UNILINTU
DEKORDER 2007
edwin pouncey the wire 278
The fascinating Finnish psychedelic free folk scene is continually
morphing, and Kuupuu (aka Jonna Karanka) is currently one of the
movement's darkest stars. At least, if the strange nocturnal sounds
that have been compiled for this collection (the second in a series
of vinyl LPs that gathers together the best of her own CD-R and
cassette releases) are anything to go by.
While the accompanying blurb cites Fursaxa, Animal Collective, Wooden
Wand & The Vanishing Voice and Vashti Bunyan as possible influences,
none of these can be comfortaby slotted into the same jagged-edged
frame that Kuupuu has assembled around her music. Unilintu begins
with a looping electronic snarl, a grinding of futuristic gears and
broken mechanical bird beaks that upturn any notion that this is
going to be a formulaic alt folk rock ramble.
As a core member of experimental collective Avarus, Karanka's music
and songs are natural extensions of that group's fondness for natural
sound collage, bruised instrumentals and atmospheric aural illusion.
Halfway through side one and a storm is gathering. It's the perfect
threatening backdrop for an acoustically strummed song that sounds
plaintively distant and ghostly as the elements come crashing in,
only to be replaced with a one-note piano solo that takes on the
acoustic ambience of rain dropping through a hole in a gale-torn roof.
The same simple but magical innocence leaks through to the other side
of the record, where further examples of Kuupuu's ear for the unusual
are demonstrated. With a voice that murmurs, rather than sings, often
in harmony with herself, occasionally accompanied by a kind of
gamelan/wind chime orchestra, the mood of Unilintu shifts seamlessly
and dreamily from otherworldly pastoral to Industrial without missing a beat.
UNILINTU
DEKORDER 2007
stephen bauer foxy digitalis february 2007
About half a year ago, in the exact same publication, I was raving about the
first compilation LP of Kuupuu tracks that were reissued by the Dekorder
label from Germany. “Unilintu” follows that compilation and revives some
more (maybe even all) of the previously “lost” tracks by Jonna Karanka that
she released on CD-Rs and one cassette. The 12 tracks on “Unilintu” are culled
from the same releases as the ones on its predecessor “Yökehrä”. Judging from
the info provided by the label, the tunes on “Unilintu” represent the more solemn
side of Karanka´s output. While there is some truth to that, the overall innocence
of her music evens out any uneasiness that could arise while listening to Kuupuu.
That said, pieces like “Myrskylaulu” which was taken from the most recent
CD-R “Kulta Sulta” are pretty spooky. You hear some thunder in the background
and Karanka´s double-tracked voice over a picked guitar melody, and the mood
seems not as positive as on some of her other tracks. The same goes for the
instantly following piano piece “Onnenkuelaa”. It´s a good thing that there are also
tracks like the nature sound filled “Linnut”, the deeply meditative “Lintupolku” or
the acapella track “Taivaankotiin” that are more soothing for the soul.
Overall, it´s impossible to say that either “Yökehrä” or “Unilintu” is the better of
the two releases. Both LPs taken together can definitely considered classic releases
from the Finnish underground that seems to have slown down a bit regarding the
speed with which releases had been put out in 2005 and the first half of 2006.
While listening to “Unilintu”, it becomes more and more obvious that those lo-fi CD-Rs
and the cassette with Kuupuu tracks just had to be saved from being forgotten.
The only thing that´s missing now is new material by Kuupuu.
UNILINTU
DEKORDER 2007
thurston hunger kfjc on-line review march 2007
Strange electronic birds nesting in my ears. I’m cuckoo for Kuupuu.
Jonna Karanka’s voice is the feather bedding, it gets multi-tracked,
criss-crossed and stitched into the nest-ness. A decidedly lo-fi
fluffiness helps hoist the intimacy aloft. This feels like one of
the elements at time, a sweet mix of rain and sunshine with a breeziness
that makes these tunes feel more like sketches…or dreams even. They
are something sill in the process of becoming. This is the charm of
Kuupuu, she presents child-as-magi music built from simple instruments
and simple and pure melodies. All of the work here is culled from
other releases, insanely exclusive ones at that; but assembled together
a consistent flow appears and fills this vinyl. Bells ring in the
stream of these songs, brooks babble and Kuupuu’s voice babbles along
with it, guitars glide and everything floats. On “Taivaankotiin” her
river rises highest and hits the paramount, but the watermarks are
way up on all of this start to Finnish.
UNILINTU & YÖKEHRÄ
DEKORDER 2006 / 2007
cracked review february 2007
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 ephemera
l 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.
At times I feel a change coming to the age old genre of music you want to listen to on rainy Sunday
afternoons. The last years it was all about electronica and electronic pop that was dreamy, sprinkled
with soft glitches and tiny noises. Before that it was the strict technical warmth of postrock. (While the
shoegazing power of My Bloody Valentine never left.) Now it seems to become the freely flowing
psychedelic of free folk that helps to fill those pensive and laidback moments with the ambience for daydreaming.
YÖKEHRÄ
DEKORDER 2006
stephan bauer foxy digitalis july 2006
Unless you´re a fast mover and very well informed in general, it´s hard to keep track of the output
of the Finnish scene. Some limited edition releases are gone within days or months and fetching a
copy afterwards at a reasonable price is next to impossible. Such was the case with Kuupuu´s
limited edition CD-Rs and one cassette that she released herself and on various labels over the last
three years. Luckily enough for snails like me, Hamburg´s Dekorder label undertook the task of saving
Kuupuu´s mysterious soundscapes from being left to only a handful of people. “Yökehrä” is the first
of two vinyl-only releases compiling tracks, previously only available on long gone albums and EPs.
Kuupuu is the solo guise of Jonna Karanka who is a frequent member of Avarus, The Anaksimandros,
Maniacs Dream, Kukkiva Poliisi and Hertta Lussu Ässä. All of those bands work as collectives, not
attributing too much importance to their individual members. In that regard, it´s very interesting to
hear Karanka´s solo recordings that sound very intimate and personal, not last because of their
home-recording sound. The oldest songs were originally released on a self-titled CD-R from 2003 and
come closest to actual “songs”. The dancing chimes of “Niittyleikki” and the backwards looped
instruments on “Jisa Kehrää” provide an atmospheric background for Kuupuu´s vocals.
2004 saw three Kuupuu releases, two CD-Rs, one self-released and one on the Foxglove label as
well as a cassette on Nidnod. The self-released “Kevätlauluja” is represented only by one track on
“Yökehrä”, which is one of the strongest on the LP. The contrast between Karanka´s stringed
instruments and wordless vocals and what sounds like airplanes flying by makes for a fascinating
listen. “Sateen Suutelemat” and “I Can Walk the Dark” are more prominently featured on the LP.
“Mesisade” from the cassette and “Pihlajapuu” from the Foxglove release open each side of the LP
with comparatively violent noise that soon becomes more tame by Jonna Karanka´s hushed vocals.
Also the other two tracks taken from “I Can Walk the Dark” are fairly haunting compared to the rest
of the LP, setting an interesting contrast.
Finally, there are three tracks from the 2005 “Kulta Sulka” CD-R, sold during Kuupuu´s US Tour.
“Aava” is very opaque with the humming of a thousand bees accompanied by chimes and vocal
loops while “Jää Maa” is a soothing lullabye. The third track from the 2005 CD-R is its best.
“Noita, Josta Tuli Avaruusukko” starts with lovely mouth harp and another wind instrument I
can´t identify and blends into a guitar based song that ends in dissonance. On “Noita”, Kuupuu
actually gets closest to the more song-based and melodious music her companions in
Hertta Lussu Ässä, Lau Nau and Islaja are making. A ghostly photo of Karanka (supposedly)
on the front cover and a mixed media collage on the back cover complete this incredible release
that was much needed.
ILLUSIA
TIME-LAG RECORDS 2005
jon dale the wire 268
Pretty sure it's not brand new, but this sounds totally great spinning around the room.
Multitracked instruments and voices by Jonna Karanka (she who is Kuupuu) will make
you think of trolls dancing inside one of those filthy McDonalds play structures at one
moment, then make you imagine a cavern full of singing snakes the next.
It's hard to assess the details of what exactly is going on here (I got stuck on a lock
groove for almost 20 minutes yesterday) but it's smoky as hell and exceedingly nice.
KULTA SULKA
SELF-RELEASED 2005
jim haynes the wire 268
It's been well documented that something weird and wonderful is afoot in Finland,
with legions of free folk experimenters emerging from the forests clutching recordings
of handstiched psychedelia. Kuupuu is the work of Jonna Karanka, who has spent time
in Avarus and The Anaksimandros, and her self-released solo outing Kulta Sulka is one
of the many gems to hail from the Finnish scene. Her sound kaleidoscopes indicate a
tenuous grip on the art of songwriting, often meandering into eerie loops of breathy
woodwinds trapped in cyclonic infinitude, or murky collages distorted with cheaply rendered,
sci-fi laser pings. Yet Karanka's dreamily cracked songs are her strenght, and they ache
with the melancholy of the best acid folk chanteuses the 70s had to offer.
The elegant simplicity of her acoustic guitar and haunted toy box melodies
shroud the album in dark, earthy spiritualism.