Auringon puutarha arrives on the 25th November.
The debut album from Ocelot is finally here, Auringon puutarha features nine dreamy explorations in left field storytelling and sonic adventurism. “Auringon puutarha is about a fantasy, both beautiful, naive and disillusioned. It is an album about studying a distant place closely, about obsessing over a life that is out of reach, it is an album about watching and consuming a main character and confusing oneself with them.”
Listen to Auringon puutarha
“The debut album from Finnish experimental Pop outfit Ocelot is a thing of summery beauty! Songs such as ‘Fire Season’ sound like a band that could have come out of Liverpool in 1979 – think Pink Military Stand Alone crossed with early Teardrop Explodes organ driven pop!” Monolith Cocktail
“It’s also telling that the story of the film city of yesteryear is the first single and the opening track of the album. There are shadows and levels in the dream factory, and even the most cunning wizard can’t guess all the plot twists.” Desibeli
“Ocelot still makes perhaps the most original music in Finland!” Rumba
“It’s wonderful to be able to express the atmosphere of a different world, or even a sense of the other world, with this number of sounds, and the singing voice at the centre of it. The repetition in the second half is also euphoric and cool.” Niche Music
“Making us see their strong inspiration in everything that surrounds the most ambient pop of the 60s, along with all those flashes typical of a collected and analog psychedelic format, the trio has been showing us over the last two years the appeasing power of their music” Mindies
“The combination of Pennanen’s mossy, androgynous pronunciation and the shrill background hum of the rhythm group has not been heard before (at least on many) Finnish-language records. The vocalization is so charming that even the language barrier doesn’t hinder its charm.” Soundi
“I often find it hard to pigeonhole Finnish music. It is so different – and consistently so, no matter what the genre – from what emanates from any of the other Nordic countries, or anywhere in Europe for that matter, that you have to ask yourself whether they are collectively working at a different artistic level to the rest.” Nordic Music Central
“Alienating journey on the notes of “Vanha Hollywood” by Ocelot,#indiepop track with a dreamlike atmosphere and relaxing tempos, but with a surprisingly dynamic ending.” IndieItali
Ocelot 2022 by Linda Lehtovirta
OCELOT: AURINGON PUUTARHA (SOLITI 103) RELEASE DATE: 25/11/2022
Ocelot Auringon puutarha album cover by Rikhard Hormia
- Vanha Hollywood
- Daisy
- Santa Ana
- Kynsin hampain
- Sydänystävä
- Fire Season
- Horisontti
- Appelsiinipuiden varjossa
- Ikkunat auki
Emilia Pennanen: Vocals, piano, synth
Rasmus Pietilä: Bass, vocals, percussion
Victor von Hellens: Drums, percussion
Producer: Rasmus Pietilä
Mixing: Rasmus Pietilä
Mastering: Philip Granqvist
This album is about a fantasy, a constantly ongoing on-screen vacation where you walk the cursor through Google Maps or follow someone closely in their daily routine. You drift in and out of songs, films, books, social media accounts and old stories. And then one day you are actually there, or maybe you are just imagining it – it doesn’t really matter. Suddenly you can feel the place. The wind is colder than you thought it would be, the sun is burning. You drive along a familiar coast. The roads serpentine around the mountains, you are caught between the steep mountain wall on one side and the roaring sea on the other side. If you drive off the cliff and fall, you fall inside the car. You stop at a vista point, a Swedish couple says “Hi”, they seem friendly but you ignore them. They are wearing sand coloured gear from head to toe. They are on their way to Vegas, they tell you.
The horizon lays flat in the distance, the waves keep crashing into the cliffs underneath. You get back into your car and leave the Swedish couple and the view behind. You want to be more than a tourist, you want to live here, you want to be part of this place, you want to get casted. It is winter, the towns are quiet, in two hours you will be in LA.
These days it is often hard to tell where our own stories end, and where someone else’s begins. Through dreams, movies and screens our lives are constantly woven together into a reality that does not really exist. We see pictures from places that cannot be found anymore, we engage in love that is not ours and we experience moments that never really happened, but still moves us to the core.
For this album we wanted to make music that should be played in these dreams, movies and memories. It is an album about studying a distant place closely, about obsessing over a life that is out of reach, it is an album about watching and consuming a main character and confusing oneself with them.
Ocelot 2022 by Linda Lehtovirta