Like the massive spectrum of music in my head, Finnish brothers Orion and J.Shore usually sit at opposite ends on the music production front. Juska (Orion), grew up on the early 90’s hypnotic trance sound such as Cygnus X’s album “Hypermetrical” and Sven Väth’s “The Harlequin – The Robot And The Ballet-Dancer” and for the past five years has hosted a variety of electronic music on his National Finnish Radio show. In a vein I can very much relate to, these early 90’s records often contained a few ambient or downtempo tracks and Juska soon grew to love the sleepier side of electronic music as much as the ecstasy of early 90’s trance.
Younger Brother J.Shore however, had a much more straight forward introduction into the ambient/electronica genre, listening to Aphex Twin, Global Communication and Boards of Canada, he grew up to to become a very talented choir conductor and pianist. And it was on these terms that the two combined to produce music together with their first album, Brotherhood, released in 2011 – an album that I still hold in high regard, and featured at the beginning of last year.
It’s this unique collaboration that I can hear throughout each record and as hoped, within this mix. Their records often consist of live strings, guitars and pianos, and as Orion has found out, this ‘orchestral’ out-take is a perfect addition to a well composed chill-out track. For this mix Orion and J.Shore have decided to “introduce many Finnish and Scandinavian artists which we think are incredibly talented” as well as including a couple of unreleased tracks from the studio, including Orkidea’s Unity and Chris Coco’s ‘My Sunset’.
Here’s a quick intro from Juska on some of the artists and tracks featured:
“Some of the artists worth highlighting from the mix are Gorm Sørensen, who is a super talented Danish chill-out producer and Silk Sofa label A&R; Tokyo Boulevard, whose debut is one of those timeless chill-out albums; Norwegian Xerxes who releases amazing music and made a really great unofficial remix of our “Brotherhood” track; Finnish Softys, one half of the legendary Slusnik Luna, who is a very talented chill-out producer, too; Indigo, who hasn’t released too much but whose chill-out mixes in the 90s were a big inspiration for me; Planet Boelex, who made an exclusive remix of Nails for this mix only and who is easily in the Top 3 of Finnish chill-out/ambient producers; and finally Kajis and Turismo, both very very promising Finnish newcomers. Kajis delivered a beautiful orchestral track for this mix and Turismo’s remix of Architect’s Dream has exactly this oldskool vibe I love”
Orion & J.Shore have recently offered out their album ‘Brotherhood’ for remix under a creative commons license, available on their Facebook Page and as well as releasing the remixes mentioned above, will also be looking to finalise more music towards the end of the year.
Tracklist:
1. Gorm Sørensen – ID
2. Tim Sane – Untitled
3. Lauge & Baba Gnohm – Structures
4. Orion & J.Shore – Brotherhood (Xerxes remix)
5. Stephen J. Kroos – IO
6. Orion & J.Shore – Deep Blue (Tokyo Boulevard Downtempo Remix)
7. Jani R – All The Beauty (2012 Beat Mix)
8. Softys – No More Time For Us
9. Orion & J.Shore – Architect’s Dream (Turismo Remix)
10. Indigo – Dineh
11. Orion & J.Shore – Nails (Planet Boelex remix)
12. Kajis – What Are We Doing
13. Incolumis – Cloudcage
14. Turismo – And Our Universe Was Born
15. Unfabled – Solitude
16. Orkidea – Unity (Orion & J.Shore remix)
17. Chris Coco – My Sunset (Orion & J.Shore remix)
Orion & J.Shore on Facebook | Soundcloud | iTunes (Brotherhood)