The Helsinki-based duo Shine 2009 have had a great year 2013. Their debut album Our Nation was released on Modular Recordings in October and followed by a tour with Cut Copy, so it's no surprise the duo has been busy lately. It's no wonder, that the singer of the group, Sami Suova, is happy with how things have gone:

"In a nutshell: it's been great. We got to play some amazing venues and the response was really good, and there will be more shows and more music at an accelerating pace", Suova says.

Besides Shine 2009 Suova and the other half of the duo, Mikko Pykkäri, also form a side project called Cup, known for their more technoish orientation. To Suova it seems like natural continuity between the two groups, despite the fact that even the lineup is completely the same in both groups.

"Both Shine 2009 and Cup are me and Mikko. Maybe the fact that so far Cup has been mainly instrumental is the biggest difference between the projects. Otherwise the music is made in a very similar way as with Shine 2009. Cup resurfaces when least expected." 

And surfaced it has. Here's the latest track by Cup, released in December:

With both Shine 2009 and Cup active, Suova and Pykäri don't seem to have a lot of free time on their hands, but the end results of their productivity are truly on par with the expectations set by their critically acclaimed debut. The group's highly polished live delivery is also captured on a new video released by Modular Recordings.

With the release of Our Nation the duo also published a video for the single track Older, directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko, who's lately been making a name for himself on Pitchfork's list for the Best Videos of 2013. When asked, Shine 2009 promise to release more videos in the near future, but Sami Suova is quite silent about what exactly is going to happen next.

"There will be more videos, and some other online treats as well", he states mysteriously.