Most of the music I have been listening to this year has been music that is dark, complex, and heavy without being metal. I’ve still got my favorites of the fare we cover more often on this site (thank you Majesties for continuing to be there for me), but I like living in a nebulous, less easily defined space these days. I think this column is where I’m going to spend most of my time, and I’m thankful to have bands like Finland’s Virta to give me something special to grace it with, this time with Horros, the band’s first album in seven years.

The three members of Virta, Antti Hevosmaa, Erik Fräki, and Heikki Selamo, all agree that the raison d’etre of the band is to make the music you hear in your head, the music you wish to see in the world. For these three multi-instrumentalists, that music is a cerebral, highly immersive, and utterly ethereal mix of jazz sensibilities and electronic style, with pulsing, frantic rhythms carrying the songs forward as stabs of guitar, electronic loops, washed-out vocals, and even brass instruments like flugelhorn and trumpet provide embellishment. Borrowing not only as much from breakbeat, trip-hop, and ambient music as it does from Miles Davis and other fusion pioneers, Virta’s other admitted influences on Horros include the Ghost in the Shell soundtrack, as well as video games like Metroid Prime and Chrono Trigger. Rather than the all-out chaos that this might make one think, Virta’s sound is as light as it is all-encompassing; the hallmark of Horros is the space it allows the listener to have to engage with all it’s many distinct parts and pieces. The music here is heavy the way a weighted blanket is heavy; pressing, surrounding, and dampening all other sensations, but leaving you feeling comforted and weightless.

Let’s be real: you could give me just about anything that claims influence from Ghost in the Shell and Chrono Trigger and I’ll probably find something to love about it. It just helps that on Horros, Virta have given me something that stands tall on its own. To call this album captivating would be the best way to sum up its impact; it is an album that doesn’t grab you forcefully, but instead beckons you, invites you to explore the depths it offers, and if you take the journey you will find something new every time you come back.

– Vincent

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Horros is available now via Svart Records. For more information on Virta, please visit the band’s website.