Lehto - Sisu (2025)

With an outlined shadow of the sun, Lehto announces his new album 'Sisu', an excursion on his musical roots, creating his own vision of soulful electronic music.

Drawing influences from soul and rnb as well as using all kinds of elements from the fields of electronic music, Lehto is creating a strong and soulful alternative sound on his new album. Following the idea of incorporating more elements of soul into his music, which he first did on his Northbound album, he is now expanding this idea on Sisu.

First Light (Ode to the Sun) is a low-slung downtempo ballad, opening the album with beautiful chords, a wonderfully weird sounding and catchy piano line, a heavy synth bassline and some enchanting, blues-infused Rhodes solos, all carrying the revelling voices who welcome our daystar.

Hunaja (Finnish for Honey) picks up where First Light leaves off, evolving into a heavier, club appealing breakbeat affair consisting of a trance bassline as the main attraction and being funky in the middle. It effortlessly combines genres, with some longing vocals leading the way. As the track nears its end, an organ-driven, funeral-like breakdown adds a dramatic close.

With Rosedale, Sisu is calming down with its thoughtful piano play and overall drumless character. Bits of vocals alternate with charming synth chords and guitars, with the song eventually finding a peak in a bewitching synth solo line in the last part.

Fervour is, as the title suggests, dedicated to the labour of heart, which is in this case the music (making) itself. A classy breakbeat coupled with enchanting vocals is building the centre of Fervour while delightful guitars and a garage bassline in the middle provide some extra joy before Fervour resolves with refined soft organ chords.

Blackvyne is a vital midtempo fling consisting of steady drums over an expansive, stretched-out wobbling synth bass topped by rnb-styled lo-fi vocals throughout the song.

(((( o )))) (the sun song) delves into more softer realms. West Coast-influenced vocals and guitars meet the wonderful bassplay of Los Angeles-based long-time friend Tristan de Liege, who gives the song its foundation.

"Holly is surely the most personal track on the album to me, as it is dedicated to a dear friend who died in 2023. I was working on this song on a Friday morning and worked out the majority of the song that day. Two days later, on Sunday, a mutual friend called me and told me that Holly had passed away on that Friday before. I remember it felt really devastating at that moment, and sometime later, it was clear that I should name this song Holly; it was the only song name that made sense to me. Holly would have loved that, I'm pretty sure, and whenever I hear the song now I remember Holly."

Ne'ermorrow is, along with Sielulintu and Turnstead, clearly deriving more from a club context, while songs like Rayedio lean more to the downtempo and soul corner, but all together they form a vivid mixture with its keystone, the title track itself at the end; a thoughtful and conciliatory piece of 'let's come together' music.

Sisu is an echo, a statement and a snapshot of Lehto's presence in electronic music, enduring to find his own place and an extension of the range of what a Lehto album can be now, and in the future. It relies heavily on the idea of bringing together elements of old and new, incorporating traces of rave sensibilities and conjuring the soul within to create some vivid and melodic music; an attempt to create a future sound of yesterday's magic.