In this age of constant connectivity, switching off has become one of the great luxuries of modern life, and it’s one of the reasons Jaakko Eino Kalevi has called his new album Out Of Touch. He explores what he calls this “essential, blissed out” state on his second album for Weird World – as he meditates, in classic Jaakko fashion, on the merry-go-round of the daily grind. Drawing inspiration from time spent in Athens, on Out of Touch the Finnish songwriter broadens his horizons while focusing on his inner self. Written and produced by Jaakko Eino Kalevi in 2017 in studios in Helsinki and Berlin, where he lives, these ten new songs are among the richest he has composed. He also plays every instrument on the album, including the gliding lines of saxophone that lace the record’s lush grooves. Ranging in style from the Gerry Rafferty swagger of China Eddie and Motown psych of This World to the Aegean dub of Conceptual Mediterranean (Part 1) and continental pop of People in the Centre of the City, each song is characterised by that familiar JEK warmth and melodic flair. This album – his fifth solo set – feels like a natural step forward for an artist whose all-round skills have led him down some intriguing paths in the time since his last full-length. Notably, he played on David Byrne’s recent American Utopia album, and in 2016 he was invited to join the line-up of Crammed Discs’ cult Belgian new-wave band Aksak Maboul for a run of shows. Last year, Jaakko’s synth act Man Duo released their debut album Orbit.
