Paavoharju - Yhä Hämärää (Fonal Records, 2005)

1 Ikuisuuden Maailma (5:02)
2 Valo Tihkuu Kaiken Läpi (4:01)
3 Kuu Lohduttaa Huolestuneita (3:49)
4 Syvyys (2:51)
5 Puhuri (3:13)
6 Ilmaa Virtaa (2:48)
7 Aamuauringon Tuntuinen (3:57)
8 Vitivalkoinen (1:39)
9 Kuljin Kauas (4:02)
10 On Yhä Hämärää (3:18)
11 Musta Katu (3:55)

Paavoharju perpétue la tradition musicale nordique avec un premier album frais et passionnant intitulé tout simplement Yhä Hämärää … Mais trêve d'ironie, le groupe s'inscrit en effet totalement parmi ces artistes venus des extrémités les plus froides de la planète et l'on sent chez Paavoharju comme chez d'autre, l'inspiration que crée cet environnement particulier, hostile et sublime à la fois.

...mais dès le départ Paavoharju se montre beaucoup plus expérimental. Pour preuve, ce premier titre véritablement aventureux, qui mélange sonorités organiques et musicales sur fond de bourdonnements étranges. Puis le groupe enchaîne les décors et les innovations, évoluant sur un étrange registre, entre Folk Electro et bidouillage. Mais l'un des éléments les plus déconcertant de cet album déjà terriblement audacieux et sans doute le chant, qui se teinte parfois d'improbables sonorités sino-inuit.

Entre plages instrumentales oppressantes et chargées d'électricités ou chant folklorique enraciné dans un passé que l'on présent immémorial, Paavoharju défriche et se crée un style unique. ....
Musique Chroniques

And so it finally arrives on the shores of dear old Blighty. After weeks of whispers and nudges from the most highly esteemed of sources, one of 2005s most talked about albums is with us, and oh goodness has it been worth the wait! Undoubtedly my favourite release of last year (by a long way I might add) this album really does have something for everyone. Created by a band of born-again Christians in rural Finland, sung in Finnish and with a title that translated means 'Continuously Dark' (a not-so-subtle reminder of the Finnish seasonal conditions), one may feel daunted by the challenge of such a record. But oh how wrong these preconceptions can be, when hidden inside the beautifully odd packaging is an album of such perfect outsider pop it's hard to imagine how it arrived on this planet. Flecked with traces of Bollywood soundtracks, folk, polka, 8-bit chiptunes and that all important Finnish psychedelia - this is a near impossible blend of styles which is pulled off in such a way that makes it purely irresistible to the ear. This is the album Ariel Pink wished he could produce, the album that sent Brian Wilson over the edge, the promised collision of worldwide styles that keeps evading every artist as they suddenly qualify for arts funding. It's easy to point the finger of influence at Paavoharju but impossible to name peers, they are a band which truly stands alone. Maybe it's due to their location that they have managed to soak up 50 years of pop music and come out with something that sounds so utterly alien. Yet they have been pigeonholed in the burgeoning Finnish free-folk/psych scene and still sound nothing like Islaja, Es, Lau Nau, Kemialliset Ystävät et al. Whatever the cause this is a magical and marvellous achievement, a record which will stay with us for years to come regardless of fad or fashion. As an introduction to the unmissable Fonal catalogue which will be appearing on Boomkat over the coming weeks this just couldn't be better; so watch out, there's a hell of a lot more where this came from. Essential purchase.
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Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista (Fonal Records, 2008)

Pimeänkarkelo (3:56)
Kevätrumpu (3:56)
Tuoksu Tarttuu Meihin (3:43)
Italialaisella Laivalla (3:49)
Alania (0:49)
Uskallan (3:20)
Ursulan Uni (2:36)
Kirkonväki (3:46)
Salainen Huone (1:07)
Tyttö Tanssii (3:51)
Sumuvirsi (3:06)
Untitled (1:04)

It's hard to pin down precisely what it is that's so alluring about Finland's hugely acclaimed Paavoharju, but the consensus seems to have been that their remarkable debut album "Yha Hamaraa" quite simply managed to marry a myriad disjointed influences and sound sources without ever sounding like it was trying too hard. If you've never heard the music of Paavoharju, prepare yourself for one of life's more considerable and uncontained pleasures. They are a band who take in influence from the "Radio India" style shortwave pop transmissions of the Sublime Frequencies label, freak folk, Europop, modern classical, plunderphonics, choral, devotional, experimental and multicoloured music of almost every description imaginable - and yet they embody a specific sound that's unmistakably their own. Their aforementioned debut "Yha Hamaraa" made such an impact when it first came out that it seemed to unify music critics and the buying public from all ends of the musical spectrum, worshipped by chin-stroking journalists and passers by alike - one of those records that you could play almost anywhere and guarantee people would virtually queue to ask who it was by and where they could buy it. Their long awaited follow-up "Laulu Laakson Kukista" does that remarkable thing and doesn't disappoint. The scope and energy here is once again impossible to contain - opening with drone washes, de-tuned music box tones and vocals degraded by worn down analogue tape, it sounds like a day in the park, a far away ice cream van, an orchestra rehearsing and Fennesz doing a soundcheck all at the same time. From there we go to "Kevätrumpu" - an absolutely genius generic jamboree that sounds like Kylie Minogue playing with a backing band that's half Finnish folk and half Bolywood session band, recorded to a four-track recorder that's been thrown into the sea and discovered 20 years later by some fortunate anthropologist. Heck, there are even some Autechre-style rhythmic distortions towards the end of the track - you just couldn't make it up, and it sounds SO good. Next - "Tuoksu Tarttuu Meihin" takes in some far away solo piano and quietly malfunctioning distortion pedals in a Tim Hecker meets Akira Rabelais sort of fashion, while "Ursulan Uni" sounds like a cross between Isan and Philip Jeck - and is just utterly beautiful. It's virtually impossible to sum up the sheer brilliance and scope of this schizophrenic yet brilliantly coherent album, it shimmers with all the excitement and knowledge of a seemingly endless stream of influence and once again manages to sound unlike anything you'll have ever heard before in your life. And believe us when we say that recommendations really don't come much higher than that. An utterly Essential Purchase.

Boomkat

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Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukasta (Fonal Records, 2008)

Laulu Laakson Kukista (4:12)
Kirkonväki (3:46)
Kasetti Moskovasta (12:23)

As an accompanying release to the album of the same name, this new three track EP by uncategorisable Finnish band Paavoharju features two exclusive, non-album tracks, including (confusingly) 'Laulu Laakson Kukista' which didn't make it to the final album tracklist. The song meanders in melancholy, folksy fashion, taking a simple, scratchy guitar and piano motifs as a central theme, but it's all been conditioned by that unmistakably bizarre Paavoharju recording style that fills everything with a sense of naïve fairytale wonderment. A breakdown sequence (of sorts) reveals an odd, muffled hammering sound in the background, which could either be construction work going on a few hundred yards away from the studio, or (more likely) what passes for drums in this band. 'Kirkonvaki', as culled from the album, sounds incredibly dramatic, like a church organ recital interrupted by a few stray breakbeats (no half-hearted thumping on this one) and disintegrating cassettes of operatic vocal recordings. It's all incredibly peculiar, though not nearly as much so as the twelve minute live recording 'Kassetti Moskovasta', which could hardly have sounded more comprehensively eroded away, as if ravaged by years of neglect in a musty attic. That's almost certainly not how it came to sound like this though, you get the feeling it was probably recorded a few months ago on an incredibly rubbish tape machine. Regardless, the crumbly, decaying aesthetic matches the spooky atmosphere that hangs over the music. Awesome.

Boomkat

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