Circle - Sseennsseess

Artist: Circle

Album: Sseennsseess

Label: Ektro Records

Genre: post-rock

Release Date: January 24^th 2014

Finnish hard-working millipedes Circle have just released their manieth (we lost track, these guys are incredibly productive) Sseennsseess on “their” label Ektro Records.

While in the last year, we saw Circle collaborating with other artists, such as Mammiffer, and venture into AOR as the band Falcon, they have opted for working under their name as Circle for this recording. Since they were choosing to play as Circle, we hear here the typical circular Circle sound.

Sseennsseess is a particularly dreamy album and fits right into the (slightly attenuated) wave of post-rock music we have heard over the past decade. Sseennsseess is the soundtrack to a documentary which they developed with filmmaker Mika Taanila. While this documentary is not for sale, it was more used as an installation and a live performance in which music and projections were blended together into a feast for the senses. Since the images are missing, Sseennsseess at times feels a little bland.

This live album was recorded at the premiere of the show at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki on November 22, 2013 – and I think that none of us who missed this performance can have an idea of what it was like.

Sseennsseess contains 4 new tracks by Circle, good for 48 minutes of new material. The first track “Kudos” stands out on the album with its references to the Pink Floyd soundtrack to the movie More.

Overall, Sseennsseess can give us some nice background music for work and study, but as an album it is missing the projections that were part of this project. Circle have released better albums than this, so unless you are a complete Circle fan, you can easily skip this album.