Places Like This

New album from Architecture in Helsinki

Architecture in Helsinki is a musical collective formed by Cameron Bird in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, in the late 1990’s. For that moment it was a trio including also Jamie Mildren and Sam Perry who made friends with Bird playing in a teenage funk-grunge band The Pixel Muttons. Some time later all three moved to Melbourne and in 2000 studying photography at art school Bird got acquainted to James Cecil who joned the band on drums in a couple of months. Around that time Bird met Kellie Sutherland at a party and invited her to play the clarinet on some of their songs. Then at the art scool again Bird met Isobel Knowles, Tara Shackell and Gus Franklin who also joined Architecture in Helsinki. The first band’s album Fingers Grossed was released on February 9, 2003. In 2005 Architecture in Helsinki finished their second album, In Case We Die, which got many musical awards. In mid 2006 the group announced their fans that Tara Shackell and Isobel Knowles left the collective because of “creative differences” with the other members. The same year they released We Died, They Remixed, the album of remixes on the entire In Case We Die. In 2007 Architecture in Helsinki made avaliable to the public their new album, Places Like This.

Quality is better than quantity

The first single from the album, Heart It Races, a love song full of reverie, was released in May 2007 and sounds extremely fresh due to the hooky Caribbean beats and experimental use of cowbell and unusual drums. This tune, ideally fitting for the summer soundtrack, demonstrates a whole amount of winding up screams, onomatopoeic motives and sighs in high-pitch female vocals switching to male singing. The joviality of the band so much appreciated by the fans can be found in the original track Hold Music, one of the most rememberable songs on the album interesting becides all for the use of whistles and bells in the record. The experimentational Underwater can boast of the relaxing aquatic theme. The following Like It or Not fascinates by the Bird’s falsetto and avant-gard instrumentation: the sythesizer is followed by horns and bongos, acoustic guitars are suddenly turned by electric. The song has a slow langiud introduction followed by the energetic fast main part, the rythmical changes in which can make anyone on the dancefloor crazy. Such tracks like Debbie and Lazy (Lazy) are sure not to leave anyone indifferent, it is only possible to love them and enjoy their tropical wormth. The only pity is that all 10 tracks last approximately 3 minutes though they once again prove the words that quality is better than quantity.

Spirit of baking hot care-free Australian summer

For the current moment Architecture in Helsinki consists of 6 people from all over the world. The majority of the members can play multiple instruments: from classical concert (like clarinet, trombone, tuba) to more unique (like glockenspiel) and standard (guitar, bass and drums). All these masterities are demonstrated brilliantly on the album. The joy received from creativity plus passion for misical experiments and avant-gard mixture of styles are the main components of the original sound of Architecture in Helsinki. Guys have fun in the studio - it can be felt in the vibration of every composition from the album, the voices of Cameron Bird and Kellie Sutherland are full of positive energy and radiate happiness. This atmosphere is very catching - the immunity of your melancholy will just not be able to overcome it. The music of these masters of miniature is as international as the cast of the collective, it consists of the kaleidoscope of their ideas and that is why perfectly suits for any person in the world. Moreover, this album seems to contain the spirit of baking hot care-free Australian summer, which you let into you mind from the leading song of Places Like This to the last one.