Islaja - Sydäntenah mija
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007Islaja Ulual - “Sydäntenahmija”
Finland
File Size: 5.84 mb, Length: 4:05
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Islaja, the pseudonym of Finnish folkie Merja Kokkonen should prove once and for all that freak folk is a pretty ineffective catch-all term. If she can be at all lumped in with the ‘movement’ like she has (I guess she could nominally be, which is, er, kinda my point) then I suppose anything under the sun can be classified under that category as long as it maintains an air of dirty hippiness or maybe a strum or two of acoustic guitar. In fact ‘anything-under-the-sun folk’ might be the best description of her music. On her new record Ulal yyy she uses so many forms of instrumentation (some identifiable others not) along with subtle infusions of electronics to a sublime degree. Not to mention that beautiful, haunting jazzy voice of hers that Scandinavians seem so good at nailing. Very good stuff.