Finnish quartet MAHTI released their debut with our friends at Riot Season and it’s a great listen. Three current and former members of psych/prog mainstays Circle are joined by Finnish folk musican and scholar Hannu Saha on the kantele.

It’s ambient leaning prog that thankfully doesn’t owe too much to the classics. The group has their own sound combining semi improvised traditional folk and rock instrumentation with electronics and drones. There’s absolutely distortion and dissonance at times but never without clearly seeking beauty. The atmosphere is reverent and meditative with grooves and melodies coming and going like fleeting throughts. I’ve really enjoyed this record (no surprises there- Riot Season releases never dissapoint) and I’m already looking forward to the second volume, also coming out this spring.