Welcome to Jaakko Eino Kalevi’s garden of earthly delights! Chaos Magic is the Finn’s wildest statement yet – a double-album of elemental pop and baroque electronics that plots a thrilling course through the Jaakko universe, drawing on cosmic jazz, dub reggae, neon synthpop, tender ballads and psych-rock nirvana, the whole thing laced with melody and mystery.   

Largely written and recorded by Jaakko in his new home of Athens, Chaos Magic features musical contributions from Alma Jodorowsky, Jimi Tenor, Faux Real, Yu-Ching Huang and John Moods, as well as artwork by Flaminia Veronesi and illustrations by Vilunki 3000. 

Chaos Magic also circles back to Jaakko’s earliest albums, his 2007 debut Dragon Quest and its cult-classic follow-up Modern Life. It’s infused with the same impulsive spirit and freewheeling energy that characterised those anything-goes records – home to “Flexible Heart” and “Macho” – only this time there’s a sense that Jaakko has a greater skill set at his disposal.  

“In a way, it’s a ‘back to the roots’ album because it is a collection of songs from a certain period without trying to tie them together, like my first albums,” he says. “I think it is more coherent naturally because I have been doing this for a longer time. If you practice something, you’re going to develop.” 

Stylistically, the album covers a lot of ground – from the ice-cool new-wave of “I Forget” and “Night Walk” to the delirium of “Dino’s Deo” and “Hell & Heaven” – but carries it off classily.  

“One reason I wanted to call this album Chaos Magic is because it’s a seemingly chaotic collection of songs,” says Jaakko. “For me, having a concept limits the imagination. I like variety. Each song has its own themes and together they form this beautiful creation. It’s like a collection of short stories.” 

Chaos Magic took shape over the past two years. Initial demos were made at various spots across Europe – at artist residencies in Geneva and Maajaam, Estonia, and in studios in Berlin and the Greek island of Hydra – before being developed in Athens at Mutual Sound Studios, a place close to Jaakko’s heart, which is run by his friend Teemu Takatalo. Teemu had started working on the songs as an engineer but his advice and knowledge led to him co-producing and mixing the album. 

“We would talk about my ideas and how to develop the songs,” says Jaakko. “This studio is one of the reasons I moved to Athens and we are building it together and collaborating in numerous ways. Compared to Berlin, where I used to live, I have a much better routine for working on music here.” 

 For Jaakko, working on the record with Teemu in the studio helped him focus and gave him the space to experiment. “This album has more thought on the choice of mics, reverbs, preamps, synths, amps and the sounds in general – it’s more musical. It also half-accidentally became more electronic and has more drum machines and synths than my last album, Out of Touch – and it also has more solos! To me, it feels less distant, more determined.”  

Jaakko also sought out friends he’d not worked with before to collaborate on the record, which adds richness to the material. Some songs were made remotely, including “Cyborg” with Berlin singer John Moods, “Hell & Heaven” with the livewire Faux Real brothers, and the swirling krautrock of “Let’s See How Things Go” with Helsinki legend Vilunki 3000 on guitar and JEK’s live bassist Jelena Mirceta chanting the title. Finnish jazz titan Jimi Tenor plays flute and sax on three songs, and Yu-Ching Huang, a Taiwanese musician based in Berlin, takes the lead on the evocative cosmic disco of “Galactic Romance”.

The French actress and singer Alma Jodorowsky – granddaughter of filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky – happened to be in Athens last year when Jaakko was in the midst of the record. Introduced by a mutual friend, they spent a day hanging out when Jaakko realised he could ask Alma to sing on a couple of songs, “Palace in My Head” and “L’Horizon”, for which she ended up writing the French lyrics. “It was all very spontaneous and easy,” he says.  

“Sometimes it’s good to trust yourself to trust others,” he adds. “Letting go of the strings often results in something fantastic and surprising. I like to surprise myself as well. If you work fast, you think less, and then you’re often surprised by what you’ve done.”  

 Chaos Magic is also the first Jaakko album to have the lyrics printed on the sleeve. From the free association text for “Hell & Heaven” to the poetic sentiments of “Night Walk” and “Drifting Away”, it’s a sign he’s grown in confidence not only as a musician.  

“As a lyricist I come from nonsense,” he says. “I usually collect words and sentences and put them together when it comes to writing lyrics – it takes you to surprising places. With this album I’m more confident about the lyrics and how they fit. I guess that’s one reason I wanted them to be printed. I’m not sure if I’ve got better but maybe I’m just older and more experienced, so I know that this is how I do it.” 

Since settling in Athens, Jaakko has been involved in a number of projects. He produced the Francois & The Atlas Mountains album Banane Bleue – his first time producing someone else’s record – and collaborated with DJ Sotofett and Andres Lõo on the free-jazz set Jazzsomdub. He’s also a member of the soft-rock group Lovers of All Kinds, alongside Teemu, whose Canterbury-flavoured self-titled EP came out last year. And as The Bomb, he recently released a mini-album of modular dub on his own label JEKS Viihde. Greece, it seems, has been good for him. 

“One thing about living in Greece is that you learn the origin of words,” he says. “The word chaos comes from the Greek kháos, meaning an abyss or void that was created when Earth and Heaven were separated – and that’s the world where we live. Chaos is the origin of everything but also the current state. It’s not necessarily the opposite of order – it’s more of a refined order that is not understood.”  

Chaos is also the first goddess in Greek mythology, which is alluded to in the painting by the Italian artist Flaminia Veronese inside the album. “I like the soft fantasy quality of it,” says Jaakko. “It’s childlike but not naïve.” 

As for the title, he says: “I got Chaos Magic from a medieval fantasy TV show. I don’t remember the name, but this combination of words spoke to me. It’s like giving chance a chance.”