The Northern Gates of Ice
Jääportit comes from the Northern Finland. It consists Tuomas and Mindy as it’s official members. Also a couple of additional members has been involved on some special songs.
Originally formed in Finland in 1997 as Tuomas’ solo project, the duo now works somewhere in between genres like ambient, darkwave, experimental electronica and post-rock using both synthetic and natural sounds.
The latest Jääportit album release Voimasuo (CD Digipak, Epidemie Records 2009) is the band’s most accomplished recording to date, containing seven songs of dark heavy kosmiche bliss that reach out for nearly an hour and breaking the limits of music genres. Will Stone wrote “A soundscape for Finland’s eerie ice-coated climate.” and “A work so technologically adept it’s not of this time.” in album review on Terrorizer Magazine.
The name Jääportit is Finnish language and could be translated in English as The Gates of Ice or The Frostportals. All album and track titles are written in Finnish too.
Members
Tuomas
Tuomas deals with the keyboards, synthesizers, composing and producing the music, sound engineering and graphic design. He also creates music and sound design for the use of other bands, films and other media.
Mindy
Mindy has created the album cover artwork paintings for Jääportit albums using watercolor and pastel colors since 2003. Mindy also plays the acoustic violin in several songs and her singing voice can be heard in songs Kierteispiiri, Gnosis and Hengenvaara.
Additional Members
Vesa Partti
Session musician playing electric guitar on the song “Gnosis” released on My Own Wolf: A New Approach to Ulver (2007). Vesa is also member of Sadkarma and Tuliterä.
J-M Kenttälä
Session musician playing acoustic guitar on the song “Sydänyön samooja syvällä unten mailla ja metsien soilla” released on Sonic Visions of Middle-Earth (2005). J-M Kenttälä (a.k.a. Masa Yardse) is also member of Finnish rock band Ruotomieli.