Hello and welcome to this page, dear readers! As big fans of the band Circle, we wanted to commemorate them by creating this website which details their band history and discusses their music.
If you’ve never heard of them, this is your chance to be introduced to them and maybe find your new favorite band! On the contrary, if you’re a fan of the Finnish band like us, you probably know many of the events we will talk about here, but hopefully, we can still surprise you with some curious facts.
While diving into the experimental world of Circle, if you’re also intrigued by exploring different forms of entertainment, our curated list of the best sports betting sites in Finland might interest you. It’s just another way to experience the thrill of anticipation and discovery.
Enjoy reading about Circle, the great experimental rock band hailing from Finland, and let us know how we did!
The Founding of Circle
The band Circle was founded by Jussi Lehtisalo, the bassist and singer, in Pori, Finland, in the year 1991. Lehtisalo is the only original member of Circle who is still in the band today. The other members at the time of founding are Juha Ahtiainen, Teemu Elo, Petri Hagner, Juha-Pekka Hietaniemi, and Mauri Päivistö (they also all appear in the credits of the first album).
The Finnish rock scene was budding at the time, so it might seem like Circle could have easily hopped on the trend, but that was not the case.
Although Lehtisalo, Ahtiainen, Elo, Hagner, Hietaniemi, and Päivistö started writing and playing music immediately after they founded Circle, there was a long road ahead of them and their dreams to record and release their music.
Someone new to Circle who listens to their first songs in the current year probably wonders why the band wasn’t signed to a label immediately, but that’s exactly the point – they were way ahead of their time. The style of their first album, Meronia, has highly experimental sound which reminds the listener of modern contemplative musical genres like acid techno or dream pop.
Circle could not be easily put in a neat box for the mass-consumer and perhaps that’s why it took some time before they were noticed.
First Label and First Records
One of the key executives, Heikonen, of the Finnish record label Bad Vegum (a high-profile indie label at the time) recounted hearing Circle for the first time around 1991 (likely soon after the band was founded). Heikonen was told that there were two impressive alternative bands, namely Circle and Deep Turtle, hailing from the same city, Pori.
Both Circle and Deep Turtle had self-released tracks but Heikonen was not impressed with either; he noted that the two bands were still underdeveloped and it seemed like they were both trying to emulate bands, meaning they had not found their unique sound yet.
Sometime later, he came upon Deep Turtle again and heard their new music which had the style that lacked the previous time. Deep Turtle recorded in the same basement as Circle back then and they asked Heikonen to give Circle another chance. That time around, Heikonen was impressed by Circle’s new songs and he immediately signed both Pori bands to Bad Vegum.
Bad Vegum was still testing the waters with Circle, so they agreed on financing EP’s to see how the band would be received before they pledge more money and effort. Circle’s first two EP’s proved to be successful and they went on performing around Finland.
Fans not only enjoyed their hypnotic sound, but also their elaborate theatrical performances which included blood-dripping props, lighting effects and glowing body paint.
Heikonen realised the potential of this new band and green-lit the release of a full-length album. Circle presented him with Meronia which was released in 1994. Heikonen recounts being hypnotised by the album and so enthralled by it that he spent hours with Jussi on the phone trying to figure out the best order for the 15 tracks.
The album was well-received in Finland, both in the underground scene and the mainstream rock community. It also helped Circle be recognised on the global scene, with foreign labels becoming interested in the Finnish band.
Band Members
As already mentioned, the only original member of Circle who is still in the band is Jussi Lehtisalo. Many of the original bandmates recorded the following few albums of the band, but all of them, besides Lehtisalo and Elo, left in 1997.
It could get a little confusing, especially to people who are just being introduced to Circle, because there is little information on why certain members left and also when. Here’s a list of all past and present members of Circle:
Present members:
- Jussi Lehtisalo
- Mika Rättö
- Janne Westerlund
- Tomi Leppänen
- Julius Jääskeläinen
- Pekka Jääskeläinen
- Tuomas Laurila
Past members:
- Juha Ahtiainen
- Teemu Elo
- Petri Hagner
- Juha-Pekka Hietaniemi
- Mauri Päivistö
- Olli Joukio
- Teemu Korpipää
- Jyrki Laiho
- Jani Viitanen
- Janne Peltomäki
- Janne Tuomi
- Bruce Duff
Success and Later Years
Circle soon found success in its native Finland but also around the whole world.
German fans were especially interested in their krautrock sound; krautrock is a rock subgenre developed in West Germany during the 1960’s and 1970’s which stands for “kosmische Musik” or cosmic music, which certainly fits Circle. One of the main inspirations behind Circle was, after all, the German krautrock band Faust.
Circle spent the next few years since its inception recording more and more music, surprising fans and labels alike with the speed with which they released new albums. By 1997, all original members of the band had departed, leaving Lehtisalo and Elo.
Perhaps the departure of the original members inspired Lehtisalo to create his own label as he established Ektro Records in 1997 to release Circle’s music and to also help other up-and-coming alternative artists from Finland.
Many of the band’s following albums were released through Ektro Records, although quite a few of them were also released by foreign labels such as the German Klangbad or the English Southern Records.
The band was slowly but steadily entering the global stage with each new album they recorded. Meronia (1994), although iconic and brilliant, was never released internationally. It was only their fifth studio album named after their founding town, Pori (1998), which found wider international success after it was picked up by Feldspar.
This album also led to the first of many US tours that Circle went on. The Finnish band has had multiple tours in the US over the last 25 years, visiting dozens of different states and cities.
Besides the US, some of the countries that Circle have performed in include Sweden, Estonia, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Portugal, France, Denmark, Russia, Japan.
The many performances led to many live albums as well. Circle has so far released 16 live albums which is an amazing feat for a band. Indeed, Circle is an outlier in terms of music releases with their 16 live albums and 40 studio albums, along with other EP’s.
After so many years, the band is still as inspired as it was at the very beginning. They last released an album in 2021 called Henki in collaboration with English musician Richard Dawson.
At the same time, various members of the bands have also worked on other musical projects together. These include the bands Overload Pharaoh, Steel Mammoth, Ektroverde, Split Cranium Moon Fog Prophet, Doktor Kettu, Plain Ride, and the duo Rättö ja Lehtisalo. As you can see, they are always busy with entertaining us!
Circle: Style
Over the last 30+ years, Circle’s sound has naturally changed. With the beginning of the new millennium and the introduction to new bandmates, the band started leaning more into heavy metal, but the contemplative and cosmic nature of their music remains.
It’s a bit difficult to put their style into words, especially when they have so many albums to discuss, so let’s use some descriptions found in promotion materials.
Hissi is described as “experimental puppet theatre music, demented lounge lizard grooves and cosmic rhythm music”, while Fraten as “hidden hypno-rock… minimalistic, disciplined, mesmerizing”, and Pori as mirroring “the character of the metropolis itself: tranquil, historic, and slightly monotonous but belied by grit, weirdness, and surprising artistic fertility”.
As you can see, Circle’s music doesn’t neatly fit into a box and the way the band itself describes it is esoteric and ephemeral, much like their influences and their hypnotic sound. One cannot simply analyse chords and progressions; one has to experience Circle first-hand.
Discography
Here’s the discography of Circle (only including studio albums and live albums):
Studio Albums:
- 1994 Meronia
- 1996 Zopalki
- 1996 Hissi
- 1997 Fraten
- 1998 Pori
- 1998 Kollekt
- 1999 Andexelt
- 2000 Prospekt
- 2001 Taantumus
- 2002 Sunrise
- 2002 Alotus
- 2003 Guillotine
- 2004 Forest
- 2005 Tulikoira
- 2006 Miljard
- 2006 Tyrant
- 2007 Tower feat. Verde
- 2007 Panic
- 2007 Katapult
- 2008 Hollywood
- 2010 Rautatie
- 2011 Infektio
- 2011 Noiduttu
- 2011 Rakkaus tulessa feat. Erkki Kurenniemi
- 2011 Giardino feat. Verde
- 2012 Manner
- 2013 Enharmonic Intervals
- 2013 Incarnation
- 2013 Frontier, as “Falcon (ex-Circle)”
- 2014 Leviatan, as “Circle (ex-Falcon)”
- 2015 Pharaoh Overlord
- 2017 Terminal
Live Albums:
- 1998 Surface, split w. Marble Sheep
- 2001 Raunio
- 2004 Golem / Vesiliirto
- 2004 Empire
- 2004 Mountain
- 2005 General
- 2006 Arkades
- 2007 The Blaze Game, as “Sunburned Circle” with Sunburned Hand of the Man
- 2007 Telescope
- 2007 Rakennus
- 2008 Triumph
- 2009 Soundcheck
- 2011 Maxim
- 2012 Serpent
- 2014 Hukkaamiskielto
- 2014 6000 km/h
Circle and Film
In addition to all their ventures, Circle somehow managed to find the time to even record music for film. They recorded the soundtrack for the Finnish film Pori (1998), directed by Mika Taanila, and recorded pieces for another one of Taanila’s films – Six Day Run (2013).
In 2006, while Circle was recording their next album Miljard, they were being filmed by Esko Lönnberg and the result was the film Saturnus Reality which was released by No Quarter Records in 2007.
In another Inception-like event, Lönnberg himself became the subject of a film, called Man with a Video Camera, directed by no other than Circle’s own Petri Hagner. Hagner followed Lönnberg as he followed Circle.
Apparently Lönnberg had left his job in Sweden to go back to his hometown of Pori to pursue filmmaking and his first project is in fact the film about Circle. Lönnberg’s initiation into filmmaking and into the band’s “rituals” are indeed quite the subject matter.
Here’s the trailer for this fascinating documentary:
Thank you
Thank you for reading this page dedicated to the band Circle! We hope we managed to meet your expectations and that you learned something new and interesting today. Now all that’s left of you to do is to keep exploring the magical cosmic music of the Finnish band.