A Finnish project from Sweden that began as a martial tribute to the Winter War and ended with a far harsher record on Cyclic Law.
Karjalan Sissit is the project of Markus Pesonen, a Finnish musician living in Eskilstuna, Sweden. The name means the Karelian guerrillas, and the first album was dedicated to Pesonen's uncle, who fought in the Winter War against the Soviet invasion of Finland. Cold Spring released it in 2001 in 1,000 copies; it had been recorded the year before at Erebus Odora. Compulsion's review heard massed voices, solemn symphonic passages, slow dark ambience and heavy percussion, set against period music.
Miserere followed on Cold Meat Industry in 2002, again recorded at Erebus Odora. The German label Eternal Soul then took the project on vinyl: a 7" in 2002 and the LPs Karjalasta Kajahtaa (2004), Tanssit On Loppu Nyt (2006) and Fucking Whore Society (2009), all three made with Peter Bjärgö. Wikipedia lists alcoholism and domestic violence among the project's themes.
After nearly six years without an album came …Want You Dead (2015) on Cyclic Law, recorded at Studio Beast in Eskilstuna with Bjärgö on guitar and programming and Forn Bragman on bass. Side-Line called it the project's resurrection, built on screamed vocals, industrial percussion and tormented ambient textures. Pesonen declared Karjalan Sissit finished in February 2020.
I keep Karjalan Sissit at Tier III: a small catalogue, but one that crossed from the martial-neoclassical end of Cold Meat Industry to something far rawer.
VAGO · c. the Anthropocene