The first song opens with a single slow wail, soon joined by low background humming Then the singer begins a clipped-syllable invocation of old Finnish Gods, joined by an insistent percussion. The chant builds up speed, as she calls the gods to bring a scouring wind, the pulse builds as the verses continue, until she breaks off into a trilling cry, and wordless voices add their force to the chant when she resumes. The effect is slow, subtle, quietly vicious, and worthy of a cry to the gods, raising the storms and driving away the devils.
Those listeners familiar with Hedningarna with a good ear for language may recognize the lyrics as being from the same source as the Song "Tuuli", from their 1994 release Trä. This should be no surprise; the lyrics are from a traditional Finnish source, and Sanna Kurki-Suonio is one of the two female singers in Hedningarna's more recent line-ups. Between gigs, however, Sanna crafted her first solo album, Musta, an eerie treasure, focusing on her extraordinary voice, on original music and lyrics both traditional and original. Fans of Hedningarna will find this a surprisingly quiet album my comparison to the sometimes hectic and overt beats from albums like Trä, and far more independent-minded than the return-to-tradition impact of their more recent Karelia Visa.
Musta is no one-beat album. The songs are delightfully varied, though they share two features; a focus on Sanna's rich low voice in every possible permutation, from tender to caterwauling, and a strong driving beat, even in slow tracks like "Minne", where the rhythm is picked out in soft exhaled notes, or the deliberate buildup of speed and intensity in "Pilven Tyttö".
There are no weak song on the album. All have the power to evoke the feeling the artist clearly intended to convey. The creepy opening track is followed immediately by "Manaus" (Translated as the apparently nonexistent word "Exercation" in the liner notes, but as "Invocation" in a Finnish-to-English Dictionary), a piece of cheery dance-speed electronica, with richly layered vocals, even singing bright, startlingly intense tra-las throughout, which emphasize the theme of being happy in the face of grief. By contrast, the sorrowed "Minne" is purely acoustic, with the lead vocal, the rhythm vocal, a bass and the tinkling notes of a kantele, a stringed instrument. "Vaskilintu", the closing track, is a pure a cappella delight. "Johda Mua", both sensual and bitter, drives into the spirit like delightful barbs. Even the weakest track, "Sadelaulu", sounds just like the soft pattering of a cleansing rain.
Musta is an understated, emotive album, not limp or formulaic like new age music, but with true inspiration and thought, powered by a voice with a core of steel.
