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Muurahaiset (2024): Circle's Most Recent Album
2024 · Ektro Records · Studio album — most recent release
Still Running
Album cover — rights belong to the original labelMuurahaiset ("Ants") is, as of this writing, Circle's most recent studio album — released via Ektro Records on Bandcamp on 3 May 2024, more than three decades after Jussi Lehtisalo founded the band in Pori in 1991. A companion vinyl pressing of 200 black-wax copies followed on Full Contact Records, alongside a cassette edition through the Satatuhatta label.
The album runs nine tracks — "Sukellus," "Napa-alue," "Joukkotuho," "Mammutti," "Manipulaatio," "Kutoja," "Hovineito," "Välimuoto," and "Aitososiaalisuus" — with concept and programming credited to Lehtisalo alongside Sami Pekkola and Vesa Puhakka, and cover design credited to Tom Backström. The label copy accompanying the release tells its own origin story, pure Circle in tone: supposedly a circle of forest-folk aficionados built a "programmable forest folk generator" back in 2002, and the resulting tapes sat lost for two decades until Lehtisalo rediscovered and issued them in 2024. Whether that backstory is literal or another of the band's tongue-in-cheek myths, the music matches the pitch — a mix of randomly generated field recordings, low-tuned acoustic strings, tape hiss, and Finnish spoken-word passages.
Press coverage of Muurahaiset specifically appears thin so far — no Quietus or Bandcamp Daily feature has turned up for this release, unlike 2017's Terminal — but early listener reviews single out the same qualities longtime fans already prize in Circle: boundless creativity matched by a genuine willingness to confound expectation, unmistakably the band even at its most "garbled and perplexing."
The vinyl edition carries a proper catalog number — Full Contact Records krypt-162, priced at €28 before it sold out — while the cassette is a limited edition of 100 chrome-tape copies (C41 format) issued through Satatuhatta, a Finnish label that otherwise specializes in harsh noise and experimental sound. Both physical editions bundle the digital download in FLAC and other lossless formats. Bandcamp tags the record Rock, Avantgarde, Experimental, Hypnotic, Krautrock, and Monotonic — a genre spread about as scattershot as anything else in the catalog — and the nine tracks run a lean 37 minutes 33 seconds total, from the 6:40 "Napa-alue" down to the 2:38 closer "Aitososiaalisuus." Rating data is still sparse this soon after release: Discogs shows only a handful of entries so far (the vinyl pressing sitting at 5 out of 5 from a single rating, the cassette at 4 out of 5), too thin a sample to draw any real conclusion from yet.
What matters most about Muurahaiset isn't a single stylistic detail — it's what its existence proves: Circle is not a legacy act coasting on a 1990s or 2000s reputation. This is a band that has kept writing and releasing music continuously, across 71 verified releases, right up to the present. The same restlessness that took the band from the raw krautrock of Meronia (1994) through metal, doom, and a dozen side-project detours is still running.
If you're arriving at Circle for the first time via this record, the rest of this archive is the place to see how it got here.
Muurahaiset: Frequently Asked Questions
How many copies of the Muurahaiset vinyl were pressed, and is it still available?
Full Contact Records pressed 200 black-vinyl copies (catalog krypt-162) at €28; the LP is now listed as out of stock on the label's own store.
What about the cassette edition?
Satatuhatta — a Finnish label better known for harsh noise and experimental releases — issued a limited chrome-tape cassette (C41 format) capped at 100 copies, also since sold out; both physical editions bundle a digital download.
How long is the album, and what does it sound like?
Nine tracks across 37 minutes 33 seconds, opening with the 5:04 "Sukellus" and closing with the 2:38 "Aitososiaalisuus." Bandcamp tags it Rock, Avantgarde, Experimental, Hypnotic, Krautrock, and Monotonic, and the material mixes randomly generated field recordings and studio tones with low-tuned acoustic strings, tape hiss, and Finnish spoken-word passages.
Is the "lost tapes from 2002" story true?
It's presented as the album's origin story on Bandcamp and the label copy: Jussi Lehtisalo, Sami Pekkola, and Vesa Puhakka reportedly built a "programmable forest folk generator" software patch during 2002's forest-folk trend, and the tapes it produced supposedly sat unreleased for two decades until Lehtisalo rediscovered them. Given the band's long history of tongue-in-cheek liner notes and constructed backstories, it's worth reading with the same skepticism as any other in-joke.
How is Muurahaiset rated by fans and collectors so far?
Data is still very thin this soon after release — Discogs logs only a small handful of individual format ratings so far (the vinyl at 5 out of 5 from a single rating, the cassette at 4 out of 5) — not yet a large enough sample to treat as a real verdict.
