You know, I could have sworn that Henna Emilia Hietamäki had featured in these pages this year, away from her work with Cats of Transnistria, but it turns out that that it was over two years ago, in July 2022 just as the pandemic was starting to abate.
I commented on that song that it was so laid back that she might have been trying to resurrect the chilled out vibe of the late 1960s counter culture.
Anyway, it’s Wednesday and it’s happy hour at NMC. Not.
‘Maan alle’ (Below) is the first single from Henna Emilia Hietamäki’s new album ‘Luutarha’, which will be released on 1st November 2024.
‘Luutarha’ is a collection of new interpretations of old folk songs and folk poetry. There are new translations and arrangements of American, English and Finnish songs from the 17th‒19th centuries, as well as new compositions for old Finnish folk poems.
There are numerous artists across the Nordic countries that put a new spin on older works like this, turning poetry into song; it’s become a transnational centre for it.
Now the downside. The unifying theme here is death, facing it or longing for it. Many of the songs on the album are made especially to be played at funerals.
That all sounds a bit grim and ‘Luutarha’ (Bone Garden) was an early suggestion as a Finnish name for a cemetery. It sounds like a cross between a Viking longboat and a voodoo curse cast by Baron Samedi or one of his acquaintances.
Even the single title ‘Maan alle’ has a disturbing ring to it. Turns out that it is a modified interpretation of a Finnish-Karelian folk poem which she introduces by saying “”I feel great pleasure in the directness of these old folk poems: how things are not twisted to be a bit challenging, but rather express directly that now I feel so bad that I just want to die. When you dare to face all feelings without repressing them, they also pass.” Meanwhile the album cover has shades of Haiti about it, too.
Credit: Melina Paakkonen
Anyway, when you’ve stopped hiding behind the sofa let me tell you it isn’t anything like as depressing as you might think. It’s more like Julie Andrews singing to a group of fellow nuns before eventide prayers.
You won’t be dancing to it but you won’t be waiting until your own funeral to want to hear it again, either.
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hennaemiliahietamaki
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hennaemiliahietamaki/
