finnish undergroup CDr label 267 Lattajjaa has a bunch of new releases:

LTJ-08 - Tivol - Loud & psychedelic spacekraut.
LTJ-09 - Grey Park - From Psych-Folky guitar strumming to weird electronics.
LTJ-10 - Uton - Warm droney sounds from the mystical forests of Tampere.
LTJ-11 - Rauhan Orkesteri - Organic & barefooted free jazz.
LTJ-12 - Braspyreet (coming late 2003)
LTJ-13 - Pylon - DIY-psychedelia
LTJ-14 - Pekko Käppi - Archaic folk music played with Jouhikko (the horsehair lyre)

For more info go here: https://www.dlc.fi/~hhaahti/267lattajjaa/releases.html

The FIMIC (finnish Music Information Centre) has compiled their 2003 jazz compilation. "The promotional disc highlights the current developments in finnish jazz and offers interesting excursions to the rich array of various line-ups and stylistic trends" and is available free to journalists and DJs. Read more.

The finnish Music Information Centre FIMIC just celebrated their 40th birthday. Read more.

The B2 Club in Moscow is hosting a finnish Independence Day celebration concert on December 6 with performances by The Flaming Sideburns, Don Johnson Big Band, Puola, Huoratron, DJ Erkko, Kimmo Pohjonen Kluster, Cleaning Women, Eläkeläiset, and Alamaailman Vasarat. Eight hours and three stages!

The Information Wants to Be Free "spoken word, video-art, performances and experimental electronica musique" festival has announced more details of their lineup today. The international event takes place in three separate locations (Berlin, London and Stockholm) and features a myriad of speakers and performers. As mentioned before, representing Sweden in Berlin on December 6 is Sanctum sideproject Mago. They'll also be playing at one of the Stockholm shows which will take place December 4-6. A ton of other artists are also scheduled to appear, including Chicken el Diablo, Krister Linder, 4 x 3 Stockholms Saxofon Kvartett, and Memo. Full details: https://www.iwtbf.org/

Fonal Records has put up a streaming version of a finnish radio interview that Kemialliset Ystävät did. Listen here: https://www.fonal.com/radio/fonalradio001.html

New release from free, online label Commie: "Attack of the Mutant Mirages" from finnish electronic artist Desertplanet, giving homage to a classic Commodore 64 game. Download here. Commie also has a 3xCD length comp of all their releases available for download and/or streaming. Links are here: https://commie.dogma00.org/

Following in the footsteps of metal gods Manowar, finnish power-metallers Stratovarius signed their new contract with Sanctuary using the blood of an elk. See pics: 1 / 2. The 3-album deal is reportedly the biggest ever for an act from Finland and is rumored to be worth about $3.5 million.

Tumult, the label run by some of the dudes over at Aquarius Records, will be reissuing a 2xCD comp from finnish psyche band Avarus featuring material from the band's previous three CD-Rs and "A-V-P" and "Luonnon Ilmiöitä" 7"s, previously put out by Lal Lal Lal.

"Why settle for refried Swedish garage punk when a cauldron of startling, non-derivative talent is furiously boiling over just a little further east? While the Hives, the Hellacopters and the (International) Noise Conspiracy have been swiping moves from ’60s icons, experiencing mainstream success in Scandinavia and enjoying next-big-thing promo budgets in the States, a bold, modern finnish psychedelia has been pushing the musical envelope, garnering a small core of devoted fans in Europe and remaining relatively unrecognized in America. Sure, it’s a little unfair to compare these two contrasting scenes, but it makes for a loud wakeup call and a tidy intro, doesn’t it?"

Dusted has posted a special feature on Finland's burgeoning psychedelic scene featuring discussion of eight albums from the groups Paine, Ektroverde, Pharaoh Overlord, Eturivi, Vuk, Markku Peltola, Alien Heat, and Deep Turtle.

Reknown finnish world music group Värttinä has begun collaborating with composer A.R. Rahma on writing the score for the upcoming stage adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". Work is expected to continue through 2004 with the world premierce scheduled to take place sometime during spring 2005. The play will be directed by Matthew Warchus and produced by Kevin Wallace and Saul Zaentz and is expected to cost £8 million, thus making it the most expensive musical produced in London ever. More info: www.thelordoftheringsmusical.com

finnish death metal supergroup Chaosbreed reports that they are done laying done the tracks for their upcoming album "Brutal". "Sande and Nicu have already done a rough mix of the album, which to these rotten hearing aids known as ears sound killer to say the least," reports drummer Nalle Österman in a recent web-posting. "For the most part we recorded everything live," he continues, "so what you will hear is very organic, energetic and at times chaotic as well, as everything was recorded in the first few takes to keep it fresh and raw. There are mistakes here and there, but so what — nobody's perfect. No everlasting Pro Tools-wanking here then, what you will hear is the real deal. No frills, just kills! Our old and dear friend Kasper Martenson came in to provide some haunting keyboards for some songs and also an eerie intro that will prepare you to die." In other news, the band's EP "Unleashed Carnage" will receive a proper release in North America and Europe through Crash music Inc. (ex-Pavement) on January 13.

Check out some live video footage of Children of Bodom performing in Japan right here. The clip also features a finnish-language interview with keyboardist Janne Warman.

New from the free mp3-based label Monotonik is the EP "You Are On My Mind" from "finnish electronic wiz" Lackluster. Check it out.

Pitchfork's resident finnish music lover Dominique Leone has posted his take on Alamaailman Vasarat's album "Käärmelautakunta".

finnish 'sonic architects' Jazzkammer have a new record called "Pulse" coming out on the Germany label Bottrop-Boy. Here's the details:

"Pulse" was recorded in Singapore during the SARS-crisis in april of 2003. It was inspired by a theatre piece of the same title that they were working on at the same time, though the music on the CD does not resemble that of the play. The album "Pulse" is a single beautiful 32-minute piece; its basic structure is a drifting electronic drone that slowly unfolds and mutates, with subtle layers of location recordings and vinyl-static adding color and depth. Like last year's "Pancakes", "Pulse" has a cinematic feel to it, a feeling that is further enhanced by the photos of acclaimed photographer Yuen Chee Wai that grace the cover and 12-page booklet.