Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo - Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo (2024)

Lucky dip of library-styled synth jollities by cult Finn Jan Anderzen’s Tomuttontu and Circle ringleader Jussi Lehtisalo, every bit as game as Dylan Ray Arnold’s acid blotter-mimicking lottery ticket artwork.

Fruity as they come, ‘Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo’ frames two of Finland’s most pivotal artists of the past 30 years in a dream-sequence of ’80s-skooled themes resembling early computer game scores and acid-spiked TV news idents. Recorded in 2023, but arguably placed on the timeline at any point between the late ‘70s and now, the highly satisfying session gels the duo’s instincts for naif melody and nostalgia-jogging hooks with a psychedelic mettle for smeared surface texture fractals and curdled harmonies that get under the skin to impart the uncanniest and sweetest effect.

It’s all precisely the sort of stuff that has kept many international listeners rapt to the audities emerging from Finnish labels such as Fonal - including Anderzen’s Kemialliset Ystävät, Islaja, Paavoharju - and no doubt the wonders of Lehtisalo’s Ektro label (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, Mahti, etc.), but here squared up and pared back to their most broadly appealing, if dead trippy, arrangements, reminding to niches of Rephlex and BoC jaunts as much as Trunk curios or that mad ‘Anima Pop - Music from Estonian Animations 1965-1986’ suite starring Arvo Pärt doing psych-pop.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo - Luukku yksi (5:42)
1.02 - Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo - Kylpy (1:21)
1.03 - Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo - Nolla kärpästä yhdellä iskulla (3:35)
1.04 - Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo - Muinaisten vitsausten hylly (6:08)
1.05 - Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo - Apina putoaa (4:26)
1.06 - Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo - Hymy yössä (4:26)
1.07 - Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo - Puistossa (4:27)
1.08 - Tomutonttu ja Lehtisalo - Luukku kahdeksan / Autere (7:19)