Jaakko Eino Kalevi | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Jaakko Eino Kalevi returns with the announcement of his new album Chaos Magic. A double-album of elemental pop and baroque electronics, laced with melody and mystery, it’s the Finn’s wildest statement yet.

Largely written and recorded in his new home of Athens, Chaos Magic plots a thrilling course through the Jaakko universe, drawing on cosmic jazz, dub reggae, neon synthpop, tender ballads and space-rock nirvana. It features musical contributions from the French actress and singer Alma Jodorowsky, Jimi Tenor, Faux Real, Yu-Ching Huang and John Moods.

Stylistically, the album covers a lot of ground, from the ice-cool new-wave of “I Forget” and delirium of “Dino’s Deo” to the evocative disco of “Galactic Romance” and “Night Walk”. Taking shape over the past two years, initial demos for the album were made at various spots across Europe – at artist residencies in Geneva and Maajaam, Estonia, and in studios in Berlin and the Greek island of Hydra – before being developed in Athens at Mutual Sound Studios, a place close to Jaakko’s heart, run by his friend Teemu Takatalo, whoco-produced and mixed Chaos Magic alongside Jaakko.

An album very much founded in the beauty of collaboration and, in Jaakko’s words, “a ‘back to the roots’ album”, Chaos Magic “is a collection of songs from a certain period without trying to tie them together”. Inspired by his new home and the Greek word kháos, “meaning an abyss or void that was created when Earth and Heaven were separated”, the eclectic, wondrous sounds of the album find beauty in the chaotic nature of the everyday.