Paavoharju and Finnish psychedelia.

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
My God - has anyone else heard 'Yha Hamaraa' by Paavoharju? This is spellbinding music that seems to have been discarded from another planet, a swirling trance of psychedelia, folk, choral, dream-pop, glitch, hiss and, quite impossibly on one track, Bollywood.

Glancing through reviews of the other releases on the Fonal label, it seems that it's an absolute treasure trove of next level, well, shit. Has anyone else here fallen under its spell?
 

Leo

Well-known member
baboon2004 said:
Glancing through reviews of the other releases on the Fonal label, it seems that it's an absolute treasure trove of next level, well, shit. Has anyone else here fallen under its spell?

the last two Es albums are really great, more experimental than folkie. his "flick" cd of guitar samples from a few years back is also interesting.

the last kiila cd "silmat sulkasey" is nice, like a weirdy finnish take on an indie band sound (don't worry...), and the brand new cd from shogun kunitoki called "tasankokaiku" is like experimental prog, a bit influenced perhaps by the earlier work of fellow finns circle.

i'm not feelin' islaja, and their supergroup kemialliset ystaarat is a little too out-there for my tastes.

bonus: if you order anything off their web site, they throw in a free promo-only label sampler cd.
 

adruu

This Is It
i managed to avoid sigur ros, so i dont know if there are any parallels. but ive really enjoyed the paavoharju stuff lately. born again christians actually cook up something quite beautiful for once!
 

mms

sometimes
baboon2004 said:
My God - has anyone else heard 'Yha Hamaraa' by Paavoharju? This is spellbinding music that seems to have been discarded from another planet, a swirling trance of psychedelia, folk, choral, dream-pop, glitch, hiss and, quite impossibly on one track, Bollywood.

Glancing through reviews of the other releases on the Fonal label, it seems that it's an absolute treasure trove of next level, well, shit. Has anyone else here fallen under its spell?

it's was in my list of what's really rocking my boat in another thread - its definitley the best thing on the fonal label really is a jump - other stuff i guess is the jewelled antler stuff ...
 
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grosun

Guest
Damn, I've only heard the Islaja album, which I like... must pick up more of their stuff!

Btw, if anyone's in London, Es, Islaja & Kiila are playing on the 24th of March. I'm heading down to that.
 
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grosun

Guest
baboon2004 said:
My God - has anyone else heard 'Yha Hamaraa' by Paavoharju? This is spellbinding music that seems to have been discarded from another planet, a swirling trance of psychedelia, folk, choral, dream-pop, glitch, hiss and, quite impossibly on one track, Bollywood.

Glancing through reviews of the other releases on the Fonal label, it seems that it's an absolute treasure trove of next level, well, shit. Has anyone else here fallen under its spell?

Damn it's good. Just got it in the post yesterday. Listened to it twice in a row last night 'cos I couldn't think what else I could possibly play once it had finished. Cheers for the heads up on that one!
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
grosun said:
Damn it's good. Just got it in the post yesterday. Listened to it twice in a row last night 'cos I couldn't think what else I could possibly play once it had finished. Cheers for the heads up on that one!

Glad you liked it - I can't think of anything much comparable either. The transcendental quality of the music is amazing. Perhaps some of the Boredoms' Krautrocky output comes close, or Youssou N'dour's quasi-sufi recordings?

From what I've heard, the 7 track EP is a little less groundbreaking, sticking to a tighter folk template. Still good, though.
 

tate

Brown Sugar
Any updates to add to this thread? Recent recommendations? Shows you've seen? I listened to Paavoharju's Tuote Akatemia/Unien Savonlinna EP (thanks to Don Rosco) but would like to find out more about this sort of thing.
 

Chris

fractured oscillations
Surprised I haven't heard these guys before now... right up my alley.

I'd recommend Third Ear Band, Comus, Gary Higgins, Josephine Foster, Matt Valentine and Erika Elder with the Bummer Road, Espers, and Six Organs of Admittance to anyone into psychfolk, although Paavoharju are way beyond psychfolk.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Coincidences, coincidences. Just got the EP this weekend, and it sounds great on the first listen, if lacking the WTF shock of the album naturally enough.

Chris: check out anything else on the Fonal label for more of the similar. None of it quite up to this elevated standard, but some excellent stuuf from Islaja etc all the same.
 

Diggedy Derek

Stray Dog
Thanks for the tip. My favorite Finnish thing are still the various Kuupuu releases, which are amazingly odd. Like watching someone's homemade animation, althought the Es releases are great too. Avarus and Kemialia Ystyvat I can't really get into.
 

claphands

Poorly-known member
yeah those fonal releases are fantastic. Islaja's from 2005 is one of my favorite disks of of the last five years
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Saw islaja in London a while back. Not as much my kind of thing as Paavoharju (but then, what is?), but excellent nonetheless. Plus, ahem, she's somewhat of a babe.

I'm off to All Tomorrow's Parties in a couple of weeks, and was disappointed to see that her performance clashes with that of Sonic Youth :(
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Apologies for reupping my own thread, but was anyone at the (semi-) Fonal gig on Saturday at the ICA (the Approximately Infinite UNiverse tour)?

Kemialliset Ystävät and Axolotl did some amazing Kraut-psych music, worthy of Amon Duul themselves. And Fursaxa and Es were almost as good (more Meredith Monk/Popol Vuh in tone..).
 

vimothy

yurp
I like Axolotl and Fursaxa (they're from the US though?). Not really found much Finnish stuff that I really like, though Islaja is great. It generally seems more like something that should be good, but isn't.
 
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