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ISLAJA, "PALAA AURINKOON"
While I wasn't paying attention, Finland seems to have become the newIceland. All the new underground acts worth knowing about these daysseem to hail from the sub-arctic climes of Helsinki, Tampere orJyvakyla.
Fonal
Instead of the likes of Mum and Sigur Ros, I must now contendwith decidedly more difficult names to spell like Kemialliset Ystavatand Paivansade. The music itself is a bit more difficult as well,varying expressions of an idiosyncratic, indigenous folk music, all ofwhich seems to share a sense of organic looseness and a fractured,experimental nature. The scene has recently gained internationalmomentum because of a predictably bandwagon-jumping feature in a recentissue of The Wire, but Finland's interest in homegrown experimentalpsychedelia has an inheritance that reaches back to the 1960s, withPekka Airaksinen and The Sperm, all the way to more recent years withbands like Circle. Tampere's Fonal Records has been the main outlet forthe Finnish underground since the mid-90s, and this beautifullypackaged new album from Finnish psych mainstay Islaja is a greatexample of the kind of quality on offer from the label. Islaja is asinger who draws on elements of traditional Finnish song, but shareswith her labelmates a penchant for whimsically esoteric arrangements:fractured melodies, complex layers of shambolic percussion, sampledbirdsong, droning bits, enticing compositional fragments andoverlapping, multitracked vocals. At first listen, Palaa Aurinkoonsounded unstructured, underproduced and generally unfocused, butslowly, over the course of the album, I latched onto Islaja'shauntingly childlike vocals as a guide through the sub-arcticwilderness, and came to understand the unique ways in which thedisparate pieces of the puzzle fit together. Throughout the album,there is a lovely sense of gentle chaos, with instrumental parts,percussion and vocals placed willfully askew in the mix, without overlymassaging them to fit a specific, rigid song structure. This loosenessshares much in common with the Incredible String Band or any number ofnewer psych-folk acts, but Islaja's expressions are uniquely affecting,the exotic timbres and phrasing of her mother tongue, as well as thedense evergreen forest that the players seem to inhabit, lending apeculiarity all her own. Everywhere there are the signs of a wintercoming or winter just passed, a communal group of musicians squattingon the permafrost soil to rifle through a bottomless bag of stringedand woodwind instruments, harps, keyboards and assorted noisemakers,trusting instinct and a momentary impulse to create impressionisticarrangements around Islaja's warm, whispery vocals. The music istop-notch throughout, but perhaps because of a compounding effect, thealbum seems to get stronger as it goes, reaching an apex with the lastfour tracks, each of which are particularly emotionally affecting. Theswansong "Rukuos" ends the album on a wistful note, an enchanting vocalduet matched with harmonium drones and ravishing flourishes of flute. Palaa Aurinkoonjustifies the hype surrounding the Finnish scene, a gorgeous andfragile souvenir from a strangely inviting sub-arctic forestwonderland.
Fonal
Instead of the likes of Mum and Sigur Ros, I must now contendwith decidedly more difficult names to spell like Kemialliset Ystavatand Paivansade. The music itself is a bit more difficult as well,varying expressions of an idiosyncratic, indigenous folk music, all ofwhich seems to share a sense of organic looseness and a fractured,experimental nature. The scene has recently gained internationalmomentum because of a predictably bandwagon-jumping feature in a recentissue of The Wire, but Finland's interest in homegrown experimentalpsychedelia has an inheritance that reaches back to the 1960s, withPekka Airaksinen and The Sperm, all the way to more recent years withbands like Circle. Tampere's Fonal Records has been the main outlet forthe Finnish underground since the mid-90s, and this beautifullypackaged new album from Finnish psych mainstay Islaja is a greatexample of the kind of quality on offer from the label. Islaja is asinger who draws on elements of traditional Finnish song, but shareswith her labelmates a penchant for whimsically esoteric arrangements:fractured melodies, complex layers of shambolic percussion, sampledbirdsong, droning bits, enticing compositional fragments andoverlapping, multitracked vocals. At first listen, Palaa Aurinkoonsounded unstructured, underproduced and generally unfocused, butslowly, over the course of the album, I latched onto Islaja'shauntingly childlike vocals as a guide through the sub-arcticwilderness, and came to understand the unique ways in which thedisparate pieces of the puzzle fit together. Throughout the album,there is a lovely sense of gentle chaos, with instrumental parts,percussion and vocals placed willfully askew in the mix, without overlymassaging them to fit a specific, rigid song structure. This loosenessshares much in common with the Incredible String Band or any number ofnewer psych-folk acts, but Islaja's expressions are uniquely affecting,the exotic timbres and phrasing of her mother tongue, as well as thedense evergreen forest that the players seem to inhabit, lending apeculiarity all her own. Everywhere there are the signs of a wintercoming or winter just passed, a communal group of musicians squattingon the permafrost soil to rifle through a bottomless bag of stringedand woodwind instruments, harps, keyboards and assorted noisemakers,trusting instinct and a momentary impulse to create impressionisticarrangements around Islaja's warm, whispery vocals. The music istop-notch throughout, but perhaps because of a compounding effect, thealbum seems to get stronger as it goes, reaching an apex with the lastfour tracks, each of which are particularly emotionally affecting. Theswansong "Rukuos" ends the album on a wistful note, an enchanting vocalduet matched with harmonium drones and ravishing flourishes of flute. Palaa Aurinkoonjustifies the hype surrounding the Finnish scene, a gorgeous andfragile souvenir from a strangely inviting sub-arctic forestwonderland.
