Sontag Shogun combine the abstract and the natural to create a kind of magical realism in music. They describe their activity as one rooted in memory, but the records of the mind are notoriously difficult to access with accuracy. Through the use of environmental recordings, treated piano and guitar, and other sounds, the trio evoke a past that may have not yet come into being.
This much we do know: in the summer of 2019, the group met up on the island of Kimitoön with Lau Nau. The Finnish multi-instrumentalist is a creative force of nature, herself. Together, caressed by the Baltic wind, they laid the bed for an album that reflects the topography of the space and the calm before a researcher in China unwittingly carried a weaponised virus to the local market. Valo Siroutuu (Beacon Sound) was the result.
There were hours of recordings left unused, however, that exerted a tug on Jesse Perlstein’s imagination. A return was called for – if only through a rework of the field recordings and hard drive archives collected on the trip.
Most of the tracks arranged on Päiväkahvit (Beacon Sound) [EN: Afternoon Coffee] were prepared before the global crisis that unfurled only a few months later. In the intervening time, the material has been reassembled and, in parts, retooled. The result is a mesh of found sounds and studio experiments that recalls the calm of the party’s time on Kimitoön and soothes the soul.
Fans of Virginia Astley and John Foxx’s work with Harold Budd will find plenty to enjoy in the sonic expanses of the album. Lau Nau’s voice is one of the treasures of the North, and the skilful renderings by Sontag Shogun and the remixers expand the breadth of the recordings. The lift provided by Päiväkahvit is for any time of the day.