Council’s This Day, Every Day Is Out Now
The first album from Gabriel Kahane and Pekka Kuusisto: twelve songs written over ten years of meeting in Finland and the United States, made with Joseph Lorge.
Council’s first album, This Day, Every Day (HVALUR48), is out today on CD and digital, with the vinyl on pre-order.
Twelve songs, two authors
Council is Gabriel Kahane and Pekka Kuusisto. They met in 2015, when Pekka began quizzing Gabriel about a small orchestration detail on one of his records. Long-distance exchanges became writing retreats in Finland and the United States, and over the following decade these songs took shape.
Piano, guitar, acoustic and electric violin, harmonium, percussion and electronics sit around close, carefully shaped vocals. “Tetris” sets fighter pilots killing time between missions against a driving violin figure. “mirrorworld”, with synth and drum programming by Nick Sanborn, moves through conspiracy, online performance and information overload. “The End of Days Inn” asks about the artist’s own part in the systems they criticise.
“Council is the two of us trying to make sense of a number of things by exposing vulnerable parts of ourselves to each other.”
— Pekka Kuusisto
Made in three rooms
The album was recorded at Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavík in June 2024, at Flora Recording & Playback in Portland, Oregon, in December 2024, and at Sound City in Los Angeles in May 2025. Gabriel and Pekka produced it with Joseph Lorge, Gabriel’s longtime collaborator, who also recorded and mixed it. Patricia Sullivan mastered it.
A few friends join them. Elizabeth Ziman sings the outro of “Panic”, and Eliza Bagg the outro of “Tetris”, where Samuli Kosminen plays drums and percussion. Logan Strosahl plays clarinets on “Crawlspace”. Ted Poor plays drums and percussion on “The End of Days Inn” and percussion on “Old Wounds”.
Listen
- Listen on your streaming service
- Buy the CD or download, or pre-order the vinyl, on Bandcamp
- Release page and tracklist
CDs ship now. The vinyl is due to ship around 1 March 2027.
On tour in November
- 01.11 Espoo, Tapiola Hall [Tickets]
- 03.11 Turku, Fuuga Ateljee (sold out)
- 04.11 Tampere, G Livelab [Tickets]
- 07.11 London, Purcell Room, Southbank Centre [Tickets]
- 08.11 Dublin, The Studio, National Concert Hall [Tickets]
All dates: Live.
Credits
- Gabriel Kahane and Pekka Kuusisto: all music, performed by both except where noted
- Joseph Lorge: production, recording, mixing, editing and project coordination
- Elizabeth Ziman: outro vocals on “Panic”
- Samuli Kosminen: drums and percussion on “Tetris”; recording on “Bright Forms”
- Eliza Bagg: outro vocals on “Tetris”
- Logan Strosahl: clarinets on “Crawlspace”
- Ted Poor: drums and percussion on “The End of Days Inn”, percussion on “Old Wounds”
- Nick Sanborn: synth and drum programming on “mirrorworld”
- Patricia Sullivan: mastering
Additional recording by Väinö Karjalainen, Gabriel Kahane, Ted Poor, Elizabeth Ziman, Eliza Bagg and Pekka Kuusisto. Assistant engineer: Ryan Bridenstine. Photographs: Paul Kildea (Melbourne, 2024).