This release is two variations of one theme. Both share same idyllic, feeling good atmosphere - "After Before" in smoother, gentler style with big and slow aves. "Before After" adds more melodic drive and fatter beats in the mixture. Still, in parts where it matters the most, they still bubble in the same way.

Bandcamp: https://softknees.bandcamp.com/album/after-before

Bandcamp

After Before

Miscellaneous

Available on Bandcamp, name your price!
****
After some side quests and single releases it's time for a release with multiple original tracks. All three tracks tell a story in their own "world" genre-wise, but they are still tied together nicely with our distinctive sound creating an eventful listening experience. 

As usual, our music develops patiently making it perfect for relaxing and letting your train of thought roam around freely. On the other hand, we have put a lot of effort in details to make relistening these multiple times interesting for curious and careful ears.

"Elegy" is a bittersweet, 80s influenced electronic ballad with emotional and tender guitars building up to dramatic synth leads. "Night Bazaar Odyssey" is a psychedelic journey through several scenes of hectic bazaar of outlandish sounds and melodies. The release finishes with "Dubzlin Bliss", smooth, balearic slow trance dissolving to a long, dreamy middle part and finally waking up to feel good vibes.

Big thanks to glxblt (Ville Rastas) for visiting our session weekend and adding some spice to the first and third tracks. We really do enjoy combination of organic playing and electronic elements, best from both worlds.
Thanks to Antti's sister, Anu Viitala, for the violin part in Night Bazaar Odyssey.

-Antti & Jarno / SK

Credits:
Composing, production and mixing all tracks: Antti Mäntysaari & Jarno Kilpiä
Additional composing and guitars (Elegy and Dubzlin Bliss): Ville Rastas
Violin (Night Bazaar Odyssey): Anu Viitala
Mastering: Jarno Kilpiä

Buy @ Bandcamp

Three Tales EP

Soft Knees - Through The Dust EP (PEPO004, 2018)

”This EP is a four tracks expedition to deserts. While the first and the last ones (”Out Into Uncharted” and ”Through The Dust”) were influenced more by cinematic imagery in mind, Atacama and Patagonia are my musical memories from personal experience.

I have had the pleasure of traveling several deserts in North and South America. I’ve come to learn that there can be many so many different kinds of nothingness. Hot, cold, rough, smooth and different overall color tones. Breathtakingly empty, each in their own characteristic ways. When at first glance there is pretty much nothing around, small details grow more important. But the feeling of changing to ”desert mode” mindset is always same. Feeling of entering something large, unknown, uncharted and importance of time fades away. It’s about freedom, too. Excitement of being off the grid, knowing you don’t know where exactly you are and nobody knows where you are. And then there’s the oddness of slipping back to crowded places afterwards. Out Into Uncharted is the soundtrack for all of that. It also carries an otherworldly feeling one can experience when landing on uncharted planets, but about that I don’t have personal experience, just imagination…

Atacama was painted in yellow and red, crystal clear blue skies, colorful sunsets. White peaks of Andes in horizon and unreal moon-like scenes. The contrast of problematic mining industries creating huge artificial shapes of their own and mesmerizing untouched side. You can see incredible amount of stars and beautiful Milky Way or even Andromeda with plain eye because of dry and thin atmosphere above Atacama. Head a bit dizzy from high altitude, under that scenery in total silence, it felt being on top of the world. And at the same time, realizing how small little thing standing on a tiny grain of matter I really am.

Patagonia was rugged and rough. It was sand between teeth. Constantly hard, never ending west wind. Guanacos bleating, rheas running on roads. Gravel everywhere. Turquoise lakes casting green hue on clouds above them, making them easy to predict appearing behind next hill. Majestic mountains and rocky roads. 

The desert trip ends with ”Through The Dust”. It was made for a realtime running audiovisual demoscene product, ”Red Smoke” by Adapt. Inspiration points in the beginning were ”red smoke” and ”sandstorm”, image of huge sandstorm irresistibly approaching. So massive, it looks like a static wall, but when it finally gets you, everything turns into overwhelmingly wild mess. Go see the video!”
-Antti/SK

https://bit.ly/2MSYkK9  (Bandcamp)
https://spoti.fi/2oMywkj (Spotify)
https://apple.co/2M4ajyV (iTunes)
https://bit.ly/2NmdcA5 (YouTube)
https://tinyurl.com/y8ckkqj2 (Google Play)

Through The Dust EP

After almost two years of postponing music session weekends because of the pandemic, we finally got back together. Originally the base of the tune was created in 2017 as it was supposed to be in a computer demo, which did not get finished. Song sat in the 'wip-forever' directory for years until it was spotted again. We took this dub influenced piece, added some cinematically minimalistic elements into the song and Tapani Rinne kindly recorded us some smooth saxophone notes to make it truly whole.

PEPO007
ISRC FISOE2200001
Production, composition: Antti Mäntysaari, Jarno Kilpiä
Saxophone: Tapani Rinne
Cover graphics: Sami "miStral" Kemilä

Pulsate (feat. Tapani Rinne)

"Slowmo Avalanche combines crusty breaks, lush synths and gently driving psychedelic 4/4 middle part. It's a psybient style track meaning "musical travel" progression.
Creation started when I came across an ambient track "Glacial Kinetics" by a fellow North Finland producer, Jussi Alaraasakka. Felt it would be a great one to remix, but as sometimes (quite often) happens, we ended up drifting so far from the original that the result was rather a new track, than a remix. Still, Jussi's soundscapes play an important part creating the filtered ambience in Slowmo Avalanche."
-Antti /SK

Ambience sampling from Jussi Alaraasakka - Glacial Kinetics, released by Mare Nostrum https://marenostrumlabel.bandcamp.com/album/frost
Cover Graphics: Hannu Tiainen

Download/buy

Slowmo Avalanche (feat. Jussi Alaraasakka)

"Winds Of Fjords is a tracker module song I made back in 2001. A decade later it got added to Roblox and gained some popularity among players creating their own games. Not least because the game's internal module player erroneously left one high pitched note hanging for a long time, which apparently worked great for adding tension when zombies attack or something.

People keep contacting me about this particular module every now and then and there're several uploads in Youtube. It's been fun to notice that some even have remixed and made their own versions of it (I do appreciate this, keep'em coming!), but none of "originals" sound exactly how it should, because they have been exported with wrong software and settings. I thought I'd release it properly exported and with minor tweaks to make it a bit more balanced and pleasant sounding. I missed the 20th anniversary by a few months, but nevertheless, here it is!

I never got paid for the use in Roblox and honestly can't remember if I ever gave permission to use it for free. But maybe this way my current main project, collaboration called Soft Knees finds some new listeners curious about what I'm doing these days. Lastly, I would like to thank Saga Musix for finding correct version of Modplug Tracker and exporting tracks for me.

-Antti aka minomus / Soft Knees"

released April 1, 2022
Export help: Saga Musix
Cover graphics: Kevin "Gopher" Chow

Winds of Fjords (minomus 2022 remaster)

A few years ago Finnish rapper Stepa visited our session weekend and after an all-nighter we came up with a song combining somewhat punchier side of Soft Knees and Stepa's down to earth vibed verbalistics.

Musta Makia (feat. Stepa)

Couchclocking (Bonzai Elemental)

Cirrus (Bonzai Elemental)

This release from Bonzai Progressive introduces atmospheric filtered chords, with smooth rollin' acoustic drums, 303ish spice in the break and bubbly melody as a finishing touch. Remixes offer alternatives from Kevin Vega's long running deeper, dreamy remi to Cordoba's nice recycling of the original's sounds and finally Smok's a little more traditional house approach.
The release will be available @ online stores 28th April. 

Beatport

Reflexion (Cordoba Remix)

This release from Bonzai Progressive introduces atmospheric filtered chords, with smooth rollin' acoustic drums, 303ish spice in the break and bubbly melody as a finishing touch. Remixes offer alternatives from Kevin Vega's long running deeper, dreamy remi to Cordoba's nice recycling of the original's sounds and finally Smok's a little more traditional house approach.
Music video @ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9SmFAF6NWM&hd=1

The release will be available @ online stores 28th April. 

Reflexion (Original Mix)

Available on Bandcamp, name your price!
****
After some side quests and single releases it's time for a release with multiple original tracks. All three tracks tell a story in their own "world" genre-wise, but they are still tied together nicely with our distinctive sound creating an eventful listening experience. 

As usual, our music develops patiently making it perfect for relaxing and letting your train of thought roam around freely. On the other hand, we have put a lot of effort in details to make relistening these multiple times interesting for curious and careful ears.

"Elegy" is a bittersweet, 80s influenced electronic ballad with emotional and tender guitars building up to dramatic synth leads. "Night Bazaar Odyssey" is a psychedelic journey through several scenes of hectic bazaar of outlandish sounds and melodies. The release finishes with "Dubzlin Bliss", smooth, balearic slow trance dissolving to a long, dreamy middle part and finally waking up to feel good vibes.

Big thanks to glxblt (Ville Rastas) for visiting our session weekend and adding some spice to the first and third tracks. We really do enjoy combination of organic playing and electronic elements, best from both worlds.
Thanks to Antti's sister, Anu Viitala, for the violin part in Night Bazaar Odyssey.

-Antti & Jarno / SK

Credits:
Composing, production and mixing all tracks: Antti Mäntysaari & Jarno Kilpiä
Additional composing and guitars (Elegy and Dubzlin Bliss): Ville Rastas
Violin (Night Bazaar Odyssey): Anu Viitala

Three Tales

Dubzlin Bliss (feat. glxblt)

Night Bazaar Odyssey

Elegy (feat. glxblt)

Winds Of Fjords was a tracker module song made by minomus (half of Soft Knees) back in 2001. A decade later it got added to Roblox and gained some popularity among players creating their own games. 

In 2022 Soft Knees made remaster of the original, only mixing was carefully polished and mastering applied. The song itself was intact. After this J-Bug, a Youtuber from South Korea asked for a customized edit for an animation. Lead synth got changed to electric guitar, low quality tracker samples to modern VST instruments and style more towards cinematic epicness. As people seem to like edits and remixes of Winds of Fjords, we thought it would be nice to release the song also on its own. 

Licensing inquiries: softknees at andypiney dot com

Winds Of Fjords (minomus Epic Edit)

Remix of Stereoky's (formerly Unesko) track. 
https://soundcloud.com/uneskoband

Picture Sami Kemilä

Stereoky - Midsummer's Night (Soft Knees Remix)

We've always liked to get guest players to add liveliness and soul of "real instruments". This time we were lucky to get Aki Himanen bless us with his dreamy trumpets, conversating nicely with our synthscapes. There is something soothing in the combination of repetitiveness and flowing improvisation. The apparent feeling of continuation from the fat, swaying beat and loops, but at the same times there is always something changing. Like with waves hitting the beach, or sound of wind swaying trees
**
PEPO013
ISRC: FISOE2400004
Trumpet: Aki Himanen
Composition: Antti Mäntysaari, Jarno Kilpiä, Aki Himanen
Production: Antti Mäntysaari, Jarno Kilpiä
Mastering: Jarno Kilpiä
Cover graphics: Sami "mistral" Kemilä 


Sway (feat. Aki Himanen)

Lost Tapes

Send and receive.

**
PEPO013
ISRC: FISOE2400004

Soft Knees - The Reach

Buy @ Amazon

Jocke Kantola - Stapling Machine (Soft Knees & Roisto remix)

Soundtrack for Konvergence - Koherent browser demo. 1st @ Vortex 2016 demoparty.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJFLBNwBOQY

minomus - Koherent (Konvergence demo soundtrack)D/L

Download @ Bandcamp:
https://softknees.bandcamp.com/album/blamstrain-remixes

We have appreciated the FInnish ambient/dub veteran Blamstrain's soundscapes for a long time. During last 15 years Juho has released tons of quality music, moved to Netherlands and put up his own label Erotus Records. In 2015 we came up with an idea to take couple of his tracks and give them Soft Knees treatment. He was kind enough to let us do it and here are the results.

We started right away with a dive in to deep dark waters with South Of The Border. It is about that moment when you are right on the edge of falling asleep. Taking the passenger seat in your mind, being a spectator inside a movie, while still being distantly aware of outside world and then in the end you finally fade out. Melodies are painted with large strokes of brush, everything is soft and blurry while the beat and bassline give enough constant to fall in trance.

Next we moved on to Eye Of The Snow Leopard. We were fascinated with the overwhelming wide drone pad sound. There definitely is intergalactic passenger ship ready for take off to pulsate through nebulas, supernovas and whatnot. In a neverending zoomer that you started to see looking at the eye of a snow leopard in ice cold whiteness. I have kind of synesthesia, I perceive distortions and saturations as surfaces and this one tickles pretty good in that way!

And then there is the South Of The Border remix featuring Meron, a young rising rapper from Helsinki. Lately we have developed an interest in hip hop too. Not only in its generic and typical forms, but also in our shameless genre crossing cinematic way. Maybe inspired by the title, theme changed from instrumental version's lucid dreaming to a smooth jailbird's lifestory.

-Antti /SK 
credits
released November 14, 2017

Original tracks: Blamstrain (Juho Hietala)
Cover graphics: Sami Kemilä

1 - South Of The Border (instrumental)

2 - Eye Of The Snow Leopard

Download / donate: https://softknees.bandcamp.com/track/fanu-stages-soft-knees-remix
Original version: https://fanu.bandcamp.com/track/stages

"When the Finnish breaks and hip hop master Fanu kindly gave stems of his track "Stages" out for anybody to grab and remix, I couldn't resist. I have known his music since the very beginning of my own electronic music adventure. We both come from same little town, but he got away sooner and I was just beginning my own music experiments. We never really met, but he was DJing in the first raves I was so curious to get in to. So, in a way this was a tempting opportunity to close a circle. I'm back in the same little town and enjoying same guy's music, only this time I was going to steer it to my way.

I grabbed some of his precisely mashed breaks and cool random samples, then combined them with my usual blurrines and all the harmonies I seem to be so obsessive about. Then Jarno visited for a weekend to make it whole with me. The result switches from hauntingly heavy aired, almost psychedelic atmospheres to drama arpeggios, riding the grim and tearing FM bassline. In a kind of cinematic way. Also, there is hidden some serious sub blasting all the way through, too, that will reveal itself and turn your pants into a kite if you give the track a go on a decent system.

-Antti /SK"

Fanu - Stages (Soft Knees Remix)

Soft Knees - One Riff Trip (2018)

One Riff Trip (short) music video: https://youtu.be/7W1vp7E2hys

Bandcamp: http://bit.ly/2EkZvgZ (download)
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2EkuC8y (stream)
Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2o133Ke (stream)
iTunes: https://apple.co/2G6i5pw (buy)
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2BUMTeU (buy)

Tracklist:
1. One Riff Trip (long) ISRC FISOE1800001
2. One Riff Trip (short) ISRC FISOE1800002

PEPO002
UPC 840093298713
Music video/demoscene product: Konvergence
Cover graphics: Sami Kemilä

"Years ago I visited Roisto's studio and got my hands on his x0xb0x synthesizer. Now, I have never had the honour to play a real TB-303 (invites are welcome!) and purists might whine about "get original or nothing", but for me this little machine was easily good enough and very addictive. I got absorbed in tweaking the controls, love how the same riff can change so much its groove and mood. And the singing filter gave warm nostalgic feeling too, as there were tons of acid samples around in 90s when I started making electronic music with trackers. 

I was unaware (but glad) that Roisto recorded about 10 minutes of it. Afterwards I used it pretty much uncut, added a beat and started to play endlessly different layers and variations on top of it. Eventually it had grown to be this trippy piece of synth journey drifting through different scenes, riding on just one riff. Which alone should be enough anyway.

Curiously that is far from the only time somebody records me without me knowing. I play a lot, but rarely record. Fortunately this annoys Jarno during our Soft Knees weekends, and he keeps hitting rec on me all the time :) A practice I should develope, too."
-Antti/SK

One Riff Trip

One Riff Trip (long)

Drums: Joni Takalo
Upright Bass: Oskari Hannula
Keyboards: Jouko Kantola
Trumpet: Janne Nietula
Production: Soft Knees
Sample source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xe73l3JqRs

Don't Know How To Laugh

Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/2G3pr1y (download)
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2pSLbDc (stream)
Soundcloud: https://bit.ly/2IQcTbF (stream)
Apple Music/iTunes: https://apple.co/2pUi1DG (buy)
Google Play: https://bit.ly/2E9umbx (buy)

"This one is a soundtrack for those moments when you close the world away with headphones and your train of thought slowly dissolves. You're left with relaxed, smooth and spacious emptiness. Just. Oscillate. 

We've been playing around a combination of electronic and organic stuff for quite a while now. For some reason we find it fascinating when the electronic side creates the hypnotic constant for live instruments, which can then bring some lively twist in to the mix. Tapani Rinne is an established jazz musician and saxophonist who has been doing exactly that for years already with multiple projects, most notably RinneRadio and SlowHill. We approached him with draft of "Oscillate" because we felt it would be a good match and in our opinion he grasped the mood right away and lit up the soul in the song."

Antti & Jarno / SK

Vocal samples: Tina Fisher ( https://bit.ly/2GWWQbw Soundcloud )
Cover graphics: Jari Lehtikangas ( http://bit.ly/2FNlaPv Instagram )
ISRC: FISOE1800003
PEPO003
UPC 840092604539

Oscillate (feat. Tapani Rinne)

Soft Knees - Through The Dust EP (PEPO004, 2018)

https://bit.ly/2MSYkK9  (Bandcamp)
https://spoti.fi/2oMywkj (Spotify)
https://apple.co/2M4ajyV (iTunes)
https://bit.ly/2NmdcA5 (YouTube)
https://tinyurl.com/y8ckkqj2 (Google Play)

”This EP is a four tracks expedition to deserts. While the first and the last ones (”Out Into Uncharted” and ”Through The Dust”) were influenced more by cinematic imagery in mind, Atacama and Patagonia are my musical memories from personal experience.

I have had the pleasure of traveling several deserts in North and South America. I’ve come to learn that there can be many so many different kinds of nothingness. Hot, cold, rough, smooth and different overall color tones. Breathtakingly empty, each in their own characteristic ways. When at first glance there is pretty much nothing around, small details grow more important. But the feeling of changing to ”desert mode” mindset is always same. Feeling of entering something large, unknown, uncharted and importance of time fades away. It’s about freedom, too. Excitement of being off the grid, knowing you don’t know where exactly you are and nobody knows where you are. And then there’s the oddness of slipping back to crowded places afterwards. Out Into Uncharted is the soundtrack for all of that. It also carries an otherworldly feeling one can experience when landing on uncharted planets, but about that I don’t have personal experience, just imagination…

Atacama was painted in yellow and red, crystal clear blue skies, colorful sunsets. White peaks of Andes in horizon and unreal moon-like scenes. The contrast of problematic mining industries creating huge artificial shapes of their own and mesmerizing untouched side. You can see incredible amount of stars and beautiful Milky Way or even Andromeda with plain eye because of dry and thin atmosphere above Atacama. Head a bit dizzy from high altitude, under that scenery in total silence, it felt being on top of the world. And at the same time, realizing how small little thing standing on a tiny grain of matter I really am.

Patagonia was rugged and rough. It was sand between teeth. Constantly hard, never ending west wind. Guanacos bleating, rheas running on roads. Gravel everywhere. Turquoise lakes casting green hue on clouds above them, making them easy to predict appearing behind next hill. Majestic mountains and rocky roads. 

The desert trip ends with ”Through The Dust”. It was made for a realtime running audiovisual demoscene product, ”Red Smoke” by Adapt. Inspiration points in the beginning were ”red smoke” and ”sandstorm”, image of huge sandstorm irresistibly approaching. So massive, it looks like a static wall, but when it finally gets you, everything turns into overwhelmingly wild mess. Go see the video!”
-Antti/SK

Out Into Uncharted

Atacama

Patagonia

Through The Dust

Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/2Qu0cKl (download/donate)
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2CdRG8R

I became friends with J-Kamaû playing football together in same team. During long away game trips we had nice, long conversations about many things and eventually music, too. Finding out I had been making music for quite a while, he asked if I could help him make some of his own, too. Took a while before we actually got to it, but here's the first result and there will be more to come.

Wasa Nati is sung in J-Kamaû's native language, kamba. The style borrows a lot from Jamaica and whole thing is crafted in northern Finland, so I guess this really is world music, right? Two things connecting people around the world, football and music.

For those who aren't fluent in kamba, the lyrics in a nutshell tell about meeting a reckless cousin on a village road, with twinkle in his eye warning him about smoking in public and reminding to take care of his family.

-Antti/SK
----
released December 3, 2018
PEPO005
ISRC: FISOE1800008
UPC: 193666449570 
Lyrics & Vocals: J-Kamaû
Composition, producing and mastering: Soft Knees

Soft Knees - Wasa Nati (feat. J - Kamaû)

This is our ambient remix of Infader's drum'n'bass track "Hiekkaa", breathing with long, deep, cycles.

Infader - Infader - Hiekkaa (Soft Knees Remix)

Remix of Fanu's "Techstep Weed", twisting towards breakbeat/big beat

Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/2E95Ld1
Original track: https://bit.ly/2Eie8Tv
Cover graphics: Sami Kemilä

Fanu - Techstep Weed (Soft Knees Remix)

Before After

We transform your headphones into teleportation devices. We make you sink in to other worlds. We are illegal genre border crossers. We are slow, but thorough, roasting our tracks with loving handicraft attitude. We are audio journeymen of musical universum. Expect nothing, as we don't know what's coming next either. Our roots are in demoscene and Northern Finland's electronic music.

Soft Knees

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks