MILJARD

News came out in 2006 of a new Circle album and fans were eagerly waiting for it. Since their "Sunrise" album Circle has taken a heavier root making a clear statement with its NWOFHM tag. With the release of "Tulikoira" fans were certain that this will be their new style for now on, but boy they were wrong. They were way wrong. If you bought this album without hesitation expecting a double disc jam packed with motorik bass lines, hypnotic riffs, trance-inducing synths and pompous drums then you're in bad luck. This album has nothing you would expect a Circle album to have, nothing. So leave your expectations behind as well as your leather jacket and spikes, sit back and relax because you won't need all of that stuff here.

Delicate piano compositions, unstructured melodies and a snowy atmosphere is what you'll get here with Miljard. No krautrock nor metal, just abstract compositions made mostly with piano. This is certainly a relaxing album that's perfect to listen to in rainy nights, but it won't be an accessible album, though (after all, this is Circle we're talking about). This albums requires patience and I mean ALOT of patience to fully appreciate it. Being a fan of the band won't help you either since this album is so far off the band's usual sound that you won't even know its Circle unless someone told you it was them.

The music on this album feels very "artsy". It's the music that avant-garde artists have in their mind when painting (and this is certainly avant-garde music). Songs like "Parmalee" and "Sophie" bring images of a winter night in Scandinavia. The notes played by the pianos are the sounds little snow flakes make when they touch the ground. The wolf howls in "Cornelia" and the bird songs in several other songs through the album help you get more in the mood as well. There are also some psychedelic touches in the album here and there. In the first disc they aren't very present except in "Parmalee", but in the second disc it's all over the place specially in "Cornelia" and the closer "Viitane" which is the only song that sounds like Circle made it. The second disc is also more structured than the first one too making it the most accessible one of the two, while the first disc has a certain jazzy undertone.

There's a certain innocence and human feel that was never present in their discography and this is part of what makes this album so special (aside from being totally different musically speaking than any of their previous albums). This isn't for everyone, you need a certain amount of patience that even I have trouble having. I don't know to who I can recommend this album to, but if you like avant-garde, a bit of minimalism, delicate yet abstract piano compositions and maybe a hint of jazz then you'll enjoy this album.

From this release onward these crazy Finns have been evading expectations. Every release show a departure from their previous sound and a dive to a new unexpected one and this can clearly be seen with Panic and Tower. What will Jussi and co. lead us to next?

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