This seasoned Finnish folk ensemble is about to become that nation’s biggest musical export since… um… ever. Värttinä’s collaboration on the score for the stage version of The Lord of the Rings could initiate these mistresses of Nordic polyphony into the exclusive fellowship of ‘world music crossover’. If it happens, Tolkien’s epic tale will be making partial repayment on its substantial debt to Finnish culture. If, in turn, Miero – a Finnish word meaning Outcast – owes anything to the LOTR collaboration, it may be in the themes explored on the CD. I suspect Värttinä’s work on LOTR inspired them to return to the source – not to the sagas, but the early village tales. Stories born of tightly woven, superstitious clans, for whom all strangers were a source of suspicion and banishment was the ultimate punishment – literally a fate worse than death. The songs on Miero describe the most primal preoccupations of tribal Europe, and are populated with vengeful cuckcolds, spell casting hags and infanticides. Consider the following lyric: “May the gossipmongers have their reward: may they have serpents, may they have snakes in their cradles, may they have lizard-foetus.” Not exactly a bustle in your hedgerow or a spring clean for the May queen – perhaps one of those occasions where it’s safer to be a unilingual anglophone. The average Canadian listener who overlooks the liner notes, will remain blissfully ignorant of the lyrical content and respond instead to the – as ever – beautiful and precise vocal delivery, and sophisticated instrumental work, full of complex and engaging time signatures. That having been said, given its Finnish population, I bet this record causes a few sleepless nights in Thunder Bay. PG-13.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Värttinä - Miero (RealWorld)
This seasoned Finnish folk ensemble is about to become that nation’s biggest musical export since… um… ever. Värttinä’s collaboration on the score for the stage version of The Lord of the Rings could initiate these mistresses of Nordic polyphony into the exclusive fellowship of ‘world music crossover’. If it happens, Tolkien’s epic tale will be making partial repayment on its substantial debt to Finnish culture. If, in turn, Miero – a Finnish word meaning Outcast – owes anything to the LOTR collaboration, it may be in the themes explored on the CD. I suspect Värttinä’s work on LOTR inspired them to return to the source – not to the sagas, but the early village tales. Stories born of tightly woven, superstitious clans, for whom all strangers were a source of suspicion and banishment was the ultimate punishment – literally a fate worse than death. The songs on Miero describe the most primal preoccupations of tribal Europe, and are populated with vengeful cuckcolds, spell casting hags and infanticides. Consider the following lyric: “May the gossipmongers have their reward: may they have serpents, may they have snakes in their cradles, may they have lizard-foetus.” Not exactly a bustle in your hedgerow or a spring clean for the May queen – perhaps one of those occasions where it’s safer to be a unilingual anglophone. The average Canadian listener who overlooks the liner notes, will remain blissfully ignorant of the lyrical content and respond instead to the – as ever – beautiful and precise vocal delivery, and sophisticated instrumental work, full of complex and engaging time signatures. That having been said, given its Finnish population, I bet this record causes a few sleepless nights in Thunder Bay. PG-13.
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