Playlists

New Ambient and Experimental Music from Finland

Words by Music Finland

Published 3.2.2023

Get yourself acquainted with the Finnish ambient and experimental music scene!

Since experimental is a relatively abstract tag for a music genre, we look at it from a broad angle, also including music from the ambient realm. Our ambient and experimental playlist covers music ranging from surreal sound manipulations and freaky electronics to lush ambient soundscapes and leftfield-leaning lo-fi pop.

The playlist is updated frequently.

New Experimental Music from Finland on Apple Music

New Ambient and Experimental Music from Finland on Spotify

Listen to Music Finland's frequently updated genre playlists

Jaakonaho

Guitarist, producer, songwriter and musician Jussi Jaakonaho is someone you can call a "usual suspect" in the Finnish music scene – having worked on dozens and dozens of albums and bands during the past few decades. On his second solo album "Ghost Riot" (due out in March 2024), Jaakoaho makes instrumental music with influences ranging from jazz and post rock to trance and groovy rhythms. On the album, he is assisted by an all-star backing group with international musicians such as Dana Colley (Morphine) and Glenn Kotche (Wilco) as well as local talent like Antti Lötjönen, Tuomo Prättälä and Joakim Berghäll.

Timo Kaukolampi

With his countless music projects – including his current band K-X-P, Timo Kaukolampi has been an influential artist in the Finnish music scene since the late 1980s. With his solo music he has managed to reinvent himself as a musician and is now finally getting the recognition he deserves. Expect: pulsating synths and distant beats, cosmic disco, techno and dense cinematic ambience.

Aleksi Perälä

To call Aleksi Perälä prolific would be a grand understatement – even on a slow year the internationally recognised electronic producer, formerly known as Ovuca, releases at least half a dozen albums. On his more recent records, Perälä has used the novel musical tuning system called Colundi. His music, which combines IDM with fluttering microtonal melodies has been released by labels such Rephlex and Clone. His albums usually come in series, such as the GAIA gestalt (2023) which combines 15 albums, and track names being merely series of adjoining letters and numbers.

Marko Nyberg

Marko Nyberg (also known as the founder of Husky Rescue) draws inspiration from his real-life experiences and further from the art of Hilma af Klint. Nyberg’s music combines neoclassical with techno joined by the sounds of live string ensemble. In early 2022 Nyberg released his solo debut "Ingrid EP". The follow-up, a 9-song album named "Solveig", (out April 2024) is an intense mix of mainly instrumental neoclassical, ambient and techno, with singer Ringa Manner (Ruusut, The Hearing) guesting on two songs.

Oddarrang

Finnish quintet Oddarrang has established itself as a band with an undeniably unique sound – blending monumental riffs and dynamic builds and influenced by jazz, classical, world music and post-rock. On their later releases, such as 2013's "In Cinema" and 2016's "Agartha", the group has veered towards experimental ambient soundscapes. In 2024, Oddarrang announced their final, eponymous lp, which commemorates 20 years since the band's inception.

Mirror Ghost

Mirror Ghost is the alter ego and creative playground of Finnish musician Teemu Into. In 2021 he released Syrup Hill, an album of meditative ambient that echoed early synthesizer music, new age and Japanese environmental music. With the modular synth as his main tool, accompanied by tape loops, field recordings and traditional instruments, Mirror Ghost spawns melancholy harmonies and celestial melodies that evoke feelings of comfort and hope.

A. Blomqvist

During recent years, A. Blomqvist has become a prominent figure in the classical music scene, boasting over 80 million streams worldwide. Following the success of two self-released albums, “Improv.” and “The Self,” each contributing to his growing reputation, he announced in March 2024 his collaboration with XXIM Records and Sony Music. Blomqvist's musical journey is rooted in the legacy of composer Jean Sibelius, whose influence shapes his distinctive style, infusing classical compositions with a modern touch.

AHO

AHO is the solo project by Helsinki based producer and composer Matti Ahopelto. Aho's music blends ambient textures with vivid compositions. His first full length album "Nowinter Nosummer" was released in 2020 by PME Records. On the debut album, Aho's the simmering electronics are faced with organic instruments creating a unique soundscape. Aho's second album "Odyssey" saw the light of day in the Summer of 2022.

Ruttusound

On his debut album, "Tropikantele", Sami Sammalkallio aka Ruttusound combines of Caribbean sounds, kantele tunes and groovy chill out music. On the record, kantele combines melancholic, northern tones with tropical exoticism, creating a bridge between ancient and modern musical landscapes. It showcases the fusion of genres, painting soundscape where the kantele takes the lead, weaving simple and hypnotic melodies.

Heikki Ruokangas

Heikki Ruokangas is a jazz/avant-garde guitarist and composer from Oulu. His musical expression is formed by the dialogue between melody and noise, moving from delicate moods to almost violent avant-garde demolition. Ruokangas has performed in Denmark, Estonia, Sweden and Italy in addition to his home country, and his music has been released in the UK, the United States and Germany. Ruokanka's active lineups currently include e.g. duo with accordionist Anne-Mari Kanniainen, Finnish-Danish Heikki Ruokangas’ Remote Control and his solo guitar project.

VAIN

Whether VAIN is actually a "vanity project" for fashion designer Jimi Vain (haha), can only be speculated, but the music on his first ep releases "INLOVE-vol.01" and "From HEL with Love" stands on its own. Working closely with producers and artists from the Below0 label, Glayden, MFM, inter alia and Niko Demus, Vain's collaborative music echoes equally (the more tranquil side of) hyperpop as well as progressive house, trance and ambient techno.

Timo Alakotila

Timo Alakotila is one of Finland’s busiest, most versatile and most in-demand musicians, as composer, arranger, pianist and harmonium player in folk, classical, jazz and pop fields. His career began as harmonium player and founder member of the fiddle group JPP, who quickly established themselves as the best and most innovative fiddle music group in Finland.

Heikki Lindgren

In the ongoing experimentations of long sound, Heikki Lindgren creates soundscapes diving into archaic aesthetics. Bowed lyre, overtone flutes and self made instruments find common ground with the contemporary electronic music production methods and field recordings.

Arttu Silvast

The Finnish composer and audio creative Arttu Silvast released his first solo album "Polarity" in 2021. Inspired by the landscapes and isolation of the Arctic, his music combines organic and synthesized sounds creating spacious ambient soundscapes. Among the piano themes, a variety of instruments can be heard on the album all the way from the temple bells of Myanmar to more traditional Scandinavian instruments.

Ysi

YSI is the solo project of Helsinki-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Tuomas Soppela. His debut ep "Windstopper" (2021), was followed up in 2023 by the debut album "Amp Head". Matthew M. Williams, designer and founder of the streetwear brand 1017 ALYX 9SM, guest co-produces the album's track "Memory Man". In YSI's dark and experimental music, you can hear echoes from new wave, post punk and dream pop as well as industrial rock, shoegaze and leftfield techno.

Ikiranka

Ikiranka's music flows in its own way between folk music, ambient and jazz, with Joakim Berghäll's bass clarinet, Juha Kujanpää's pipe organ and the organ harmonium, as well as soundscapes from Inarinjärvi and the support cables of a radio mast from Pietarsaari, recorded by Teemu Korpipää. The song selection on Ikiranka's 2nd album "Sydänmaa" (2023) consists of the band's own compositions and improvisations, folk music renditions from Lappfjärd and Jepua, and a cover song from Oskar Merikanto.

New Borders

The improvising trio New Borders was founded in Gothenburg in 2021 by the British trumpetist Ben Rodney, Swedish saxophonist Adrian Åsling Sellius and Finnish Antti Lähdesmäki, who in this band plays the church organ. The project was based on traveling within the Nordic countries and was realized during the pandemic. The album contains material recorded with two Sámi artists: guitarist Viktor Bomstad, and organist Karin Nelson. The common denominator binding the material together are joiks: songs in the traditional Sámi style that both of the guests also wanted to interpret and record with New Borders.

Orvokki

Orvokki is a young singer/songwriter and producer, whose music mixes organic and digital sounds, taking the listeners on a fantastic journey, where elements of world music, unusual structures and rhythmic surprises are intertwined into an electric pulsating dream – "ambient colliding with old-fashioned longing and wild breakbeats", to quote the album's five-star review in Helsingin Sanomat. Behind the mononym lies Orvokki Oittila, who has studied music production in Germany and produced her debut album "Kasvotusen" album almost entirely by herself.

Jolea

Jolea is the moniker of Joanna Similä, Helsinki born producer and singer/songwriter. The name is drawn from the Finnish word kolea which means ”chilly”, as she found it oddly suitable for the style of music she represents. Jolea’s album "Atlas" (2020) is her first instrumental, compositional ambient release followed by a new ambient album "Weight of Clouds" (2021).

Lau Nau

Laura Naukkarinen’s songs are imbued with a cinematic breadth of vision and her idiosyncratic, finely honed soundworld builds on fragile, spectral otherness. In her concerts you can feel the time stop while she shares small stories with the audience, accompanied by a guitar, synths, small toy instruments and a sea of effects. Lau Nau’s 10th album "Aphrilis" was released in November 2023 by Fonal Records and Beacon Sound (USA), and is a companion of her 2017 album "Poseidon" – a return to lyrics-based songs and an organic band sound after several film soundtracks and modular synth albums.

Sähkökitarakvartetti

Contemporary music ensemble Sähkökitarakvartetti, founded in 2017, has explored the potential of the electric guitar in areas as varied as jazz, rock, classical music, free improvisation, experimental music and sound art. The group merges influences from multiple sources and explores new, as yet undefined combinations and modes of expression. By commissioning and performing works (by composers such as Tytti Arola, Hafdís Bjarnadóttir, Clara De Asís, Sami Klemola and Meriheini Luoto) boldly crossing genre boundaries, the group seeks to shake up the established structures and aesthetics of the art music field.

RinneRadio

Founded in 1988, RinneRadio is a pioneer in Finnish electronic jazz. Operating on the boundaries of jazz and electronic music, RinneRadio fused jazz into ambient music and techno years before it became a worldwide trend and added hints of world music into it. The biography on the band's website provides the following description of the music they produce: "As the drum'n'bass and techno rhythms are fermented with dark dub, lush ambient soundscapes and timeless saxophone and bass clarinet textures, the resulting brew becomes equally sexy trance jazz and surreal dance music."

Islaja

Islaja is the artist name of Finnish composer, performer and recording artist Merja Kokkonen, now based in Berlin, Germany. Since her debut in 2004, she has released four albums on Fonal Records, one on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label and one on Berlin-based monika enterprise, as well as a series of singles on labels such as Not Not Fun and Root Strata. She earned quick praise in the international music press for her unique vocal style and daring DIY approach to music composition, with kudos from the Wire magazine, Pitchfork and Tiny Mix Tapes. Islaja's seventh album "Angel Tape" was released in 2023, after a six years' recording hiatus.

Virta

For a bassless trio, VIRTA create a huge soundscape; expressive, avant garde and eminently fresh with an occasional nod to fellow Nordic sonic experimenters Nils Petter Molvaer and Jaga Jazzist. Formed in 2011, their playing is characterized by skillful musicianship and inventive use of electronic effects, with occasional atmospheric vocals. Virta also has a reputation as a fierce live ensemble.

Paavoharju

Paavoharju is one of the internationally best known underground groups from Finland. The Wire dubbed Paavoharju's music as “home-taped experimentation married to pop ecstasy”, which describes perfectly their combination of hazy lo-fi indie, religious imagery and dreamy/nightmarish ambient atmosphere. After releasing their 3rd album in 2013, Paavoharju took a lengthy hiatus before returning for shows in 2021 and another studio full-length "Yön mustia kukkia" (2023). Paavoharju announced that they would quit making music after October 2023.

Thomas Ignatius

Tuomas Palonen has a long history in Finnish indie music scene with bands like Cosmobile and Kuparilinna. His eponymous solo debut (2018), which was nominated for the highly valued Teosto Prize, has been called a "mystical, masterful blend of Finnish folk music and Anglo-American folk tradition, caught up in history and present, tradition and personality". Palonen's latest alter ego Thomas Ignatius, quite surprisingly, dives deep into medieval song, reimagined with synthpop Casios and "some help from Google Translate". Thomas Ignatius' album has already found international coverage, by Wire magazine, for example.

Mahti

You'll know from the names involved, including Circle pair Jussi Lehtisalo and Tomi Leppänen that Mahti is in it to win it. This new 4-piece presents a unique mixture of ambient-rock, electronic music and traditional Finnish-Karelian folk – namely "a tripped out, ambient-hypnotic ride". Their lengthy semi-improvisational pieces are built on top of complex, hypnotic grooves which are layered with opaque guitars and strangely soothing noise elements. In the heart of it all there's kantele, an ancient Finnish string instrument played by Hannu Saha, who has studied Finnish folk music for nearly 5 decades. The line-up is completed by psychiatrist Teemu Elo.

Hannu Saha & Pakasteet

Traditional folk musician Hannu Saha specializes in various kinds of kantele and their traditional playing styles. He has appeared on dozens of recordings including Mummi Kutoo, Primitiivisen Musiikin Orkesteri Primo and Salamakannel. Saha's band Pakasteet (”frozen food”) are a dark electronic music duo formed by interdisciplinary artists Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle etc) and film director Mika Taanila. Since the inception of Pakasteet in 2017, their live appearances have taken place as trios with “local artists”. Previously, Pakasteet have performed with Charles Hayward, Jukka Nousiainen, Draama-Helmi, Alexei Borisov, Ilia Belorukov, and Ilpo Väisänen.

Playlists