BANDS

Siinai

Siinai – Olympic Games released on Splendour

The portent of their grand ambition is both in the name and concept. Introducing Siinai, a Finnish four-piece who’ve named themselves after the mountain from whence Moses received the commandments and who, in their decision to write and record an Olympic theme, have set themselves up as a group unafraid of finding distant sonic parameters and open boundaries to try and first reach, explore and then transcend.

“The Olympic theme was a bit of a vision for us,” says the band’s guitarist Risto Joensuu, “we wanted to make something big that also tried to capture that ancient, almost religious feel of the old games;” certainly within Olympic Games’ coming together of krautrock motorik, choral vocals, and the thick fug of ambient shoegaze lies the achievement of those goals.

The band cite krautrock influences including Neu!, Can and La Dusseldorf – as well as a more predictable yet apt mention of Chariots of Fire composer Vangelis – but Siinai’s music goes beyond the mining of those 70s experimental influences; tracks like introductory opus ‘Anthem 1 & 2’ take constant rhythms and submerge them in great washes of twinkling noise, eventually reining it in with a scuzzy directness, similar to Isn’t Anything-era My Bloody Valentine or - to pick some fellow Scandinavians - Sereena Maneesh. Others, including ‘Anthem 3’ and ‘Mt. Olympus,’ are simply left as organic canvases, as though several meandering trails of sound have been set off and left to envelope and bleed into each other.

Such obvious freedom in the music is indicative of the relaxed, open mindedness of the band; Joensuu admits that Siinai went into the studio “without much music written beforehand. We improvised a lot,” yet it was an atmosphere that worked, the guitarist enthusing “it all came together pretty quickly. It was fun, easy and spontaneous. Just like recording should more often be.”

Such spontaneity doesn’t mean that Olympic Games lacks direction and it also uncouples it from any prospect of falling into the sickly pastiche that informs so many Sports sound tracking anthemia. Whilst certainly euphoric in its intentions, with crescendo on crescendo ascending all the way up to the glorious peak of ‘Victory,’ there’s something subtler at play here; a more reflective tone that perhaps stems from the group’s more subdued personal beginnings. Though formed in Helsinki, it’s from the dark, sparser areas of rural Northern Finland known as Östrobothnia that the four call home, and such contemplation is possible in a land where by admission “not much is happening.”

“The whole of Östrobotnia has a certain feel that we all relate to,” offers Joensuu, “everything is flat. Roads are long, people are few. There are fields after fields, forests, small dying towns… but we love it! It definitely influences our music.” This coupled with the group’s eclectic range of influences and sounds is fervent proof that they had something deeper to explore sonically too, rather than just matching a concept.

That said, would Siinai say yes if asked to perform at next year’s Olympic opening ceremony? “It would be a dream!” Says Joensuu, “but if we don’t manage to make it there then I suppose the local sports bar will do.” As a group they may be humble, but Olympic Games is nothing short of stratospheric in ambition – one that ultimately comes fully realised. See you at the finish line.

http://siinai.tumblr.com/
http://soundcloud.com/siinai

Promotion

Jonas Verwijnen
jonas@kaikustudios.com

Booking

Artemi Remes
tel +358 50 3744626
artemi@fullsteamagency.com

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