We haven’t featured Finnish composer Sorrot before, but his new EP ‘The Hauntings’ is definitely worthy of a place on these pages, mainly because of the lovely fusion he creates between Post Rock and Neo Classical genres.
Behind the name Sorrot is the Finnish composer and musician Samuli Turunen, and I’ll be honest I don’t know much about his musical background. His music he says is influenced by “the darkness in the Nordic nature’, but musically also modern classical composers such as Max Richter, whilst the minamalist style is part Michael Nyman and Steve Reich, but also ambient in definition. .
The result is a really instrumental impressive EP, and all tracks have appealed to me in slightly different ways, straight from the opening of the short title track prelude, tantalising and that little bit unusual, yet seamlessly moving on into the flowing and acoustic guitar based ‘Artic’. Letters’ is a particularly effective track, heading out on an instrumental journey which allows the listener to get completely consumed. I wouldn’t quite describe it as cinematic, it gently swells and paints a lovely Nordic picture along the way.
The chord sequences in ‘Mountain’ are more ‘progressive’ in nature, and at times they even veer in the direction of Cardiacs composition (I think), and Turunen has either listened to them or really should have a go, whilst the EP concludes with the darker ‘Night’, with swirling instrumentals creating a full on intense ambient texture, before slowly fading away,
Really lovely and seemingly effortless composition,, this is definitely an EP which I’ll keep reaching for, and it’s worthy of a small run vinyl release too.
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