''Meronia'' is the first album by the Finnish

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...

band

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...

. Released on CD and LP in 1994 by Bad Vugum, it was re-released by Ektro Records in 2007. The album showed Circle's tight

krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...

-influenced sound, notably the motorik rhythm of

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...

. Of the band members at the time of the recording, only the founding member

Jussi Lehtisalo Jussi Lehtisalo (born 1972) is a Finnish bassist. In 1991, he founded Circle, a prolific band drawing influences from heavy metal and krautrock to develop a style of repetitive experimental rock. He also runs a record label, Ektro Records, releas ...

is still in the band, although the current guitarist

Janne Westerlund Janne Westerlund (born 1973) is a Finnish musician, songwriter and visual artist known from such Finnish groups as Circle (with the band since 2001), Pharaoh Overlord, and . His main instrument is guitar but on his solo gigs he plays banjo as we ...

contributes to the sleevenotes, commenting on the intensity of Circle's live performances at the time of the original release. Some sources claim that the album's lyrics are sung in a made-up language, ''Meronian''.Circle biography for Heliosphere festival
/ref> If this is true, it predates ''Hopelandic'', the language invented by

Sigur Rós Sigur Rós () is an Icelandic post-rock band from Reykjavík, active since 1994. The band comprises singer and guitarist Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson, bassist Georg Hólm, and keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson. Known for their ethereal sound, fron ...

, by several years.

Track listing

Personnel

*J. Ahtiainen *T. Elo *P. Hagner *J-P. Hietaniemi *J. Lehtisalo *M. Päivistö

References

{{Authority control Circle (band) albums 1994 debut albums