Sound artist Mika Bjorklund’s latest project is a journey by evocation to the abandoned island city of Gunkanjima, which for a while during the 20th Century contained a heavily populated mining settlement. This desolate place still has its apartment towers, factories, schools and other building intact but crumbling.

Through drones, musique concrete and other idioms of electronic music, Mika guides us through its resonant passageways.

1. Birds in Fog
2. City of Dust
3. Skeletal Structures
4. Still
5. Sound of Solitude
6. Departure

Previous releases by Mika Bjorklund on Webbed Hand Records includes Risen (wh066) and Nocturne (wh054).

Recorded and Produced by Mika Bjorklund, 2005.

Visit the Download page to stream or download this album.

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The album Risen consists a pair of long-form works by Mika Björklund, a young Finnish sound artist who has previously released Nocturne [wh054] on Webbed Hand. This is definitely headphones-in-the-dark music — real introvert listening.

Visit the download page to stream or download this album.

Risen

“The concept is to play with different kinds of ambient music, I’ve tried to get a feeling of progression from dark to light, past to future and so forth. So there’s both dark ambient and ambient. Styles range from ambient chiptune (using only simple waveforms and white noise) to obscure dark ambient. The works used are all mine except one in the end called “Singularity”. Singularity is made by finnish underground ambient artist Mecha and is used with his permission. It gets quite dramatic in the middle, but it’s more mellow and buoyant in the end.”

РMika Bj̦rklund

Harmaa hiljaisuus

“Harmaa = Grey
hiljaisuus = silence

“The silence in Harmaa hiljaisuus is more about mood than anything else. It’s about visual silence and silence of the mind, clarity and calm observation. Silence is a relative rather than an absolute, so it’s not so much about actual silence, but rather about silence in metaphorical sense. To me “Harmaa hiljaisuus” is about two things (and I’ve drawn a lot of the inspiration from these): Urban decay and grey clouds. There are a great number of Urban exploration sites on the net which I have been browsing. Abandoned and forgotten places are usually visually silent, and the beauty found in those places is unconventional – that is also an interesting analogy to ambient music. Those are the moods I’ve tried to convey here.

“For some reason I find grey clouds very inspiring. Usually grey is seen as a boring and dull color. I don’t think so at all.”

РMika Bj̦rklund

Recorded and Produced by Mika Björklund
Cover image by Mika Björklund
Total length: 1 hour

Visit the download page to stream or download this album.

We at Webbed Hand hope you’ve been enjoying our many free albums. If from the kindness of your heart you’d like to give something to help us keep this label operating, we welcome you to donate securely using Paypal:

Finnish electronica artist Mika Björklund makes his debut on Webbed Hand with a long-form ambient composition inspired by other long-form albums on this label, including the Rain series. This excellent track is both engaging and relaxing, and recommended for those times when you want to unwind for the night.

Visit the download page to stream or download this album.

About the recording:

“As the name implies, the music is night music. It was mostly made during night and I think the mood is best for late-night listening. I’ve tried to make it encompass the feelings and moods I feel when I stay up late to think and listen to music. When I open the window I hear a very quiet fuzzy noise originating from the cars and the houses, that’s something I don’t hear by day. That could be why careful listener might hear some urban elements. The sounds are there even if no one is listening. So to sum up, hopeful nocturnal solitude with a certain level of awareness. Also hopefully it is peaceful and soothing, possibly even tranquil.” –Mika Björklund

About the artist:

“So I’m 18 years old, from Finland, and currently finishing up my studies. I grew up listening mostly to my father’s Opera records overlayed with him singing. My brother on the other hand listened to rock and heavy metal which I also grew to like. A little later I learned to play with my brother’s Commodore 64 computer, my time spent with it would later spark my interest in the demoscene. I have played various musical instruments, most notably I played violin for about five years. None of the instruments gave me what I wanted however and I always lacked the determination to practice for more than an hour at a time.

“Later, about two years ago, my use of the internet grew and with it my views about music changed radically. I developed an interest to the demoscene (In early 2003 I think) and started making music with Modplug tracker. More importantly I started listening to music very carefully, paying attention to their structure and style. I also expanded my musical tastes. I have now stopped limiting myself and I listen to all kinds of music as long as I like it (which includes almost anything, but commercial ‘music’ produced to make someone rich). Later I discovered netlabels and have been downloading ever since. I am very interested in different kinds of noises that could be used in making music and especially white noise has great symbolic value for me.

“Influences include !Cube, Stephane Picq, Future crew and loonie (from demoscene), Eppu normaali, Dingo and Mana mana (finnish rock) and also Kraftwerk, Merzbow, Vangelis, Ennio Morricone and of course Brian Eno.” –Mika Björklund

Personnel:
produced and recorded by
Mika Björklund, 2005

Visit the download page to stream or download this album.

We at Webbed Hand hope you’ve been enjoying our many free albums. If from the kindness of your heart you’d like to give something to help us keep this label operating, we welcome you to donate securely using Paypal: