Islaja - Keraaminen PÃ¤Ã¤

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4...according to our Brett on Thu 09 Sep, 2010.

Christ, she's looking a bit mardy on the front here. She should be chuffed, she's gone done an album what's good. I'm by no means an expert on the Fonal label (I think that Paavoharju LP with the face on the cover's the only thing I've got on there) but this sounds reasonably typical for a lot of the stuff I've heard, combining a free-folky sort of feel with more experimental electronic elements and doing it totally well. It's poppy but shot through with exotic weirdness in that way that Bjork or even The Knife do so well (even occasionally going further, into near-Bat For Lashes or Wildbirds and Peacedrums territory). Most of it's probably more abstract than the impression I've given there though. Get sound clipping it, like.

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Islaja is the recording alias of Merja Kokkonen, a musician and visual artist from Helsinki, currently based in Berlin. A regular contributor to the more psych/folk and improv oriented Kemialliset Ystävät and Avarus, Islaja's recordings are by contrast almost entirely self-contained, reflecting the more personal nature of her music, and a natural affinity towards an independent/DIY aesthetic. Her fourth album for Fonal (following 2008's excursion on Ecstatic Peace for the live document Blaze Mountain Recordings), "Keraaminen Pää" (or 'Ceramic Head') contains many shades of black. It also bears witness to a shift in perception and execution; yet the thread that weaves it's way through all Islaja's work remains resolute, visible and intact.

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