As with bands like After Crying or Anekdoten the
cello plays a very important part in the music of the Finish band Haikara.
Adding saxophone to their music as in ‘Valtakunta’ the musical backbone
gets close to that of Ensemble Nimbus. Add to that the Finish vocals and you
get an original injection of folk elements as well. That same folky feeling
creeps inside ‘Harlekiini’ by means of a toy organ before the music
evolves towards Isildur’s Bane. An example of how melancholic the cello can
sound can be found in ‘Tuhkamaa’ where it is accompanied by acoustic
guitar, saxophone and vocals in order to fully illustrate the solitude. The
originality goes one further when cello and sitar find a way to fuse into
the instrumental ‘Hymni’. With all attention beging divided between
cello and saxophone I would have expected a richer diversity in sound from
these six (yes SIX !) musicians. More emphasis on the keyboards would
certainly be a plus and I would also like to see more playing time because
six musicians surely must be capable to compose more music than the 37’
offered here ! Reviewed by : John
‘Bo Bo’ Bollenberg |
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