Quick note on Fonal records night

Dave loved your last post capturing what had been happening at Cube recently, while in some cases not even being there, great! Made me think I should write a little something on the Fonal records night which included Islja and Es and due to illness an unexpected first act.

Fonal Records is a Finnish independent record label established by Sami Sänpäkkilä in 1995 and is a showcase for much of the so called Finnish ‘free folk’ which along with bands like Sunburned Hand of The Man and Magik Markers are making some of the most exciting music at the current time. This night was the final night off a three day tour showcasing some of the many talents currently assocated with the label and due to sickness KIILA had to drop out leaving only Islja and Es from the advertised line up but no matter the first act, whose name I do not know, was a performer who would later play as part of the duo Es. Well unexpected it might have been but a great performer he was and with a Finnish folk tale about the mothers off Lapland on ‘Mothers Day’ who could not be enchanted, to quote another blogger?

As the night progressed Islja, also full of what seemed like a very nasty cold, banged genlty on the Cube’s out of tune piano and slowly moved on to stage with the soft vocals of its lead singer, ending with a toy monkey banging its drum gently into its own stage microphone. I would recommend anyone taken to the this scene to check out their most recent record, Meritie, the packaging alone makes it worth it, not to mention the lovely music.

Finally, the night was closed with Es as the reverb of the catheral rang out from the vocals the sounds of the small keyboards and samplers made one think of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti although not the low-fi pop vision of LA but rather recast in the mistical land of folk tales.