Biography.
A Path To The Sun 2004–2009
Finishing an album may occasionally require sleepless nights, strong coffee and countless working hours. That's when its creators are being pampered. They are lucky, because on other occasions, albums may demand also endless quantities of sweat, tears and discord. Sometimes records break their makers. The question is: if the end result is pure gold, has the most painful of efforts been worth it?
The pace of consumption accelerates. The collective jaws of the people gape ever wider. The electronic ocean of information offers entire careers at the click of a mouse. It only takes a few minutes to download a lifetime. To the authors, the albums are not mere kilobytes or a means to medicate silence-fearing ears.
Nor is the music an industry, a conveyor belt to process regularly. Even though the bosses demand a gold egg every quarter, each song and each album has its individual spirit, unique and irreplaceable to its creators.
Music is far too delicate an entity to be treated hastily, simply as a servant to the mechanics of efficiency. Wouldn't you agree?
The process to finish Purity's third album turned borderline ridiculous. The album drove the band members to the edge of insanity and nervous breakdown. It forced the band to take a time-out. Somewhere between work, school, family, other bands and other albums, the songs that hadn't quite reached the finish line kept gnawing at their characters.
In the spring 2008, the band came together after eighteen months of silence, and, as the vibe was positive, decided to finish the neverending project.
Along with summer begun the fruitful finalizing of songs. In october the band begun the studio sessions feeling hopeful. Some of the first songs had seen daylight towards the end of 2004, yet the body of work remained alive all the way. Creativity never shut out, intuition and impulse took over the original plan. The album gained five years of perspective and depth, but remained fresh and inspiring to make.
'A Path To The Sun' is a versatile album. Emotions range from soft to violent, dejected to defiant, from dramatic to down-to-earth. Is this alternative, heavy, rock, punk or emo? We call it music. In comparison to the previous album, the emphasis on this one is more on the guitars. 'A Path To The Sun' is a sincere album. Its first aim is to please its makers.
In his film Fitzcarraldo Werner Herzog depicts a character who, against all reason, decides to tow a steamboat over a mountain. The film is a perfect metaphor of creative process. The impossible only seems impossible, and it is impossible only until the moment someone succeeds at it the first time.
Making an album is a crazy task on several levels. Yet they have to be made, if only to create a momentary illusion of achievement and meaning in a chaotic world.
We think this album is worth all the effort it took. And it gave us no choice. It lead us, and we followed on a leash.
The band:
Teppo Haapasalo
Sami Hämäläinen
Tuomas Kokko
Heikki Koistinen
Henri Lindström
Text: Henri Lindström
English translation: Laura Koistinen
[BIOGRAFIA SUOMEKSI ]
