About Kemialliset Ystävät

Kemialliset Ystävät (pronunciation here; English translation: Chemical Friends) is an ever changing group of free form pilots revolving around Jan Anderzén. They have been sending murky audio clouds from their basement in Tampere, Finland to the people of the world since 1995. The band works in short, spooling instrumentals, building layers of simple repetitive riffs into laminal mudcakes and weaving ghosts of folk song into huge tunnels of drone. They utilize a wide spectrum of mouldy acoustic instruments and almost broken electronics to create their joyful noise but the recording studio in itself might be their single most important instrument. Kemialliset Ystävät's discography includes CDs, vinyl records, cassettes and lathe cuts on Fonal, Fusetron, Beta-Lactam Ring, Lal Lal Lal, Jewelled Antler, Celebrate Psi Phenomenom and other revolutionary labels around the world. Members of Kemialliset Ystävät are involved with other projects such as The Anaksimandros, Avarus, Islaja, Kiila, Tomutonttu, ES and Päivänsäde. With a vast catalogue of releases (in all manner of formats) since its inception in 1995, Kemialliset Ystävät has remained a constantly moving enigma. Almost entirely self-taught and using a bewildering array of instruments and approaches, their sonic arsenal includes detuned guitars, bass, traditional / vernacular instrumentation (mandolins, balalaikas, etc.) hand percussion, all manner of electronic instruments, effects, toys and circuit-bent items, treated samples and vinyl manipulation. Playfully taking their own unique and unpredictable path, they have layered and fused together traditional Finnish (at times almost medieval-sounding) instrumentation and melodies with avant-garde electronics, psychedelic folk / rock, noise, electro-acoustic, and percussive tribal rhythms, creating a sense of ritualistic magic and flexible, group-mind improvisation, with the whole often subjected to brutal and precise editing.