Helen Svoboda is a Finnish-Australian composer, double bassist and singer whose work reminds me in some way of Laurie Anderson’s work, but perhaps denser and more lush. This makes for a pretty phenomenal listen.
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What a joyous release this is! Accordion-based music out of Finland is just what the doctor ordered for our chilly Beijing day. Johanna Juhola is one of many incredible artists on the Nordic Notes imprint who have blown my mind this year. Imagine a collection ranging from traditional music melded with progressive, jazz, and perhaps a pinch of tango thrown into the mix. One of 2023’s most charming releases.
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Post Doom Romance is a project between Mykel Boyd and Seah, and their collaboration produces a collection of sweeping drones dedicated to their supporters, immortalizing them on disc. A noble project, but more importantly, the sound is engaging and hooks the listener into a pleasant ambient lull.
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Finland’s Timmion Records has released Chicano-soul rocker Jonny Benavidez who provides a radio-friendly (for 1965) soul cut that sounds so authentic that it takes you back at least two generations, which seems to be a specialty for the record label.
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This release from our friends at Antonovka Records features three players of the jouhikko, a local stringed instrument: Santeri (Alexander) Dobrynin and Olga Plekhanova from Karelia and Russian Egor Masaltsev, who moved to the region. There are 22 tracks of charming interplay between the three and individually. All the tunes are traditional Karelian, except: 7 – traditional Swedish, 10 and 11 — by Olga herself, 18 — two tunes of traditional Russian songs from Karelia, 19 — by Karelian musician Leo Sevets, 20 — a tune from the play “Sampo: The Magic Mill” based on the Kalevala (author Maxim Gutkin), 22…
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The Finns are noted for not only being great musicians, but are masters at cultural adaptation. They make tango even more melancholy than their Argentine friends do, and now, I guess I have to admit that they’re more than holding their own in soul and R&B if this latest album by guitarist Bobby Oroza is anything to go by. The sounds are pure, sweet, deep soul with production that would make Smokey Robinson and many a Motown band smile. Damn near perfect, this one.
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Today’s offering is from Lappländer, an artist from Finland who offers up some very chilled-out synthwave. I like the cold, minimalist feeling to the music.
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Antti Lötjönen is a new name for me. A bassist from Finland, his band absolutely swings and bops. Perhaps it’s best to let him describe his latest album, Circus/Citadel, here on his Bandcamp site: “Antti Lötjönen says: “These compositions vary in terms of form and density, with each player having enough room to re-invent and expand on the music within the pieces. I wrote this music over a relatively brief time span. This, I think, is something you can also hear on the album, as the temporal closeness of the ideas brings with it a certain kind of unity. The…
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Our friends at CPL Music and Nordic Notes had another banner years for releases in the genre of World Music. The sampler includes tracks from the Balkans, Scandinavia and Asia among other locales, and it’s a great way to taste what the label has to offer.
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Jokamies (‘Everyman’ in Finnish) is a collection of tracks for a television series of the same name composed by the Finnish bassist Pekka Pohjola. After his work with the hard-rock/progressive outfit Wigwam, he ventured into jazz fusion (perhaps New Age as well) and made some of the most impressive albums in the genre during the 1970s and 1980s, culminating, in my estimation, in this album.