Summer Solstice 2021
Joutsa, Finland

To tell the true story of Muki Bu Mudiubi is to tell a story of a journey prophesied by a spiritual healer, initiated by a venomous serpent, embarked upon by a young and restless seeker, and realised between four kindred spirits in a far-away land covered in small bodies of sweet water.

Words (mouth sounds) as an instrument: to implement and to convey. That’s how it’s always been. Muki Bu Mudiubi: When young, they all rapped or sang along to words they didn’t understand. From the towns of Thies, Senegal to Helsinki, Finland, via the Netherlands, London, New York and Joutsa, Finland.

Muki Bu Mudiubi: together with the Wolof-tongued vocalist Zinzin, fashion designer and artist Siiri Raasakka, her wife the rapper-filmmaker Ville Valoton, and the artist known as Celestial Trax complete the group.

As prophesied by a senegalese sage, the snakebite had opened a psychic wound in young Zinzin which would manifest itself in the form of a restless quest. Unknown are the roads connecting the most western point of Africa to the northern territory of Finland and its 168,000 bodies of sweet water. Muki Bu Mudiubi is to keep searching. To die not wondering, and to live wondering: how to make wounds beautiful? The serpent within smiles.

Muki Bu Mudiubi are based in Helsinki, Finland. Damalén balui thi bir.

All music by Muki Bu Mudiubi, co-production by Alex (Pink-187) on 'Aduna'
Mixed and mastered by Joni Judén
Cover art by Siiri Raasakka

BUY EP

Muki Bu Mudiubi - Muki Bu Mudiubi EP [TRAE010]

The debut release by the exciting Helsinki based duo An Tul (@an_tul).

The rapid's coming
Drown my metal
I Need Your Power
To pull it back up
 
music, lyrics and production by Saana Pohjonen & Helena Pulkkinen
cover art by Saana Pohjonen & Helena Pulkkinen
mastered by Joni Judén at TUO TUO
with support from Arts Promotional Centre Finland (Taike)

An Tul - I Need Your Power [TRAE19]

a love story for bugs by @nenuhir

this release was kindly supported by Arts Promotion Center Finland (Taike)

nenúhîr - charms​/​curses

Celestial Trax returns with new work of tonal-textural explorations.
On 'Lifecodes' the producer born Joni Judén weaves together a dense quilt of sound, shimmering and surging as it unfolds in free-time. Judén invites the listener down a luminous, harmonically adventurous path, where sound takes creaturely dimensions. The songs blossom and wilt, at times floating in states of ambivalence, at others washing over the listener like waves, bathing them in heavy light.

'Lifecodes' was created in the small village of Pynnölä, Joutsa in central Finland, where Celestial Trax has been living and working since 2020.

✩○ º༺☆༻ º○✩

Music by Celestial Trax, recorded and mixed at TUO TUO
Album art and visual concept by Robert Ra linktr.ee/RobertRa



Celestial Trax - Lifecodes

Saint Abdullah––the sound project by NYC-based, Iranian-Canadian brothers Mohammed and Mehdi––returns with 'Mechanical Flirtations', their first release on Helsinki’s True Aether. Revered for their unique blend of auditory storytelling, weaponized sonic alchemy and deeply moving, vivid personal accounts of their Iranian roots and life in our complex current moment, the duo build on their past albums on PTP and Boomarm Nation. 

Featuring John Butcher, Travis Laplante and Sahba Sizdahki 

Album art: 'On The Edge of The Spring' by Parham Ghalamdar. 

Mastered by Jesse Munro Johnson in Portland, Oregon

Buy tape

Saint Abdullah: Mechanical Flirtations [TRAE007]

Summer Solstice 2021
Joutsa, Finland

To tell the true story of Muki Bu Mudiubi is to tell a story of a journey prophesied by a spiritual healer, initiated by a venomous serpent, embarked upon by a young and restless seeker, and realised between four kindred spirits in a far-away land covered in small bodies of sweet water.

Words (mouth sounds) as an instrument: to implement and to convey. That’s how it’s always been. Muki Bu Mudiubi: When young, they all rapped or sang along to words they didn’t understand. From the towns of Thies, Senegal to Helsinki, Finland, via the Netherlands, London, New York and Joutsa, Finland.

Muki Bu Mudiubi: together with the Wolof-tongued vocalist Zinzin, fashion designer and artist Siiri Raasakka, her wife the rapper-filmmaker Ville Valoton, and the artist known as Celestial Trax complete the group.

As prophesied by a senegalese sage, the snakebite had opened a psychic wound in young Zinzin which would manifest itself in the form of a restless quest. Unknown are the roads connecting the most western point of Africa to the northern territory of Finland and its 168,000 bodies of sweet water. Muki Bu Mudiubi is to keep searching. To die not wondering, and to live wondering: how to make wounds beautiful? The serpent within smiles.

Muki Bu Mudiubi are based in Helsinki, Finland. Damalén balui thi bir. 
credits
released September 3, 2021

All music by Muki Bu Mudiubi
Mixed and mastered by Joni Judén
Cover art by Siiri Raasakka

Muki Bu Mudiubi

Buy EP

Muki Bu Mudiubi - Damalén Balui Thi Bir

To tell the true story of Muki Bu Mudiubi is to tell a story of a journey prophesied by a spiritual healer, initiated by a venomous serpent, embarked upon by a young and restless seeker, and realised between four kindred spirits in a far-away land covered in small bodies of sweet water.

Words (mouth sounds) as an instrument: to implement and to convey. That’s how it’s always been. Muki Bu Mudiubi: When young, they all rapped or sang along to words they didn’t understand. From the towns of Thies, Senegal to Helsinki, Finland, via the Netherlands, London, New York and Joutsa, Finland.

Muki Bu Mudiubi: together with the Wolof-tongued vocalist Zinzin, fashion designer and artist Siiri Raasakka, her wife the rapper-filmmaker Ville Valoton, and the artist known as Celestial Trax complete the group.

As prophesied by a senegalese sage, the snakebite had opened a psychic wound in young Zinzin which would manifest itself in the form of a restless quest. Unknown are the roads connecting the most western point of Africa to the northern territory of Finland and its 168,000 bodies of sweet water. Muki Bu Mudiubi is to keep searching. To die not wondering, and to live wondering: how to make wounds beautiful? The serpent within smiles.

Muki Bu Mudiubi are based in Helsinki, Finland. Damalén balui thi bir. 
credits
released September 3, 2021

All music by Muki Bu Mudiubi, co-production on 'Aduna' by Alex (@Pink-187)
Mixed and mastered by Joni Judén
Cover art by Siiri Raasakka

Muki Bu Mudiubi - Aduna

Helsinki is a wreck
The cashier, the landlord, the tourist, the bystanders
sixteen varieties of insomnia
honestly, i'm dead,
dead tired

catch the once and for all, in your sleep at night
push through dark's canal
or what is the gate

~

music by Running
vocals by Helena Pulkkinen
art by Eeva-Maija Pulkkinen
mastered by jj
words by Kaitlyn D. Hamilton, text by Running

Dead Tired / Maailman kaukaisin ihminen

Running 'Maailman kaukaisin ihminen'

Helsinki is a wreck
The cashier, the landlord, the tourist, the bystanders
sixteen varieties of insomnia
honestly, i'm dead,
dead tired

catch the once and for all, in your sleep at night
push through dark's canal
or what is the gate

~

Tiger on vocals
music by Running
art by Eeva-Maija Pulkkinen
mastered by jj
words by Kaitlyn D. Hamilton

Running 'Dead Tired'

⋰⋱ a response to the conditions of light and humidity, reacting to changes in temperature and pressure fields ⋰⋱ it is the channeling of the force beyond notes, that illuminates the imagined planes of Mugwort Prairie⋰⋱

Scorched Belts of The Earth

Death by Landscape - Pyrosphere (ft. Steve Vanoni)

○ ◦ º ◦ ○ ◦ º ◦

deep as the night crawls
slow as the dust eats

○ ◦ º ◦ ○ ◦ º ◦ ○ ◦ º ◦

made at TUO TUO project space in Joutsa, Finland in August 2023

for seven days this will pour out onto the rest

jiijii - Hector Rotweiller

I'm telling you now 
I'm telling you now 
I'm telling you now 
I'm telling you now 
I'm gonna let go
I'm gonna let go
I'm gonna let go
I'm gonna let go

I'm telling you now 
I'm telling you now 
I'm telling you now 
I'm telling you now 
I'm gonna let go
I'm gonna let go
I'm gonna let go
I'm gonna let go

Supposed to be a lifetime bond
In the heart shaped play, something's wrong
I'm telling you now 
I'm telling you now 
I'm gonna let go
I'm gonna let go

Thick air is solid, lick the drops
The mist will help me to get lost
I'm telling you now 
I'm telling you now 
I'm gonna let go
I'm gonna let go

There's something in the earth, I see
It shall give me eternal seeds
They're telling me now
They're telling me now
Pull it out pull it out
Pull the fucking blade out

The rapid's coming
Drown my metal
I Need Your Power
To pull it back up
You're telling me now 
You're telling me now
Pull it out, pull it out
Pull the fucking blade out

Pull it out, pull it out
Pull the fucking blade out

I Need Your Power

BLADE

FOREST

There's something about me not inviting
but it wants you in, it wants you in
I need you to be brave i cant take a breath
before you make up your mind and body
My body is dried up from waiting
The blood is hot from waiting
For all I know time has stopped
My body is dried up from waiting
The blood is hot from waiting
For all I know time has stopped...

hey would you play an animal if i say thats my way?

ANIMAL

I do not fear the darkness

God is in the bond

Do not fear the darkness

BOND

a love story for bugs

this release was kindly supported by Arts Promotion Center Finland (Taike)

shy eyes

wild silk

unwanted gift

i was adored

cloud ore

moulting song

imaginal discs

♥Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥ "𝖇𝖊𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖙𝖔 𝖐𝖊𝖊𝖕 𝖖𝖚𝖎𝖊𝖙 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖙𝖗𝖊𝖊𝖘" ♥Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥

sound works by Orian Arrachart

instagram @orianarrachart
soundcloud @orianarrachart
orianarrachart.bandcamp

∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿


with support from Arts Promotion Centre Finland / Taiteen edistämiskeskus

disturbed soundfield

Orian Arrachart - disturbed soundfield

♥Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥ "𝖇𝖊𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖙𝖔 𝖐𝖊𝖊𝖕 𝖖𝖚𝖎𝖊𝖙 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖙𝖗𝖊𝖊𝖘" ♥Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ♥

sound works by Orian Arrachart

instagram @orianarrachart
soundcloud @orianarrachart
orianarrachart.bandcamp

∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿∿



with support from Arts Promotion Centre Finland / Taiteen edistämiskeskus

Orian Arrachart - there was an organ in the room

During their residency at TUO TUO in June 2024, El Hardwick did not necessarily plan to record any songs, however “the land rang with messages” which they couldn’t help but channel:

Land which used to be swamps, drained for agricultural use.
Symphonies of June mosquitoes; singing an elegy for a land that no longer was.
Stories of the wrongness of covering wells from sight; hidden from source.
The never-setting midsummer sun.
Swallows nesting in the roof; the sound of their eggs cracking open on the solstice.
Moss covered monoliths in the forest.
El’s co-resident, Winter, singing an ancient keening song on the solstice,
and the prehistoric cries of the cranes calling in response.

One day El wandered into the forest alone. As they journeyed amongst the tall, spacious pines and birches, they felt certain of which direction they had entered. Yet suddenly they were surrounded by dense bracken, with no clear way out, and no indication of how they got in. Thrashing their arms through branches and thorns, they eventually found themselves in the neighbour’s plot, far away from the house. After returning along the road, they learned from Kaitlyn & Joni about Metsänpeitto: the belief that the forest can hide those who enter it. Those “covered by forest” no longer recognise their terrain, even on familiar grounds. The phenomenon either makes them invisible, or disguises them as part of nature, such as a rock. 

Credits:

El Hardwick - Vocals, harmonium, guitar, synth, field recordings and production.
Memory Play - Double bass.
Mixed by Memory Play.
Mastering by Joni Judén at TUO TUO.
Artwork by El Hardwick.

Thank you to Shireen & Winter for helping edit the lyrics.

https://soundcloud.com/el_hardwick



Metsänpeitto

Buy album

Blue peony

Paint sick sun

Left demons be

Iridescent

Beyond

Collapxxing

Inertia type beat

Heavy light

Celebrating the birth of True Aether, we give you three exclusive @celestial-trax cuts that encapsulate some of the TÆ ethos: uncompromising, minimal and restorative.  

'Ashwagandha': two synths and a tape machine. free improvisation in Dsus7. 

'Saariaho': tape machine, Kaija Saariaho 'Pres: I' sample 


+ bonus: 'Drowning In A Dream'


"don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly." 


Recommended Drinking:

1 cup whole milk or unsweetened nut milk (such as hemp, almond, or cashew) 
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 
½ teaspoon ground turmeric 
¼ teaspoon ground ashwagandha (or another adaptogen, like shatavari or astralagus) 
2 pinches of ground cardamom 
Pinch of ground ginger (optional) 
Pinch of ground nutmeg 
Freshly ground black pepper 
1 teaspoon virgin coconut oil or ghee 
1 teaspoon honey, preferably raw

recorded in Lahti, Finland in February 2018 
mastered by Joni Judén

☯II△TÆ

Ashwagandha​/​Saariaho

Celestial Trax - Ashwagandha

"from the deep waters of sleep
i wake up to consciousness 
i feel my heart beating too
it will go on beating for some time"

Celestial Trax - Drowning In A Dream (Bonus)

At the heart of 'Serpent Power', the second full length from Celestial Trax (born Joni Judén), lives an organic entity; its sounds roll over the listener like an unknown weather pattern. The intoxicating textures and strange dimensions are designed to cultivate the imagination away from screens: it is music for the journey inward, an ode to stillness. It models itself after the unpredictable yet harmonious sequencing of the natural world. Stepping away from the exhausting, hyper-saturated cyber-dystopia we've been thrust into, 'Serpent Power' envisions a world where technologies aren't aimed at our brains and our souls in order paralyze and control us. Instead, they’ve been modeled after nature in order to elevate us.

True Aether releases 'Serpent Power' on February 22nd 2019. Available on digital, cassette and limited deluxe edition, which includes a handmade USB capsule made of Finnish juniper, birch, pine, spruce or aspen, hand-crafted in Heinola, Finland. Each deluxe edition package also includes a one-of-a-kind polaroid photograph taken by the artist.


Mastered by Joel Krozer at Six Bit Deep
Album Art by Anita Naukkarinen

Serpent Power

Buy Album

Celestial Trax - Underwater Garden (Serpent Power [TRAE005])

True Aether is proud to present the new album 'Mechanical Flirtations' [TRAE007] by the Iranian-Canadian brother duo Saint Abdullah (@saintabdullah). Listen to the first single "What A Tale This Is (feat. Travis LaPlante)" 

All profits for this release will go to support those affected by the Christchurch shootings in New Zealand (Victim Support Manaaki Tāngata).

'Mechanical Flirtations' is out June 13 via True Aether. 

Album art: On The Edge of The Spring by the U.K. based, Iranian born Parham Ghalamdar. 

Mastered by Jesse Munro Johnson in Portland, Oregon

http://travislaplante.com/

What A Tale This Is (feat. Travis Laplante) 'Mechanical Flirtations' [TRAE007]

True Aether is proud to present the new album 'Mechanical Flirtations' [TRAE007] by the Iranian-Canadian brother duo Saint Abdullah (@saintabdullah). 

All profits for this release will go to support those affected by the Christchurch shootings in New Zealand (Victim Support Manaaki Tāngata).

'Mechanical Flirtations' is out June 13 via True Aether. 

Album art: On The Edge of The Spring by the U.K. based, Iranian born Parham Ghalamdar. 

Mastered by Jesse Munro Johnson in Portland, Oregon

Landscapes Of A Blind Man 'Mechanical Flirtations' [TRAE007]

Mechanical Flirtations (featuring Sahba Sizdahkhani) 'Mechanical Flirtations' [TRAE007]

After his second cardiac arrest where his heart was revived for the second time in Homerton Hospital (Hackney, London, UK), MR 28GRAMS decided to give life another chance. Upon recovery and returning to his routines, he coasted over to his neighbor’s to bum weed. Fellow Homerton resident, Finnish trans woman, rapper and producer Ville Valoton recently moved to London in search for refuge from the transphobia she experienced in her native country. As it happened, Ville was working on her first set of beats and MR 28GRAMS decided to stay for a smoke. Returned from the kitchen with cups of tea, Ville found him freestyling on her productions and pressed record. Soon they’d completed a collection of emotive, gloomy and raw experimental music.

Streams of the unconscious, Ville Valoton presents MR 28GRAMS: 28 GRAMS IN A JAR (FREESTYLES) reflects upon a collapsing contemporary society. MR 28GRAMS’ freestyled vocals are street prophecies latent with anarchist political satire. They are the lived experiences of an enlightened, battle-scarred black man with a massive heart: a heart that mirrors an ailing society.

released September 4, 2020

Vocals by MR 28GRAMS

All tracks produced by Ville Valoton (except track 3 produced by Agamwe)

Tracks 2–5 mixed and mastered by Joni Judén

Album art by Siiri Raasakka

MR 28GRAMS: 'TELETUBBIES (in B&W) (FREESTYLE)'

✩❤︎○ º༺☆༻ º○❤︎✩
chronicling the music of our times

in-house label of TUO TUO: music studio, artist residency and community in a forest of central finland

get in touch: trueaethermusic(@)gmail.com

TRUE AETHER

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