Combining folk, funk, and psych-rock into trippy experimental pop, multi-instrumentalist Jaakko Eino Kalevi weaves his own breed of weird, textural synth pop. Taking a slightly different approach with each release, he moved from the introspective dream pop of 2018’s Out of Touch to more demented funk on the 2019 mini-album Dissolution and elemental darkwave on 2023’s Chaos Magic.
Kalevi grew up in Jyväskylä, a city in central Finland. He began making music as a boy after discovering Dream Theater’s prog-metal and hip-hop, teaching himself how to play guitar and use beat-making software before exploring reggae, disco, techno, and more. Kalevi issued a string of releases reflecting his omnivorous musical taste, including 2010’s coldwave-inspired album Modern Life and 2013’s hazy, fittingly named Dreamzone EP. The following year, he released the disco homage Yin Yang Theatre, an EP on DJ Tim Sweeney’s Beats in Space label. His 2015 self-titled album arrived via the Domino imprint Weird World.
Over the next two years, Kalevi played solo live dates across Europe and was asked to play on David Byrne’s 2018 album American Utopia. He also stepped in to play with Belgian new wave outfit Aksak Maboul. 2017 saw him return to the studio to start work on his next album while also putting the finishing touches on his more synth-focused act Man Duo’s debut Orbit. Kalevi’s second album for Weird World appeared the following year. Recorded in Helsinki and Berlin and featuring Kalevi playing all the instruments, Out of Touch saw him broadening the sound of his already eclectic, ’80s-influenced pop.
In 2019 he returned with the seven-song mini-album Dissolution. Funkier and more feral than his earlier work, the material on Dissolution was centered around spare dance rhythms and cold, spacy synth riffing. Kalevi reached deep into his creative toolkit on 2023’s aptly named Chaos Magic, a wide-ranging double album rooted in sinewy melodic pop, darkwave, dub reggae, and jazz-tinged psych-rock, and featuring contributions from Alma Jodorowsky, Jimi Tenor, Faux Real, Yu-Ching Huang, and John Moods. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi
