“Might Päiväkahvit help listeners to find peace in troubled times, in the same way as Valo Siroutuu helped people to navigate the waters of the pandemic? The album exudes that same peaceful exuberance… Rain is falling as the album begins, but the piano promises sunshine, which arrives in the first words of Lau Nau. Her collaborations with Sontag Shogun have all proven fruitful; how could it be otherwise, sparked by an island retreat?” – Richard Allen/A Closer Listen
“‘Go North’ moves like a breath half-remembered. Jesse Perlstein’s voice holds the center in soft focus while Laura Naukkarinen’s drifts just outside it, twisting around each phrase like vapor. Tape murmur, acoustic guitar, distant piano, and soft electronics ripple beneath, creating a surface that seems calm until small glitches begin to press against it.” – Brad Rose/Foxy Digitalis (single premiere)
When the trio of Sontag Shogun gathered at Laura Naukkarinen’s home on the Finnish island of Kimitoön in the summer of 2019, they had not the slightest inkling that the world was about to change irretrievably with the onset of a long-predicted pandemic the following year. By the time their collaborative album, Valo Siroutuu (“The Light Scatters”), was released nearly two years later, the intimate and reflective nature of the work they had created together had taken on new meaning, resonating powerfully (and quietly) with a world in which the proverbial cracks in the wall only seem to be widening.
Päiväkahvit completes the story that began with Valo Siroutuu, featuring 9 songs from the original sessions as well as 4 interpretive reworks courtesy of Amulets, Fadi Tabbal, Post-Dukes, and Jeremy Young. Available digitally and in a one-time vinyl pressing of 300 copies, the album flows seamlessly from beginning to end, incorporating field recordings, tape, sublime vocal melodies, and a host of acoustic and electronic instruments. Richly textured and immersive, Päiväkahvit positively crackles with warmth and a sense of creative embrace.
“We invite the listener into the sauna, out to the garden and onto the trampoline, to sit by the water’s edge and to take a coffee in the waning afternoon light, and to stay as long as they like.” – Jesse Perlstein
Released June 20, 2025
https://beaconsound.bandcamp.com/album/p-iv-kahvit
Laura Naukkarinen – vocals, violin, modular synth, glockenspiel
Jesse Perlstein – vocals, synths, field recordings, tape
Jeremy Young – guitar, oscillators, radio, amplified objects, tape
Ian Temple – piano
Recorded in Kimito, Finland in 2019, with overdubs and arrangements produced in Montreal, New York, and Los Angeles between 2020-2024.
Tracks 1, 2, & 4 were mixed by Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets in Pawtucket.
Tracks 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, & 13 were mixed by Jesse Perlstein in Los Angeles.
Track 5 produced by Fadi Tabbal in Beirut; track 6 produced by Randall Taylor in Portland; track 9 produced by Chudja Zheni in Izhevsk; track 12 produced by Jeremy Young in Montreal.
Mastered by Jason Powers.
Artwork and graphic design by Studio Bernardt.
140g Crystal Clear vinyl LP packaged in front of two sturdy double-sided inserts (250gsm and 300g papers). Artwork and design by Studio Bernhardt.
Initial copies include an additional 10.5 x 14.8 cm print, one of a set of four. Screen printed in Berlin by album designer Anna Bernhardt on 200g Daler-Rowney fine grain paper using light green and dark grey metallic inks. 10 random copies include two of the four prints.
The Bandcamp DL of Päiväkahvit includes a bonus 12-minute track recorded live in Portland in 2022 at the Aladdin Theater.