FMQ 2/2013

"I expected a lot from this record, because Ikonen’s style of composing and playing is so original, and he is one of the few Finnish jazz artists, whose gigs are impressive without exception. Ikonen’s style is jagged in a positive way. Even if the composition is founded on melodic thinking, rhythmic variations and surprising changes in the song’s direction are dominant.

"The genius is that Lajunen and Grundstrom interpret all this daringly and originally as a duo with their pelimanni instruments instead of the traditional way as solo with a kantele or jouhikko (aka bowed lyre)."

"I expected a lot from this record, because Ikonen’s style of composing and playing is so original, and he is one of the few Finnish jazz artists, whose gigs are impressive without exception. Ikonen’s style is jagged in a positive way. Even if the composition is founded on melodic thinking, rhythmic variations and surprising changes in the song’s direction are dominant.

Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät is an unlikely international cult hit. A punk band consisting of four adult men with learning disabilities, singing in Finnish, it is also the subject of an award-winning documentary, The Punk Syndrome.

"Four CDs full of a Modernist composer’s organ music is a heavy package indeed. In the hands of the organist Jan Lehtola et al. we manage to get a full picture of Heininen’s style viewed through a single instrument. And Heininen does not let us down...

"This gets very close to a masterpiece. Previously a New Yorker, now based in Finland, Nicole Willis with Helsinki band The Soul Investigators ooze respect for American soul. Don’t get me wrong: this is no mere pastiche or a case fetishising the past. Tortured Soul continues to take the tradition forward."

"Saariaho’s compelling textures – at times gossamer and at others raw and heavy – feel almost predestined to couple with Weil’s thoughts. The first-class performance does justice to this masterpiece. It is a passion for our time that still is 'the kingdom of deceit where the innocent tremble'."

Understanding the music of Kaija Saariaho, rock-club audience profiles, and a government minister’s alleged contempt for high culture. The ‘arts elite’ is once again a topic for debate, but the coordinates have shifted, just as in the world outside the arts.

"But it is the orchestral song Ekho (1922) which takes the biscuit here: it’s a masterpiece, pure and simple, sounding something like Sibelius’ Luonnotar transported into some phantasmagorical corner of the imagination. Merikanto’s control of colour is masterly, and the protomodernist angularity does not preclude genuine feeling – underlined by Anu Komsi’s thrilling account of the solo line.

Finland’s national public service broadcasting company YLE has gone through some major changes lately. The new tax might be argued about, but at the same time the company receives kudos for promoting Finnish music abroad.

The 1930s was a time of nationalism, politics and ideology in Finnish music. Yet the period was one of such pluralism that no unified and unifying zeitgeist can be identified; instead, the parallel existence of various ideological and aesthetic trends caused even individuals to contradict themselves.