KUUPUU – yökehra & unilintu

(LP, Dekorder)

If you say that Kuupuu is free folk (or freak folk as the more daring call it), you could also say that it is just one woman at home playing with her soundproducing- and recording tools. Both times you wouldn’t be lying, but there is a big difference between not saying the truth and striking right at the centrepoint of truth, because Kuupuu is so much more than just freak folk or a woman’s solo home recordings. Jonna Karanka is uniquely imaginitive and mesmerizingly inquisitive sound- and songmaker. It is never possible to say if she is following a vision or just taps along to what is coming from her unconscious. Probably both. Her songs and tracks are dreamlike, of an eerie beauty and seem to work out of themselves with ease. I have no other ways to describe this mystery than in equally mysterious terms. With everything that is psychedelic in the true sense of the word, and not the hippy-trodden term that denounces longwinded guitar solos without energy, description is hard. Listen for yourself and you’ll see what I mean.

Coming from these recordings and knowing about Karanka’s inclusion into the Finnish free folk scene, her work with Avarus and other, probably lesser known projects, it is simple to guess that she gets the same label tagged on. And the inclusion of oddly tuned acoustic guitars, harmonicas, glockenspiel, trancelice vocal oohing and aahing, looped and spliced and layered, makes it even simpler. But a hundred noisemaking implements and the same number of twists and turns in the music later, the fading away of songstructures and the invasion of songs that evolve from their own roots, new ideas and judgements have to be found. There is a mysteriousness about her that is mesmerizing and the atmospheres she conjures up are deeply emotional and touching. Of course, some of the enigma might come from the unknown language, and unlike French or English, the Finno-Ugristic languages of Scandinavia have nothing at all in common with the Roman languages, so Karanka might be singing about cooking tea or talking a walk on a sunny afternoon and it might still sound like an age-old mystery. But language is in comparison only one small thing on these mostly instrumental recordings, especially in relation to the slowly winding, picked, plucked, tripped, trodded, flowing and blowing sounds she has recorded.

Sometimes the songs are just a lonely whistled pipe and some lyrics at other times full fledged soundscapes that conjure up dreams of the dark woods and even darker ghosts haunting the unique landscape of Finnland. Harsh noise plays only a minor role, but it happens from time to time, as does childlike playfulness and intriguing avantgarde bits. It is the mix that makes the statement. Which brings us to the fact, that these two albums were compiled from various tapes and CDRs that Kuupuu released between 2002 and 2006 and which are gathering enormous price tags on ebay as I hear. I guess Marc Richter, the head behind the unique Dekorder-label, either spent holidays in Finnland or is addicted to ebay as are so many other people I know. Anyway, Dekorder decided to release these records and it is on our side to say thank you. “Yökehrä” already came out in 2006 and is now in its second print run, and “unilintu” this year, but since I got my hands on them together, I review them at the same time. Lazy bastard that I am.

In direct comparison “unilintu” sounds somewhat darker and less happy, but also with a stronger grip on the songs and tracks. Less playfulness and less jingly-jangly but with the same amount of mystery and – damn, how do I get around the elves-comparison that I hate so much everytime it is put to Björk, Sigur Ros or any other Scandinavian artist? Because it seems so evil to me to make people into fairies, even if Iceland has its own ministry for them, that is just too hippie for me – sensitivity in musical vision. Okay, so it is probably Karanka herself appearing on the covers, one time as nothing but a hazy vision and one time drenched in the red and black of a night-camera, and probably with her back turned to the camera. But, supposing these guesses are right, that doesn’t mean she sees herself as some ephemeral creature that lives in another or several other dimensions. Probably she is just shy or doesn’t want to push herself into the light the way other artists do.

Another interesting comparison is to the likeminded Animal Collective and its offspawns, especially when focusing on the wildness and uninhibited rawness of the boy’s club work and compare it to the sensitivity and gentleness in how the girls play. And more often the more sensitive and subtle visions make for the stronger and more impressive result in the end. Another interesting comparison is to the likeminded Animal Collective and its offspawns, especially when focusing on the wildness and uninhibited rawness of the boy’s club work and compare it to the sensitivity and gentleness in how the girls play. And more often the more sensitive and subtle visions make for the stronger and more impressive result in the end.