Review: Paavoharju – Yhä hämmärää (or) our lady of the worthless miracle

Paavoharju hails from a remote corner of Finland and (perhaps) because of their isolation (at least to my ears) their music is quite unique. The music on their latest album Yhí hímmíríí is very hard to pinpoint or label. There are certainly nods to the music of India and the east and almost medieval sounding melodies, but there is also the influence of modern electronica and avant-garde music as well.

If you aren’t listening intently you might (at times) mistake them for Cirque du Soleil performers, but if you listen closer they reveal so much more. Songs are complex and abstract but have a little pop familiarity that sometimes makes them seem like part of the fabric of humanity. The vocals are gorgeous, soaring, operatic, and almost ghostly. They drift in and out of a haze of skittering beats, acoustic guitars, lo-fi synths, and piano that is then wrapped up tight in a blanket of electronic static and noise into an almost alien musical landscape.

Because I don’t understand any of lyrics as they are being sung, the album is that much more obtuse and exotic. The vocals are sometimes echoed, covered with delay, or even pushed out of the forefront as the fuzz of static and feedback are pushed louder. They are used very instrumentally similar to the way Sigur Ros treats their vocals. No sounds are safe from ambient effects and atmospheric textures and as the electronic elements are combined with field recordings the music is swirled into a beautiful haze.

The music is dense. There is so much going on that one can easily become disoriented listening, but I think thats part of the magic. When translated to English, some lyrics from the song “Syvyys” read “Into the mysterious veil of the opaque/To be heard only as a whisper to the gardens of earth/When I was listening to the earth’s song and traveling further/Too much dusty earth/I could not help but scream.” They aren’t concrete and concise (but rather) poetic and conceptual as is Paavoharju’s music. It transports the listener to somewhere else, even if it is a place that only exists in dreamscapes. Yhí hímmíríí is out now on Fonal Records.

MP3 | Paavoharju – Valo Tihkuu Kaiken Lapi Yhí hímmíríí
MP3 | Paavoharju – Puhuri Yhí hímmíríí