AIRUT AAMUJEN

According to the band's website, this album originally came about due to them wanting to pursue musical themes that they had started with the song "Kielo" from their 'Airut:Ciwi' album which was originally released in 2001. The resulting album was released on their own label in 2004 under the name of Harmaa. However, now that they have signed to Auerbach the album has been resurrected and has been released under the name of Tenhi as they do feel that it fits in within their Airut saga. For those, like me, who only came across them with the release eight months ago of 'Maaäet' then this is yet another joy. Here the only instrumentation comes from Ilmari Issakainen who provides drums, piano and bass, while there are two singers in Tyko Saarikko and Janina Lehto and a backing singer in Tuuka Tolvanen.

I have to confess to burning this onto my ipod before I even listened to it, but I knew that I wouldn't be disappointed and that is most definitely the case. There is a great deal of power and emotion in this atmospheric album. This is music that captures the mind and brings the listener right into a dark world, a forest where at times the light comes through the trees which is shown with a lighter touch. Considering that this is basically a piano album I am amazed at just how they have managed to capture so many moods and feelings. I am very glad that this has been reissued by the label and hope that they also pick up on some of the other now deleted goodies from the band's past. www.prophecyproductions.de

Whereas the "full band" recordings of TENHI feature strummed acoustic and electric guitars, enveloping keyboards, and occasional ethnic instrumentation, "Airut:Aamujen" is essentially piano based, with occasional synths and acoustic guitar, all played by Ilmari Issakainen. It could thus be interpreted as a solo effort offshoot, but for two observations: backing vocals are performed by band members, and, most pertinently, it plays like TENHI, in mood, atmosphere, and, ultimately, effect.

As the prominent instrument, piano is not as effusive as the synthesizers on other releases, but the touch of Issakainen is as somber as ever, drawing comparisons to DAVID SYLVIAN's "Secrets of the Beehive" albeit with more dissonance than even Sylvian could muster.

Your personal favourites, if I can employ this superficial expression, may vary, but I find the first few tracks resonate the most, tackling the most formidable goal of inducing the appropriate response, whatever it may be for you. The remainder are decent if less striking, and occasionally too moribund for even this project. An exception is "Oikea Sointi", which is a starkly tinkling ballad on ice, one that I would love to hear with the more typical TENHI arrangement, though it would be hard to improve upon the impact of this rendition.

Perhaps more than other TENHI albums, "Airut: Aamujen" beckons the listener into quite another realm, both dire and comforting. When it succeeds, it does so by reaching a guarded space within us that seems too personal to share, offering solace and a path to solemn disembodied communion.

Using a stripped-down version of the usual Tenhi lineup and instrumentation, and focused around the piano, Airut:aamujen originally emerged under the project name of Harmaa, before Tenhi decided it deserved to be part of their main discography. As you might guess from the title, it takes its approach largely from the Airut:Ciwi EP - specifically Kielo, the ten-minute track which was the fulcrum of that release, and is essentially a further development of its ideas. Existing in the borderland between dark folk and art rock, it offers a richly compelling sound which in its more epic moments starts drifting towards post-rock territory.