Fonal Night, 19 October 2007

Islaja: 'Rohkaisulaulu'

I checked out the theme night of Fonal Records at the Lost In Music festival of Yo-Talo on Friday. I haven't heard the latest releases of Islaja (a.k.a. Merja Kokkonen) but even some Stooges-like moments and some machine rhythms were heard now. This time the set of Kemialliset Ystävät [about whose manSEDANse set and the rest of the festival some weeks ago I would still like to get something together for this blog before too long - the procrastinating pH.] consisted of some sort of tribal blues sound, and on the black & white background video the boys were seen running around in the woods, looking like it was part of some sort of live role-playing ritual? Eleanoora Rosenholm (who will release their album on Fonal soon) I had never heard before. Their live sound paradoxically made me describe it as "lounge meets 70s Eurovision pop with some progrock flavour", so it will be interesting to hear what this will sound like on record. One song surprisingly made me think of Regina and their chanteuse Iisa Pajula. I think Eleanoora Rosenholm does hold some potential, and the audience seemed eventually to warm up to the songs, even though being unfamiliar with them. Some extra delights for a friend of old analogue electronics like me were spared to the end of the night when after around 2:30 am Shogun Kunitoki entered the stage with their arsenal of vintage keyboards. Playing an intense set, perhaps in the style of the late 60s proto-electronic veterans like Silver Apples and Lothar and the Hand People, I just had to watch it to the end, even though I was already starting to feel extremely drowsy at this late hour. A nice night, all in all.