signing with Italy’s powerhouse label Argonauta Records, who will proudly release the band’s third full-length album on October 30th 2020!

Deep River Acolytes, who formed in 2011 and were previously known as Deliverance, play a heavy rock and doom metal sound combined with black metallish riffs and bluesy vocals. Following several demos, live recordings, an EP plus two highly acclaimed full-length albums and several captivating shows to date, they gained the attention by cult underground label Argonauta Records.

The band comments: “We’re proud of our collaboration with Argonauta Records concerning our new album ‘Alchemia Aeterna’, and we highly appreciate Gero and all at Argonauta Rec. for working hard despite these plague ridden times. Stay heavy, stay possessed, get the album!

Their upcoming opus, “Alchemia Aeterna”, has a rough edge and live feeling all the way, and is not afraid to cross genres of the doom, metal, hard rock, black metal and the blues. The album was recorded at the Anvil Road Studios in 2019 by Ari Rajaniemi, mixed by Antti Lindholm at Boat Island Studios and was mastered at Enormous Door by Jack Control in 2020. Today, Deep River Acolytes have unleashed a first track taken from their new album, stream “Under Her Spell” here.

“Alchemia Aeterna” Tracklisting
1. At The Crossroads
2. Under Her Spell
3. Caught Somewhere Out of Time
4. The River Deep
5. Veriurut
6. Cemetery Earth

https://www.facebook.com/deepriveracolytes/
https://deepriveracolytes.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ArgonautaRecords/
https://argonautarecords.bandcamp.com/
www.argonautarecords.com

Deep River Acolytes, “Under Her Spell”

Last heard from, Oulu Space Jam Collective — not to be confused with Øresund Space Collective, who as it happens are also plenty jammy — released the triple-vinyl Drug Rings of Saturn in December through Adansonia Records. That significant offering is still available from the label, and the Finland-based collective are following it up with a live 2LP called Harvest Sage that was recorded at an outdoor show in 2017. Going by the description below, it seems to have been like an art fair, or a kind of town festival, and given what I know of this group — never seen them live, but it’s not hard to imagine how their style might translate, being jams and all — a park as part of a spirited creative group endeavor seems like it would be precisely their element. Sounds like it would’ve been a cool show, in other words. I know I’m desperate at this point — is Finland doing gigs yet? — but it seems as though this might’ve been a special night for them. All the more worth documenting after the fact.

The vinyl info follows, courtesy of Adansonia:

Oulu Space Jam Collective – Harvest Sage – DLP 2020 – AR 037

In 2017, the Finnish Oulu Space Jam collective took part in the annual Oulu Art Nights and presented a two-hour outdoor concert at the Lyötynpuisto park in Oulu. At this event, musicians, actors, dancers, writers and artists take over public spaces and parks and offer unique experiences for everyone. The double album “Harvest Sage” was created on the basis of these recordings.

It contains four long improvised space jams, each spanning a full side length and takes in space rock, krautrock, oriental and snippets of spoken word which all come together to make something special – Oriental Oulu Kraut. Another high quality space rock jewel – mastered by Eroc at his ranch.

Details:
– 222 x classic edition, black vinyl, 180g, inlay, hand-numbered – 29€
– 111 x exclusive label edition, transparent blue – splatter green, orange vinyl, inlay, hand-numbered – 32€

https://www.facebook.com/Ouluspacejamcollective
https://ouluspacejamcollective.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/adansoniarecords/
https://www.adansoniarecords.de/

Oulu Space Jam Collective, Drug Rings of Saturn (2019)

A couple recognizable names here from the lineup for Uleåborg Festival of Psychedelia 2020 in Oulu, Finland, but I’m not ashamed to say that the majority of the 27 acts are unknown to me. You’ll note Philly’s Ecstatic Vision will be making the trip — so let’s assume there are some European tour dates forthcoming from them, and that’s cool news — as well as Swedish proggers Agusa, whose lush sounds are always a delight, and I know I’ve written about Sunshine Reverberation and Arktau Eos in the past, but yeah. Plenty here I don’t know.

You know what that means, though? Homework! The best kind of homework! I got word of the lineup yesterday and I’ve been diving into bands playing since, including Hidria Spacefolk, who headline the second night and whose 2012 cosmic offering, Astronautica, you can stream below, as well as The Fungi 3, whose fuzzy take on heavy psych blends the best of garage chaos with a jammy spirit. I’m into it and looking forward to continuing to learning about the rest. I’ve yet to find a clunker.

There won’t be a quiz or anything, but you still might want to take notes:

Uleåborg Festival of Psychedelia – 2020 Lineup

Uleåborg Festival of Psychedelia will be held already the sixth time on 10th and 11th July 2020. The festival will colour Oulu’s summer with psychedelic shades and sounds, three stages and 27 artists!

Friday’s headliner is a Finnish cult classic band Murheenlaakso, which celebrates “Totuus Palaa LP” 30-year album anniversary with a special set! Saturday’s headliner Hidria Spacefolk will take the audience into a final trance!

UFOP is proud to present American psychedelic rock energy package Ecstatic Vision performing in Finland for the first time! Other foreign artist include Swedish prog and folk band Agusa, Estonian noiserock band Zahir, and Norwegian psychband Sunshine Reverberation. Finnish artists include electronic crushers Tähtiportti, legendary Radiopuhelimet and action rock band MÄSÄ.

Yet again, UFOP will feature arts exhibitions, dance acts, mind bending uv-decorations and visual treats summoned by VJs. Open your mind, now is the time!

TICKETS: https://www.tiketti.fi/uleaborg-festival-of-psychedelia-2020-tukikohta-oulu-lippuja/68281

https://www.facebook.com/events/518009828749961/
https://www.facebook.com/UFOpsychedelia/
https://www.instagram.com/ufopsychedelia/
www.uleaborgfestivalofpsychedelia.com

Hidria Spacefolk, Astronautica (2012)

I have it on pretty good authority that I wasn’t the only one who really dug the vibe Oulu, Finland’s Onségen Ensemble brought forth on their 2018 self-released sophomore long-player, Duel (review here). The doesn’t-always-do-stuff-but-when-they-do-they-make-it-count collective have exciting news in that they’ll be recording their next full-length in just a couple months’ time with none other than Jamie Gomez Arellano at the helm at Orgone Studios in London.

Not sure what the recording situation will be in terms of how long they’ll be there, how the tracks will be laid down, if Arellano will mix as well (why not?) and who will master, but the thought of Onségen Ensemble pairing with someone who’s a well-established master of capturing depth of tone — Arellano has worked with luminaries across a spectrum from Hexvessel and Myrkur to Orange Goblin and Paradise Lost — is promising to be sure. I have to wonder if perhaps there’s a label announcement in their future as well. Hmm? Now who do we know who might be interested in putting out well-produced progressive heavy rock from Finland? Rhymes with “start”…

Here’s what they had to say:

Recording new album in February!

For the first time we have a truly extraordinary opportunity to work with producer Jaime Gomez Arellano in his Orgone Studios. Can’t wait!

The album will be released in 2020.

BIO:

Onségen Ensemble is a group of northern musicians whose first assemblage was formed in the beginning of the twenty-first century, with it’s musicians drawn from various genres such as jazz, stoner, prog and black metal. During that time the sound of Onségen was sown as a seed to grow slowly but surely.

Onségen Ensemble Generation Twenty-ten has continued with the task of grafting the material into its final form. “Awalaï”, the first opus to be released, is a cinematic selection of varied landscapes: good, bad, and occasionally ugly.

Onségen is about the critical exploration of one’s mind, about broadening of horizons and new discoveries.

Generation MMXVIII – Personnel In DUEL:
Juggis Aalto, Heikki Häkkilä, Esa Juujärvi, Merja Järvelin, Sami Lehtiniemi, Samuli Lindberg, Joni Mäkelä, Jaakko Tuomivaara, Niina Vahtola and Mikko Vuorela.

https://www.facebook.com/onsegenensemble/
https://onsgenensemble.bandcamp.com/
http://www.onsegen.com/

Onségen Ensemble, Duel (2018)

I’m not sure what exactly is going to be on the triple-vinyl that Adansonia Records will release from Finnish cosmic-improv unit Oulu Space Jam Collective, but apparently there will be plenty of it. I mean, it’ll be jams one way or the other, since that’s what the band — such as they are — does, but they do it pretty often, so maybe it’s the full-length they put out in September, Drug Rings of Saturn, or maybe it’s a collection of other material or some other past release or maybe it’s something new. A group like this, you never really know. Could be a 3LP pumped out every time they get together. When your ethic is “plug in and go,” adding a step to hit record along the way isn’t such a huge ask.

It’s definitely cool for the band though, whatever might ultimately manifest, so right on. Details are apparently forthcoming, but good news is good news, so here’s good news:

Oulu Space Jam Collective – New release on Adansonia Records

It’s been quiet here for a while and now it’s high time for a new fantastic release.

In the meantime a new band has joined the roster of Adansonia Records. Please welcome Oulu Space Jam Collective from Finland.

Oulu Space Jam Collective channels cosmic streams of the universe through a great variety of instruments, which they choose for their jam sessions. It’s their intention to celebrate extended Space Rock Jams with jazzy grooves and Krautrock experiments. Sounds like they are in good company at Adansonia.

We have managed to prepare one of their numerous recordings for release on vinyl. It is the first official physical release of Oulu Space Jam Collective! The package of test pressings arrived yesterday and is just waiting to be checked. We expect to be able to deliver an incredibly spacey 3LP box in early December. Very soon detailed info…

Check them out!!!

Oulu Space Jam Collective in photo above:
Petri Loukusa
Antti Yrjö Olavi Ylijääskö
Olli Niemitalo
Kalle Veikko
Markus Pitkänen
Joonatan Aaltonen
Jani Pitkänen

https://www.facebook.com/Ouluspacejamcollective
https://ouluspacejamcollective.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/adansoniarecords/
https://www.adansoniarecords.de/

Oulu Space Jam Collective, Drug Rings of Saturn (2019)