This Day, Every Day

The seeds of Council were planted in 2015 when Finnish violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto met American singer-songwriter and composer Gabriel Kahane and began quizzing him about a subtle orchestration detail on one of his records. Over a decade of transatlantic writing retreats between Finland and the United States, the pair cultivated a shared songwriting practice grounded in equal authorship—one artist captaining each song while both shape the material in the room.

This Day, Every Day is the first full-length recording of that partnership. Across twelve tracks, piano, guitar, acoustic and electric violin, harmonium, percussion, electronics, and close, intertwined vocals move between intimate chamber songcraft and sudden dynamic eruptions. The songs trace personal and collective pressures: cycles of mental illness, grief, memory, fatherhood, and the psychological friction of an ambient, hyper-mediated culture.

Opening track “Panic” introduces the record’s central impulse—an insistence on uncovering what is usually held back—anchored by guest vocalist Elizabeth Ziman. On “mirrorworld”, synth and drum programming by Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso) underpins cycling violin figures and close vocal harmonies confronting contemporary digital performance and online echo chambers. Elsewhere, “Tetris” sets fighter pilots killing time between missions against a relentlessly propulsive violin line, while “Crawlspace” turns domestic intimacy into something dreamlike and subterranean.

Recorded across Finland, the United States, and Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavík, the album was co-produced, engineered, and mixed by longtime collaborator Joseph Lorge, with contributions from Elizabeth Ziman, Eliza Bagg, Samuli Kosminen, Logan Strosahl, and Ted Poor.