*Artist: Pharaoh Overlord
*Album: Louhi
*Year: 2025
*Genre: Drone/Stoner/Psychedelic/Space Rock/Experimental
*Country: Finland
*Format: flac
*Size: 471MB
Tracklist:
1. Louhi (Part 1)
2. Louhi (Part 2)
******************************
Total playing time: 39:12
Extended info
Tags
rock avantgarde hypnotic krautrock monotonic spacerock Pori
Julius Jääskeläinen Guitars
See also: Circle, Obfuscation, ex-Obscene, Falcon (Fin), Plain Ride, ex-Blind Emotion, ex-Paskaröykkiö
Pekka Jääskeläinen Guitars
See also: Circle, Falcon (Fin), Plain Ride, ex-Chainsmoker, ex-Sweetheart
Jussi Lehtisalo Bass, Guitars, Vocals (2000-present)
See also: Aktor, Arkhamin Kirjasto, Circle, Steel Mammoth, Motorspandex, ex-Krypt Axeripper, ex-Tractor Pulling, Bensiini, Doktor Kettu, Ektroverde, Falcon (Fin), Jussi Lehtisalo, Leppästick, Lusiferiinin Armosta, Mercedes Hell, Rättö ja Lehtisalo, Sakset, Slussenanalys, Split Cranium, Susi-Unto, Televisio, ex-Eturivi, ex-Kirvasto, ex-Lehtisalofamily, ex-Matosalaatti, ex-Rakhim, ex-Sunburned Circle, ex-Ympyräkonnat
Tomi Leppänen Drums (2000-present)
See also: Aktor, Circle, Motorspandex, Aavikko, Alpo ja Tomi, Cityman, Custom Drummer, Falcon, Haunted Plasma, Iron Magazine, K-X-P, Leppästick, Sakset, Spektator, Split Cranium, ex-Kirvasto, ex-Sunburned Circle, ex-The Prow
Janne Westerlund Guitars, Bass, Vocals (2000-present)
See also: Circle, Bensiini, Falcon (Fin), Kirvasto, Plain Ride, ex-Arto Muna ja Millennium, ex-Chainsmoker, ex-Ektroverde, ex-Itäväylä, ex-Sunburned Circle, ex-Sweetheart, ex-The Lousy Lovers
Jussi Kangas Guitars, Vocals (2005-present)
See also: Jussi Kangas's Dragonwing, Oz, Play Girls Magazine, ex-Bina, ex-Dead City Klowns, ex-Neumann, ex-Rust n' Rage (live)
In the world of Pharaoh Overlord, little is ever as it seems. This band is less comprised of tricksters or mischief makers than fearless obsessives whose musical instincts take twisted and wild pathways. Now, fresh from forays into Italo-disco and synth-pop, they have thrown another still more mighty statement of intent into the universe.
Louhi is a thunderous and majestic epic of joyful repetition and earth-shaking power. A two-track minimalist-rock monolith forged from guitars, synths and hurdy-gurdy, and constructed around a single riff and melodic idea, it builds and evolves to fearsome pinnacles of elemental intensity.
Whilst the character Louhi herself is most commonly known as the embodiment of a shape-shifting and evil witch queen in Finnish lore, this is characteristically not the case here, as the band - built around the nucleus of Jussi Lehtisalo and Tomi Leppänen - explain. “Actually the Louhi name is not inspired by the Finnish national epic, but by cryptocurrency. In Finnish language the bitcoin mining is called "Louhinta". The same word is used for describing someone playing extremely heavy riffs on guitar, so it seemed like a good fit for us.”
Nonetheless, the initial impetus for this album was relatively straightforward, even as such small sparks have given way to a more intimidating blaze of inspiration - “With Louhi we wanted to explore or maybe even recreate the feeling one of our favourite albums: Tony Conrad With Faust – Outside The Dream Syndicate, from 1973. The starting point for Louhi was definitely the focused atmosphere of this classic. When we first time met in 1996, we listened to that album together, so it is sort of one of the founding stones to our friendship, and this band too. Four years later in the year 2000 Pharaoh Overlord was born.”
The next step was to recruit luminaries and constant compatriots in the Pharaoh Overlord headspace. Vocalist and longtime collaborator Aaron Turner (SUMAC, Isis, Old Man Gloom) who most recently brought his fearsome pipes and considerable psychic fortitude to bear on the band’s ‘6’ on Rocket, was quick to join, but found the work demanded a different approach this time around.
“Pharaoh Overlord’s music has long captivated me, whatever form it’s taken and this was no exception. Loved it from first listen” enthuses Aaron “So, my approach was one of spontaneous composition. The idea was to keep it as “live” as possible - as close as what it would’ve been like had I been in the room and making it up on the spot while the band played.”
Tyneside maverick Richard Dawson, who most recently collaborated with Jussi and Tomi on his album Henki with Circle, was equally keen to get on board, but also keen to emphasise that his contribution essentially consists of one chord. “This was very exciting for me because I'm used to playing a lot of notes and having to remember a lot of words but here I just concentrated on one guitar strum, and getting that just right. For my part, I wanted to bring something like the atmosphere of a caravan - ripped canvas, rickety wheels, ropes, jangling bells and dust.”
Whatever routes Pharaoh Overlord take to their destination, a common theme is the consciousness-warping singularity of the riff and the mantra, and the temporal disorientation this can provoke mirrors the broader designs of this record.
“It’s our 25th Anniversary this year, and from time to time we hear wishes that if just we could play more of the stuff that we did twenty or more years ago” relate Jussi and Tomi. “We totally understand this, and with this album we kind of were influenced by these wishes, and tried to channel these ideas to the music. But we couldn't stop the time machine, so we went even further, to the moment when we first met before the band was even formed. You could say we used Louhi to reset ourselves to the past, to be able to continue again to the future.”
In many ways, Pharaoh Overlord are themselves something of a time machine, as the band concur. “One could think of this album as our homage to the Finnish traditional folk music and musicians, with instruments like Hurdy Gurdy or Esseharpa. By combining the traditional with modern and experimental, we are trying to travel in time, to reach out to some ancient core or find a starting point of something unknown, genuine and real.”
Aaron puts it another way, evoking simplicity in the chaos - “The world of Pharaoh Overlord is a magical one - every album is an invitation to enter that place and rejoice in doing so…."
rock avantgarde hypnotic krautrock monotonic spacerock Pori
Julius Jääskeläinen Guitars
See also: Circle, Obfuscation, ex-Obscene, Falcon (Fin), Plain Ride, ex-Blind Emotion, ex-Paskaröykkiö
Pekka Jääskeläinen Guitars
See also: Circle, Falcon (Fin), Plain Ride, ex-Chainsmoker, ex-Sweetheart
Jussi Lehtisalo Bass, Guitars, Vocals (2000-present)
See also: Aktor, Arkhamin Kirjasto, Circle, Steel Mammoth, Motorspandex, ex-Krypt Axeripper, ex-Tractor Pulling, Bensiini, Doktor Kettu, Ektroverde, Falcon (Fin), Jussi Lehtisalo, Leppästick, Lusiferiinin Armosta, Mercedes Hell, Rättö ja Lehtisalo, Sakset, Slussenanalys, Split Cranium, Susi-Unto, Televisio, ex-Eturivi, ex-Kirvasto, ex-Lehtisalofamily, ex-Matosalaatti, ex-Rakhim, ex-Sunburned Circle, ex-Ympyräkonnat
Tomi Leppänen Drums (2000-present)
See also: Aktor, Circle, Motorspandex, Aavikko, Alpo ja Tomi, Cityman, Custom Drummer, Falcon, Haunted Plasma, Iron Magazine, K-X-P, Leppästick, Sakset, Spektator, Split Cranium, ex-Kirvasto, ex-Sunburned Circle, ex-The Prow
Janne Westerlund Guitars, Bass, Vocals (2000-present)
See also: Circle, Bensiini, Falcon (Fin), Kirvasto, Plain Ride, ex-Arto Muna ja Millennium, ex-Chainsmoker, ex-Ektroverde, ex-Itäväylä, ex-Sunburned Circle, ex-Sweetheart, ex-The Lousy Lovers
Jussi Kangas Guitars, Vocals (2005-present)
See also: Jussi Kangas's Dragonwing, Oz, Play Girls Magazine, ex-Bina, ex-Dead City Klowns, ex-Neumann, ex-Rust n' Rage (live)
In the world of Pharaoh Overlord, little is ever as it seems. This band is less comprised of tricksters or mischief makers than fearless obsessives whose musical instincts take twisted and wild pathways. Now, fresh from forays into Italo-disco and synth-pop, they have thrown another still more mighty statement of intent into the universe.
Louhi is a thunderous and majestic epic of joyful repetition and earth-shaking power. A two-track minimalist-rock monolith forged from guitars, synths and hurdy-gurdy, and constructed around a single riff and melodic idea, it builds and evolves to fearsome pinnacles of elemental intensity.
Whilst the character Louhi herself is most commonly known as the embodiment of a shape-shifting and evil witch queen in Finnish lore, this is characteristically not the case here, as the band - built around the nucleus of Jussi Lehtisalo and Tomi Leppänen - explain. “Actually the Louhi name is not inspired by the Finnish national epic, but by cryptocurrency. In Finnish language the bitcoin mining is called "Louhinta". The same word is used for describing someone playing extremely heavy riffs on guitar, so it seemed like a good fit for us.”
Nonetheless, the initial impetus for this album was relatively straightforward, even as such small sparks have given way to a more intimidating blaze of inspiration - “With Louhi we wanted to explore or maybe even recreate the feeling one of our favourite albums: Tony Conrad With Faust – Outside The Dream Syndicate, from 1973. The starting point for Louhi was definitely the focused atmosphere of this classic. When we first time met in 1996, we listened to that album together, so it is sort of one of the founding stones to our friendship, and this band too. Four years later in the year 2000 Pharaoh Overlord was born.”
The next step was to recruit luminaries and constant compatriots in the Pharaoh Overlord headspace. Vocalist and longtime collaborator Aaron Turner (SUMAC, Isis, Old Man Gloom) who most recently brought his fearsome pipes and considerable psychic fortitude to bear on the band’s ‘6’ on Rocket, was quick to join, but found the work demanded a different approach this time around.
“Pharaoh Overlord’s music has long captivated me, whatever form it’s taken and this was no exception. Loved it from first listen” enthuses Aaron “So, my approach was one of spontaneous composition. The idea was to keep it as “live” as possible - as close as what it would’ve been like had I been in the room and making it up on the spot while the band played.”
Tyneside maverick Richard Dawson, who most recently collaborated with Jussi and Tomi on his album Henki with Circle, was equally keen to get on board, but also keen to emphasise that his contribution essentially consists of one chord. “This was very exciting for me because I'm used to playing a lot of notes and having to remember a lot of words but here I just concentrated on one guitar strum, and getting that just right. For my part, I wanted to bring something like the atmosphere of a caravan - ripped canvas, rickety wheels, ropes, jangling bells and dust.”
Whatever routes Pharaoh Overlord take to their destination, a common theme is the consciousness-warping singularity of the riff and the mantra, and the temporal disorientation this can provoke mirrors the broader designs of this record.
“It’s our 25th Anniversary this year, and from time to time we hear wishes that if just we could play more of the stuff that we did twenty or more years ago” relate Jussi and Tomi. “We totally understand this, and with this album we kind of were influenced by these wishes, and tried to channel these ideas to the music. But we couldn't stop the time machine, so we went even further, to the moment when we first met before the band was even formed. You could say we used Louhi to reset ourselves to the past, to be able to continue again to the future.”
In many ways, Pharaoh Overlord are themselves something of a time machine, as the band concur. “One could think of this album as our homage to the Finnish traditional folk music and musicians, with instruments like Hurdy Gurdy or Esseharpa. By combining the traditional with modern and experimental, we are trying to travel in time, to reach out to some ancient core or find a starting point of something unknown, genuine and real.”
Aaron puts it another way, evoking simplicity in the chaos - “The world of Pharaoh Overlord is a magical one - every album is an invitation to enter that place and rejoice in doing so…."
Technical info
Input File: 2. Louhi, Pt. 1.2.flac
Channels : 2
Sample Rate : 44100
Precision : 24-bit
Duration : 00:05:57.81 = 15779568 samples = 26836 CDDA sectors
File Size : 71.7M
Bit Rate : 1.60M
Sample Encoding: 24-bit FLAC
Comments :
DiscNumber=1
DISCTOTAL=1
Album Artist=Pharaoh Overlord
Genre=Stoner Psychedelic Rock, Heavy Speed Metal, Experimental
Date=2025-07-25
Lyricist=Tomi Leppnen
Lyricist=Jussi Lehtisalo
Lyricist=Antti Uusimaki
Lyricist=Aaron Turner
TRACKTOTAL=6
Title=Louhi, Pt. 1.2
TrackNumber=2
Composer=Aaron Turner
Composer=Antti Uusimaki
Composer=Jussi Lehtisalo
Composer=Tomi Leppnen
Artist=Pharaoh Overlord
Copyright= 2025: Rocket Recordings
Album=Louhi
ISRC=UK2SX2507262
Label=Rocket Recordings
WWW=https://music.amazon.com/albums/B0FCGYWYGY?trackAsin=B0FCGFWK1M&musicTerritory=US
Merchant=Amazon Digital Services LLC
REPLAYGAIN_REFERENCE_LOUDNESS=-12.0 LUFS
Performer=Pharaoh Overlord
Producer=Antti Uusimaki
Publisher=Copyright Control
Description=
[ Hidden Text ]
