PALOKÄRKI JA PIHLAJAPERHONEN

As the Prog Folk team came to know during the artist addition process, I'm not a fan of these solo albums of Tapio Mattlar, a Finnish musician, formerly a member of the charming, PA included folk rock band TARUJEN SAARI (and Ancient Bear Cult, among others). But it always saddens me when an artist is added into ProgArchives and no one writes a review. Given promo copies twice and being responsible of getting the artist here, I kinda feel it's for me to do. I will citate some information from the promo sheet for this third album along the way.

As a farmer Tapio Mattlar has a limited amount of time to make music, which he does all by himself in his attic, using some thirty ethnically oriented instruments, such as hurdy gurdy, kantele, recorder, viking lyre, bouzouki, acoustic guitar, kalimba, sanshin, crwth, etc. "My music is mostly composed throughout (...) I compose it simultaneously as I'm recording it. When I start a new piece, usually I have just a faint idea which then starts developing somewhere during the recording, as I keep adding new trackfiles and instruments. The final result is a surprise for me too, like I was a mere bystander to witness what musical ideas my subconsciousness produces." This peculiar way of working explains the nature of the music. I'm certain some listeners of Prog Folk will find it fascinating, but for me it just feels extremely stuffy. Imagine a child painting a picture with an enormous set of water colours. Mixing many colours produces a mess of brown. That's how I feel of this music. I find it hard to tell the tracks from each other.

There are two pieces featuring vocals of Mattlar's wife Maria Mattlar who sings in a low voice here. 'Pihlajaperhosten juhlat' was inspired by a swarm of butterflies along a road nearby a swamp. Unfortunately the songs are not much different from the album's general, thick and dark sound. The constant wailing of old instruments simply gets tiresome. And it doesn't help in that sense that along the album you also hear voices of sheep and other sound effects of the farm life.

But have a taste of it yourself! If you are impressed, please share your reception in a form of a review. My low rating is very subjective, remember.