Circle - NWOFHM

Zopalki re-releases

19.03.2012

Re-released and remastered, the legendary second album from 1996 captures Circle roaming the deep waters of monotonic ritual and manic psychedelia. The album marked the end of an era culminating their epic occult rock and roll. Zopalki offers a penetrating glimpse into a time forever lost, but whose presence can still be perceived.

CD out soon on Ektro Records. 2LP to be released later by Full Contact and Svart Records.

Circle - Brilliant Colours For Bright Ideas by Ektro Records

Circle - Ompatitions by Ektro Records

OUT SOON

Split Cranium

23.02.2012

Split Cranium is a new band featuring Circle's Jussi Lehtisalo and Aaron Turner of Isis. Listen to song Tiny me on Pitchfork. Split Cranium's debut album will be realeased by Hydra Head on March 20.

Serpent

19.01.2012

This titillating live spectacle of Circle was multitracked at the reputed rock venue The Croft, Bristol, during their United Kingdom tour in fall 2011. Here Circle gives us a one hour rumble of old and new songs, a brisk illustration of the adult-oriented avantgarde music that they have lately been involved in. Also this is a tasty introduction for their next studio album Manner which will be released by the American label Hydra Head Records on the 21st of April, Record Store Day.

Serpent out soon on CD on Ektro Records. Pre-order now!

Circle - New Fantasy (live) by Ektro Records

Circle - Saturnus Reality (live) by Ektro Records

Ps. Pharaoh Overlord, Circle's brother-in-arms, also has a new studio album coming out on Ektro Records.

Circle returns from Sweden

29.11.2011

The tour in Sweden was amazing! Special thanks to everyone who came to the concerts. Here's some nice photos of Circle in Stockholm by Björn Bergenheim.

Taantumus out soon on double vinyl

21.11.2011

Taantumus just turned ten years old. Originally released by the Finnish label legend Bad Vugum, the album was born into a tumultuous world. Bad Vugum soon fell under, and after the small CD pressing sold out, Taantumus became an instant cult rarity. Lately a remastered CD version has materialised, and also the hunger for wax will be sated, finally, on November 30th, when Ektro & Svart bring out Taantumus on double vinyl. The album features not only a beautiful gatefold jacket but also three bonus tracks in addition to the original album, which itself has been remastered for vinyl.

Compared to other titles in Circle's oeuvre Taantumus is a bit closer to traditional rock music in terms of song structure and length. The album is an astonishingly varied package, full of explosive rock'n'roll moments, minimal caveman-style ambience and metallic epic rumble. A transitional masterpiece and a cornerstone of the band's long career.

The vinyl version is limited to 500 copies on double black vinyl. A colored pressing on transparent brown vinyl, limited to 200, also exists, and it is strictly available from Ektro and Svart only.

Tower out soon on vinyl

16.11.2011

Tower, Circle's minimalistic (and super-limited) masterpiece from 2007, will soon be re-released on vinyl by Full Contact, the vinyl imprint of Ektro Records.

Mika Taanila & Circle

11.11.2011

A rare screening of Mika Taanila's triptych film Pori (3x16mm) takes place in Pori, Finland on November 18.

The soundtrack to this silent film is provided live by Circle. The Pori film is a symphony of a small industrial town. It features steel bridges, element houses, a shipyard, robot cameras in sewer systems, water, antennas and other important elements of the band's hometown, as well as archival film footage portraying some brief moments in the history of Pori.

This film/music performance dates back to 1998, when it was commissioned by Kiasma The Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki.

See Facebook event for more detailed venue info and more.

Mika Taanila's music video for Circle's Back to Pori (1998)

Prospekt and Soundcheck re-released on CD

11.11.2011

Two Circle CD re-releases out now on Essence Music, an independent record label based in the southeast of Brazil.

Prospekt CD (ESS017) (Gatefold mini-LP sleeve)
Soundcheck (live) CD (ESS018) (Gatefold mini-LP sleeve)

Also available from the Ektro Records webstore!

Circle's UK tour 2011

26.09.2011

Dates for Circle's upcoming tour added. See box on the left for details.

Some new t-shirts available at Ektro Records.

New t-shirt available

22.07.2011

A new Circle t-shirt (with old logo) is now available from Ektro Records.

Rakkaus tulessa available next week.

Maxim out now

20.07.2011

The Maxim live LP is now out on Ektro Records.

70 years of Erkki Kurenniemi

06.07.2011

Ektro Records celebrates the 70th birthday of electronic arts pioneer Erkki Kurenniemi (b. July 10, 1941) by releasing the LP Erkki Kurenniemi & Circle - Rakkaus tulessa (”Love On Fire”).

The album is an odd ”blind-date” concept, where two home cassette recordings from different eras are married together on editing table, creating a random sonic double-exposure. The backing tracks of this time tunnel are by Circle, taped in May 1999, and the romantic lead-vocals crooned by Kurenniemi himself, dating back to his cassette diary in January 11, 1972. Mash-up by Jussi Lehtisalo and Tuomas Laurila, produced by Lehtisalo and film-maker Mika Taanila. Available on vinyl only on Ektro's Full Contact imprint.

Rakkaus tulessa now available for pre-order! Out soon.
All LP orders made from the Ektro Records store will get a special Erkki Kurenniemi & Circle poster!

Ruton Music, Ektro’s cassette-only sub-label, puts out another homage to Kurenniemi. DRY ’73-9-8 is an unedited C32-reprint of one of his 90-odd volumes of private home recordings. This specific late-night tape contains nothing but the first ever recorded experiment of Kurenniemi’s futuristic musical instrument Dimi-T (T=thinking, a.k.a. Electroencephalophone a.k.a. α/θ cyborg) at his home. The machine transformed the alpha-waves of a sleeping musicians’ brains into real time sounds. An early phantasmal noise gem, with a limited edition of 100. Out soon.

Ps. Maxim also available for pre-order at Ektro now!

Maxim out soon

29.06.2011

From the ashes of movie theater Maxim (Antinkatu 19, Pori) rose Club 19, which offered a special night for only a handful of people on 20th of April 2005. The godfathers of psychedelia, Träd, Gräs och Stenar, played over two hours and Circle warmed up the megashow with a concert that was recorded multitrack.

The cover photo of this album proves the epic psychedelia that carried the historical culture venue to its dystopian end. Maxim reminds us of three different eras in the culture life of Pori.

Circle - Tuhatsata (clip) by Ektro Records

Out soon on the Full Contact imprint of Ektro Records.

Infektio out in April

03.02.2011

A new Circle album is always something to look forward to, and you never know what these Finnish gentlemen are gonna come up with. Will it be heavy metal? Krautrock? Soundscapes? Psych? You can be rest assured it sounds out of this world, weird and beautiful. If there would be such a thing as an atypical Circle album, Infektio might be just that. The kings of the New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal deliver an introspective album, which sounds like it was recorded under the Aurora Borealis lit polar skies. Organic, free and primitive and do I need to mention: absurd. Largely instrumental, on Infektio Circle creates a mellow caveman kind of jam but manages to sound mechanically precise leaving the repetitive Circle's classic motorik machine stylings behind. The past 20 years they have mastered every style they have approached and Infektio is yet another piece of music to highlight their hazy, oft-noisy primitive psych direction. Infektio is a new album full of shimmering bliss of what probably is one of the most interesting bands in the world. LP in a limited edition of 500.

Infektio out in April on Conspiracy Records.

Man with a video camera released on DVD

24.11.2010

Petri Hagner's documentary film Man with a video camera (Mies ja videokamera) has now been released on DVD by Fonal Records. The film can be ordered from the Ektro Records webshop also.

The DVD release also includes Naked Sushi Lunch, a 30-minute documentary film by Petri Hagner.

Format: DVD Region Free
System: PAL and NTSC
Language: Finnish
Subtitles: English
Total length: 50 + 30 minutes

Both films feature music by Circle.

More details about the film