14. Kesämaan Lapset [Children of the Summerland] - Es [2009]

This recording may well enrich your life.


Sami Sänpäkkilä's Kesämaan Lapset (2009), recorded under his Es moniker, follows four years on from Sateenkaarisuudelma's kaleidoscopic drone n chant.  Kesämaan Lapset dials down the sprawl and explores more accessible electronic sound worlds, in part tribute to 70s Finnish acid-folk waif Pekka Streng. Sami's own Fonal label harkens to days when album label stamp signified common sound and communal mystique. Fonal particular stock in trade: experimental psych-folk, witchy SSW and blissed out electronica.


Opening Ennen Oli Huonommin fanfares a flamboyance of iridescent analog chirrups, skittering and dazzling across four major-key minutes. Clearly, we're located somewhere in the pristine Nordic electrono-Fonal lab, next valley over from the lo-fi forest folk dwellers. Next up, cheery homespun ditty Kesa Ja Hymyilevat introduces spacy vocals and free-ranging electronics. Vaguely Magical Power Mako. Then things start to get really interesting. Sateet Sun Sielusta plays with some piano phrases only to build into a celebratory cascade of drone, combining disciplined minimalism with mind-manifesting kosmische synthesiser worship. 

Still reeling from the meteor shower of trickling lines and deep-space drones, stagger aboard title track Kesämaan Lapset for a twenty minute ride through personal space, childhood summers and euphorically expansive vistas of the latent. First comes a repeated piano phrase  - possibly a Dvořák steal - as pastoral grounding. This morphs into into idyllic trills, washes and field recordings, or perhaps simulated, summoning woods, streams and sea-shore adventure. Final enveloping section builds skywards to a celestial crescendo worthy of Popol Vuh in its pomp. Heady.

Closing, comparatively brief Haamut Sun Sydamesta is a necessary psychedelic come down which serves to remind us that, however abstracted the journey, this is a SSW album at heart. Which brings us back to Pekka.


Oddi wrth y brawd


[Pekka up bonus: Comments]

Vinonaamakasio - Shogun Kunitoki [2009]

With what our North American cousins are wont to call a "sophomore" effort, SK dial up the prog flourishes while sticking to core MO: synth and organ driven blissed out minimalist repetition in T. Riley styled psych face off.  Grappling bravely with cliche - grandeur via crescendo a la Godspeed - winning through by building intensity upon small sound bank  fortified into maelstrom of melodic texture. Tidy.

Oddi wrth y brawd

fonal folks

The TIE Fighter of Love - Darth Phader [2010]

From the dark side, with a smile. Sorcerer's psychotropic ways bring new hope at 142.25 BPM.


Must listen; search your feelings, you know it be true.

Oddi wrth y brawd

x wing of peace

Nääksää Nää Mun Kyyneleet - Tuusanuuskat [2011]

Beguiling psychedelic reels. From Finland. Proper. Don yer tin foil hat-receivers as Es (Sami Sänpäkkilä, musician, film-maker n Fonal Records magus) and Tomutonttu (Jan Anderzén, visual artist n Kemialliset Ystävät fellah in chief) transmit noise groovy n baleful.


Oddi wrth y brawd
tippa irie

Tinakenkalurtta - Kuupuu [2008]

Finnish multi-media artist Jonna Karanka and her home-baked loops, lo-fi drones, partly improvised sweet cakes, clattery nick nacks, found melodies, time travelling toys, and spooky boogie tapes. Oh yes.


http://www.lurtta.com/

Oddi wrth y brawd
puukuu

Lauluja Surun Kaaresta - Kutomo [2008]

Finland cold, lake and forest from Brisbane-based Kutomo. Liturgical psychic serenity. Ceremonial cabin floor folk.  Did someone say Popol Vuh?

Oddi wrth y brawd
Chant Mourning Kaarestae

Jos Ken Pahoin Uneksii - Pekko Käppi [2007]

Astounding amalgam of worldstopping psych folk blues pagan gospel from Kiila & Lau Nau stalwart Pekko Käppi. Voice of ages over jouhikko: Finnish horse hair lyre. 

I, Pekko, am a player of Jouhikko – the ancient Finnish-Karelian bowed lyre. My music has been described like this: "In his hands the rough sound of weaved horsehair strings are swaying between the foul and lovely – dirty and pure. The old songs of unwritten tradition, timeless and dark stories mediates in his mouth."

Yeah!

Visit Pekko's nest. Currently sharing live dates with Alasdair Roberts. Figures.

Oddi wrth y brawd
erinomainen

Meritie - Islaja [2004]

Snork Maiden Islaja (or Merja Kokkonen) trades in intimate, experimental world psych folk of exceptional proportions. Drawing on an array of esoteric instruments and electronic textures to create harmonic space transcendental and magical.  Doyenne of phenomenal Fonal label and known to knock about with Kemialliset Ystävät.

Don't say acid folk Björk, female Syd Barrett, or Nico. Maybe one woman Incredible String Band.


Buy and more

Oddi wrth y brawd
sea road

In The Studio - Pan Sonic & Keiji Haino [2010]

Looking for intense dentist drill effects, aluminium foil on fillings feedback skree, deranged vocal caterwauling and complete reality disconnect, our Finnish electro experimenters give Keiji a call. He turns up. He delivers. 

A punishingly beautiful racket. Come feel the noise.

Oddi wrth y brawd

In The Hollow Created Between The Eyebrows, What Offering Would Be Most Appropriate

Gravitoni - Pan Sonic [2010]

"the Great God Pan had become a modern icon [for] the recurrence of primal urges at the heart of the civilised world"

- Rob Young, Electric Eden

"one ov thee original meanings ov thee word pan was drowning, whilst panic can mean an unreasonable fear leading to excessive and extravagant behaviour"

- Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Godstar Thee Director's Cut [booklet]

"And I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend
Everlasting, world without end,
Mannikin, maiden, meanad, man,
In the might of pan.
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Io Pan!"

 - Aleister Crowley, extract from Hymn to Pan

Yo Pan Sonic! No soothing electronica or lush soundscapes. Instead, the mesmeric demiurge; raw powered primeval electric spark moulded into sound. The might of natural wavelength rhythms; ripped extremes of pitch and volume. Post-industrial (Einstürzende Neubauten, Throbbing Gristle), post-lapsarian search for primal essence in the maw electrick; hum of generators, harsh fizz of white noise; drowned in black hot metal.

Calling time on seventeen years of unadulterated electronics, Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen lay Pan Sonic to rest with Gravitoni. No softening of agenda in the finale bulletin. An arsenal of brutal beats and lucid tones; a landslide of skull basting bass hits and molten silicon slurry; sheet metal noise and punishing volume; beats that hammer the brain into pulpy mass; nightmarish drones.

But noise is only a part of the story.  Microsounds; floating eerie waves; strange clicks and creaks around cosmological silence; sustained glassy notes; subterranean drip and echo; dark ambience, and a slow slow black heartbeat.

A thrilling legacy. Fade to test tone..........................

Oddi wrth y brawd
gravitas

Summer and Smiles of Finland - Various, A Fonal Records Promo Compilation (2006)

Additional tracks from previous posting faves coupled with a best of rest overview. 

Running order:

Paavoharju  (1,2) - lamenting exotica and glitch transmissions from collective of ascetic born-again Christians, sounding somewhere between Bollywood, church hymns, beautiful pop tunes and ambient esoterica.

Islaja (3,4,5) - young, clearer eyed Nico acid-folk chanteuse; beautifully phased, magically real.

Islaja: Pimeyttä kohti from Sami Sänpäkkilä on Vimeo.

Kemialliset Ystavat (6,7,8) - free form pilots of short spooling instrumentals building layers of simple repetitive riffs into laminal mudcakes; weaving ghosts of folk song into huge tunnels of drone.

Shogun Kunitoki (9)

Es (10,11)

Kiila (12)

Risto (13, 14) -  2 finsk mark version of Spector's wall of sound (in a garage)?

TV-Resistori (15, 16) - childlike melodies and cheesy synths ahoy; sound disconcertingly like a Japanese Stereolab

Es (17)

Visit Fonal records for free downloads, news, updates and to buy the music.

Oddi wrth lähimmäinen

tampere nights

Magneettimiehen Kuolema [Death of Magnet Man] - Pekka Streng & Tasavallan Presidentti (1970)

 

Presiding spirit of Fonal label, Pekka Streng's sole two albums of mystic, humanist psychedelia and acid-folk have enduring appeal and ensure continuing cult status. His first record Magneettimiehen Kuolema is the more lysergically euphoric of the two and prog band Tasavallan Presidentti along for the ride.

From the magical, intimate opener Gilgamesh Pekka engages ears and heart. Language is no barrier. A sense of yearning, transcendence and hymnal celebration underpinned by Pekka's keening vocals. He's really saying something, you don't know exactly what and it matters not a whit.

He died in 1975 at the age of 26. You need some Pekka in your life.

Oddi wrth y brawd
gate is open


 

Tuota Tuota [Well, Well] - Kiila

Tuota Tuota (2009) is Kiila's third outing and while there is no beginner's Fonal band, Kiila come close.  The motifs in the songs are not easy to render - elk antlers, tree bark, sound of rapids, fog, letters, calves, fingers - but the music speaks a universal tongue, stringing together loose threads of electrified folk, psychedelia and occasional far out improv jamming.

A sense of freedom permeates, upholstered with firm structure and well-rehearsed perfomances, whilst leaving enough primitive electro-detritus and sprawling fiddles to remind you that this is no ordinary folk-rock record. It trades in lush, North-European  arrangements and silvery group chants and wayward fiddle playing a la ISB (the spirit of the bowed gimbri abides). The rootsy, acoustic traditionalism of the songs get the patented Fonal left-field spin that by the closing minutes of Pollutukin Mietteet have morphed into phased funk guitars, wildman organ and ornery trumpeting. An odd end to an album mostly intent on homespun, crafted revels.

Oddi wrth y brawd
kiitos kiila

Huomen Tuone - Tulasi

Dusk and the Finnish wilderness. A forest clearing circled in light. Around pine-scented blaze  a troupe of wandering folk gathered. Smiles exchange. Take a seat. Music begins....flute, tablas, finger cymbals...Sips from communal bowl. Sleighbells appear in your hand. Darkness brightens. Low chants commence. This feels good. Gooood....

Oddi wrth y brawd
fonal freak fun

Kesämaan Lapset [Children of the Summerland] - Es

Y brawd declares a week of Finnish delight centred around Sami Sänpäkkilä's Fonal label. Harking back to days when an album's label stamp was indicative of a definable sound, Sami has orchestrated one of the most fruitful, stylistically consistent labels of the decade; stock in trade: Finnish experimental folk and electronica. 

Accordingly, we open with Sami's own transcendent Kesämaan Lapset (2009) under the Es moniker. Released four years on from the kaleidoscopic drone and chant of Sateenkaarisuudelma, Kesämaan Lapset dials down the former's glorious sprawl while exploring accessible electronic soundworlds in tribute to 70s Finnish acid-folkie Pekka Streng (more on Pekka later this week). This would explain the record's nostalgic summer feel, though eyes are set on much more distant and ethereal horizons than Streng's song-based structures.

We know we're on to something very special from the get go: Ennen Oli Huonommin fanfares a flamboyance of irridescent analog chirrups and twitters that skitter and dazzle across four major key minutes. Clearly, we're at the bright electronica end of the Fonal spectrum far  from the lo-fi folk forest dwellers. For all that, the opening conjures a sense of immanence and mystery that weave through the rest of the listen.

Next comes cheery homespun ditty Kesa Ja Hymyilevat introducing spacy vocals and free-roaming electronics. Vaguely reminiscent of Magical Power Mako. Then things start to get really interesting. Sateet Sun Sielusta plays with some piano phrases only to build into a celebratory cascade of drone combining disciplined minimalism with mind-manifesting kosmische synthesiser worship. 

Still reeling from the meteor shower of trickling lines and deep-space drones the listener hops aboard title track Kesämaan Lapset and a twenty minute ride from personal space and childhood summers past to euphorically expansive vistas of the possible. The first phase uses a repeated piano phrase  - almost a Dvořák steal - as nostalgic and pastoral grounding. This develops into electronic trills, washes and field (or maybe simulated) recordings  summoning woods, streams and sea-shore adventure. The final enveloping section builds to a heavenly crescendo worthy of Popol Vuh at their most blissed out and transcendent. Heady stuff.

The closing, comparatively brief Haamut Sun Sydamesta is a necessary psychedelic come down, serving to remind us that however abstracted the journey has been, this is a singer-songwriter album at heart. Which brings us back to Pekka.

This recording will enrich your life.

Let y brawd know what you think.

Oddi wrth y brawd
pekka up

Tasankokaiku - Shogun Kunitoki

Synth and organ driven blissed out minimalist repetitions in Terry Riley styled psych face off. Finland's Shogun Kunitoki hail from the always interesting Fonal Records roster (Paavoharju, Islaja, Kiila, Kemialliset Ystävät) and their 2006 debut Tasankokaiku trips and glides horizonward on gorgeous keyboard tones and breezy ring modulator dervishes propelled forward on low-key organic drums. Nothing short of a delight.

Trivia buffs will be reassured to learn that outfit's name comes from The Last Ninja: an action-adventure computer game first published in '87 for the Commodore 64 (Kunitoki, the evil Shogun of the Ashikaga Clan, has long envied the powers of the Ninja brotherhood and would do anything to acquire their knowledge. To this end, he has sworn an oath to their total destruction......apparently).

Home experimentalists will be thrilled that SK's online shop boasts the mystical shogun kunitoki strobe light DIY kit. Those crazy Finns.

Oddi wrth y brawd
sho nuff