There must be something magical floating through the Scandinavian Mountains with the level of music the Finnish DJ Axel Thesleff is producing. Sound remnants from Eastern acoustic instruments must have drifted their way into Axel’s ear in Helsinki. That and his inkling for post-rock, world bass, tribal, tropical, future bass and future garage has helped mold Thesleff into the IDM artist he is today.
At the beginning of 2019 Axel made his US debut with his live performance built around multiple instruments such as keytar, drum pad, and a midi mallet by touring with Beats Antique. Followed by his first overseas festival performance at Envision festival held in Costa Rica.
‘Eco’ off his recently released Two Worlds EP was our first impression of Axel Thesleff, a track the beloved world bass producer CloZee deemed necessary to remix. A year after Two Worlds, Axel is ready to share his latest world bass piece, ‘Unity’. This independent cut has resemblence of Odesza with its dreamlike hypnosis.
thatDROP is pleased to premiere Axel Thesleff’s, ‘Unity’.
Axel chimes in on ‘Unity’:
Unity was born out of a demo I made while touring in the USA. It’s sort of the embodiment of what I was going through during that time in my life. I wanted to create something that gives a sense of hope and letting go of mental baggage. Ultimately it’s about peace and love.
Listen to Axel Thesleff’s ‘Unity’:
“Unity” eludes a powerful, yet pensive, undertone as ethereal vocals melt into measured drums and almost hymnal synths. The buildup feels uncannily like an ocean wave crashing into you.
Along with Axel’s EP Two Worlds came a 30-minute audiovisual experience that illustrates his Eastern influence.
With a strong understanding of electroacoustics and sound design from studying Musicology at the University of Helsinki, Thesleff’s attention to detail and fine-tuned talent shine through his work.
To get the full tour through the Axel Thesleff catalog, enjoy and pick up your free download of his first mega-hit, a tribal trap banger titled, ‘Bad Karma’. Then take a moment in time to listen to his The Hollow Men EP, a musical reflection of T.S. Eliot’s poem that you can read below along with the fitting, atmospheric music.
The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us-if at all-not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer-
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
