Photo: Anne Valeur
What’s that you say? Undisputed king of warped mirror-world disco Jaakko Eino Kalevi has remixed Norwegian synth-alchemists Apothek? And he phoned up one of his buddies to help out? Who did he call? Jófríður from Samaris?! And GANGLY? And Pascal Pinon? And about a trillion other projects we love?? No way!
Yes way – sound the ‘awesome people being awesome together’ klaxon, because this fever-dream of a collaboration is 100% for real. Turning his hand to do a remix of Apothek’s fantastic recent single ‘Waiting For The Thunder‘, in the end Jaakko went above and beyond just a few tweaks here and there – he’s pretty much rebuilt it from the ground up. Dismantling Apothek’s elegant construction, he’s put the song back together in such a fashion that it’s less of a remix, more like a mischievious twin, or a delightfully peculiar changeling child – they resemble each other, but from the first ominous chords, it’s clear that one of them is definitely up to something.
Seeing as the vocals have always been the lynchpin of what Apothek do, to have Morten Mykelbust take a backseat is a bold move, and it takes a voice as enchanting as Jófríður Ákadóttir’s to pull it off. Together with Jaakko’s signature kaleidoscopic swirls of gradually layering synth sounds, only a lingering fragrance of the original remains, but it’s more than enough to entice. It may have undergone some serious renovations, but the strength of the foundation is indisputable – even through Jaakko and Jófríður‘s deliciously distorted re-imagining of the song, ‘Waiting For The Thunder’ hasn’t lost any of its power.
You can grab this rework, and two of the band’s own new versions of the track – one recorded in an old factory and another retooled by the band’s programming maestro Nils Martin Larsen – on a remix EP which will see a release on May 13th via Propeller Recordings.
