A beguiling and compulsive musical journey

Sanna Kurki-­Suonio is a singer who moves with elegance and authority between genres, always retaining her distinctive musical identity. Her highly respected work with the legendary Hedningarna in the 1990s gave her international recognition and since then she has forged a career spanning rock to folk.

This album, about love, takes its texts from the Kanteletar, from the poems of Aulikki Oksanen and, as she says, “from my own head”. She uses the power of her whole vocal range and exquisite articulation to show many facets of love: fiendish spells, heartbreaking goodbyes, sometimes sultry or sinister, sometimes mischievous and coquettish.

Häävalssi is a distracted wedding waltz, heartbeats meeting eerie kantele. Manan Matti is a bubbling cauldron of subtle effects inhabiting a world of vipers and worms, and Aspis-Saatana is a deep-throated warning to anyone attracted to a travelling fiddler.

It’s enough to say “this is Sanna” because that means, as ever, a beguiling and compulsive musical journey.