Antti Lähdesmäki – We Tend To Help Each Other Out Here

Bark At Your Owner

Finnish pianist Antti Lähdesmäki plays in a number of different groups. but for We Tend To Help Each Other Out Here, it is just him and his piano. Over thirteen diverse pieces, he allows his personality and the foibles of the instrument to insinuate their way into our consciousness.

Although the whole album was written, recorded, produced and played by Antti, there is no real sense of solitude. It is inclusive and instructive, starting with the slow but sparse warmth of opener “I Have A Fire That Never Burns Out”, the elegiac tones but abrupt notes evoke the memory of someone lost with unexpected thoughts and hints of discord. It is wary and breathless with swathes of space, but is no preparation for what is to come.

There are playful experiments with the florid right hand of “Lintukoto pt.1 (A World Of Frozen Forests)” leading into the siren-like repetition of “Femton Grader (Fifteen Degrees Celsius)”. There is something of the eighteenth century here, but with wilful misplacement to keep us on our toes.

The production here is lovely; on “Rain Is The Most Violent Scream Of All”, not only can you feel the echo of the room, but also the sound of the piano body as the lighter notes ring in the dust motes; and the scales on “Everyone We Love Exists In Us” paint a spare impression, first melancholic then energetic.

He is not afraid to let the structure drop away and the spare vibe continues on “Morgondagg” as Antti worries at triplets just to see how their frequency affects them. In fact the timing and the note selection feel very considered; this is a personal journey for Antti and one we feel privileged to be involved with. As the album progresses, so some motifs are re-visited and given slightly different perspectives; towards the end, he tries to see how few notes are necessary, allowing himself to revel in the reverb, the lightness of the touch and the rumble of the body.

Wavelike rhythms sit next to whimsical abstraction, the juxtaposition of the sparser pieces with the busier tracks keeping us engaged, but it is the unique approach to the instrument which wins the listener over. Although We Tend To Help Each Other Out Here is a simple conception, there is more to discover with every listen.

-Mr Olivetti-