Ahead of the release of his new album Chaos Magicon Friday, Jaakko Eino Kalevi today releases final taster “Hell & Heaven”. Written with the livewire Faux Real brothers, aka Elliott and Virgile Arndt, the track is a high-energy romp with free-association lyrics and pulsating synths making it an instant album stand out.
“I sent a drum track to the Faux Real boys and asked them to make a song out of it,” Jaakko comments. “It was only drums but somehow they understood the vibe completely. This song feels to me like some kind of gothic Abba pop song. Also, it needed dramatic lyrics so I went biblical. It is the most biblical song I have ever written.”
Filmed in a derelict 1960s fairytale castle on the west coast of Greece and directed by Jaakko’s frequent collaborator Frank Holbein, the video for “Hell & Heaven” follows Jaakko as he enters another world, taunted by the Faux Real brothers playing angel and demon characters, whispering advice in Jaakko’s ear and finishing his sentences. “’Hell & Heaven’ is a very intense baroque-pop song. In my mind it demanded a video that would be shot in a castle,” says Jaakko. “Even in heaven you might bring your own hell, and vice versa.”
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 Jimi Tenor, Alma Jodorowsky 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.
Welcome to Jaakko Eino Kalevi’s garden of earthly delights!
Upcoming live dates
16th November – Arkaoda, Berlin, DE
17th November – Eigelsteintorburg x Oté, Cologne, DE
18th November – Cinetol, Amsterdam, NL
20th November – Rotonde @ Botanique, Brussels, BE
21st November – Point Ephémère, Paris, FR
22nd November – Two Palms, London, UK
13th December – Stadsgårdsterminalen, Stockholm, SE
14th December – Parkteatret, Oslo, NO
15th December – Ideal Bar @ Vega, Copenhagen, DK
16th December – Korjaamo, Helsinki, FI