[2View] Koho / Koskenlahti, Mark Reid Bulatović & Simone Spampinato / Fredrik Rasten (Isthmus)

From Helsinki’s Toinen kerros comes Isthmus Recordings, a new label and live archive capturing the restless, intimate sounds of Finland’s experimental music scene.

 

Bringing Helsinki’s Sounds Together

 

Isthmus Recordings is a new record label based in Helsinki and Venice, also functioning as an archive for performances recorded in Toinen kerros, a new community-driven space for practicing and encountering sonic arts which which (in a few phases), has become a hub for the Finnish experimental music scene. The first two releases by Isthmus (directly funding the space with Bandcamp sales) include performances in genres such as electroacoustic improvisation, ambient, and minimalism.

Recorded in May 2025 and fittingly titled Kesän korvalla—“on the verge of summer,” but also “with the ear of summer”—the first Isthmus release is a performance by the duo composed of sound artist J. Koho (whose brilliant designs grace the Isthmus cover arts so far) and percussionist Minna Koskenlahti. During the 35-minute piece, Koho / Koskenlahti improvise with amplified and processed concrète sounds, but also with sounds recalling more standard mallet percussion instruments and, later in the piece, wooden flutes and whistles. The improvised piece is organized in movements, with different moods and textures following one another: first frantic but gentle percussions set the atmosp​here, a drone-oriented phase follows and then vitalistic and almost free-jazz wind instruments loudly pierced the tapestry of drones. After this climax, the piece descends back into percussive territory, increasing in intensity and chaos and then falling back into order with long stretches of metallic sounds finally slowing down into ambiance. There is something meteorological about the piece, coming, growing and going like a weather event—a rush of wind moving natural and human objects before a summer shower, and then going and fading in the distance just as it came.

Isthmus documents music in motion ::

The second Isthmus release (Ballad Broadcast / Lineaments) so far includes two pieces, respectively a duo performance by Mark Reid Bulatović and Simone Spampinato, and a solo piece in two parts by Fredrik Rasten. The whole release focuses on guitars, and particularly acoustic guitars with uncommon tuning, interacting with ambience rather than effects or found sounds. At the beginning of Bulatović and Spampinato’s piece, “Ballad Broadcast,” the recording lets through room noise—a door opening, people moving, camera shutters—which, while most likely just accidental to the composition, add to the quiet and enigmatic guitar arpeggios. Over twenty minutes, the guitars form a very sparse call and response of sorts between a drier and more plucked sound and a strummed one with softer decay, but while they are in dialogue, they don’t offer an obvious interpretation, and the slice around them takes most of the sonic and semantic space. Fredrik Rasten’s piece, “Lineament” is a performance of the 2023 studio album of the same name. The pieces feature guitar arpeggios as the undisputed protagonists, but also held-note vocals and sine drones adding to the texture and interacting with the guitars’ own resonance and vibrations. While part I chooses simple arpeggios overlapping in their upward and downward trajectories as its main shape, in part two chords also enter the equation, giving a less regular effect and more space to the voice and drone.

With forthcoming (and past) events at Toinen kerros including fantastic names both from the Finnish scene and internationally, one should really be looking forward to the live performance series growing—and hopefully more outside of the live archive too. (And if you’re in the Helsinki area, make sure to keep an eye on their programming!)

Kesän korvalla and Ballad Broadcast / Lineaments are both available on Isthmus.