Kemialliset Ystävät (roughly translated, Chemical Friends) are an expansive, amorphous entity, based largely in Finland, who are orchestrated and directed by one Jan Anderzén. Since Kemialliset’s inception in 1995, Jan has collaborated with over 100 musicians, (including múm, C Spencer Yeh and Islaja) and has had upwards of 40 recordings released in all manner of formats on a variety of labels across the globe, from lathe cut 8” picture discs to 3” CD’s. ‘Ullakkopalo’, the fifth KY album to be released on Fonal (Jan’s primary musical outlet), features fifteen co-collaborators, and is perhaps the most ambitious and fluid Kemialliset Ystävät record to date. Whilst individually marked, these tracks, each with a life of their own, also merge together to form one extensive textural flow.

Kemialliset Ystävät may sit comfortably among such experimental luminaries as Black Dice, Oneohtrix Point Never, Animal Collective, and Skaters and their ilk, but the recordings also reflect Jan’s geographical location, not to mention his own clearly defined agenda.

Kimmo Modig, sound artist and long-time KY enthusiast continues the thread:

“Jan Anderzén is one of the few Finnish musicians to achieve renown on the international experimental circuit. In the case of Anderzén (who also plies a trade as a visual artist), this is not a matter of juxtaposition between the experimental and the mainstream, or a calculated career choice. Using music and images, he is busy creating a world that is a law unto itself, a world of exceptional freedom and beauty.

KY albums have been peppered with contributions from individuals such as Islaja, the members of Avarus, and Sami Sänpäkkilä. It’s not easy to tell who plays what on Kemialliset Ystävät recordings. Rather than being a project consisting of solo parts, the band is an eco-system within Anderzén’s reality.

One of the essential techniques applied by Anderzén is collage, in sound as well as image. He is no conventional instrumental virtuoso; his music is created with a fluctuating array of instruments and equipment. The focus is less on instrumental prowess and more on the overall sound and impression, as well as the tension between the various materials. As a manipulator of these elements, Anderzén is in a league of his own. His sampler based solo performances as Tomutonttu have left no doubt about that.

A close listening of Anderzén’s music reveals its near architectonic precision. He is known for an exceptionally painstaking approach to creating his music. All this hard work is readily evident in the finished product, not as an over-emphasised complexity but as a clearly independent fully realised vision.

Kemialliset Ystävät is like a natural phenomenon. It is difficult to imagine anyone having consciously constructed it, such is the ease with which it presents itself to us. To be in the presence of Anderzen’s work is captivating in the same way it is to stare into the fire – simple, yet inexplicable. It truly takes a master to create such an experience, but listening to the new Kemialliset Ystävät album evokes just that: a feeling of lightness.“

Live shows in Europe and the US are planned for the Autumn, with details currently TBC.