Drone Records

KUUPUU - Lumen Thäden

Format: LP

Label & Cat.Number: Time-Lag Records TLR 044 LP

Release Year: 2009

Note: comes in ultra heavy laminated gatefold-cover (full-colour), ed. of 750 copies; the "post-everything" project from JONNA KARANKA (AVARUS, ISLAJA, etc.)

Price (incl. 19% VAT): €23.50

More Info

Das neue Album der Finnin KUUPUU erscheint auf dem renommierten TIME-LAG RECORDS, im übergrossen & laminierten Gatefold-Cover.
Ihr gespenstischer "low fi wyrd Folk" (das Label nennt das "Pränatal-Folk) erinnert an eine schräge Version von JESSICA BAILIFF oder GROUPER, ähnlich zerbrechlich ertönen ihr elfenhafter Gesang und die sparsame Instrumentierung, zusätzlich aber haftet dem ganzen etwas "schamanistisch-beschwörendes" an... really strange stoff !!

"Although Finlander Jonna Karanka has been slowly leaking out little Kuupuu jewels for six years now, somehow it's taken just that long to materialize her first 'proper' album. Maybe it has something to do with the time she's devoted to her beautiful artwork, or her time spent in a highly impressive string of other bands, including Hertta Lussu Assa (with Islaja and Lau Nau), Anaksimandos, Avarus, and many others. But, you know, I always figured Kuupuu music didn't have much to do with 'time' anyway. It's music from another reality, to put it bluntly. A beautiful place no doubt, but somehow totally other. You could call this music a lot of things, all without really saying much. Post-everything? Pre-birth folk? Bedtime acid-art? Naive avant-garde loop witchcraft? Maybe something like a thousand memories & vague images folded into each other and spooled out infinitely like a sloppy film loop. The sound of tiny bioluminescent insects systematically devouring an urban cityscape in hyper-speed, while just as quickly slithering neon flora entwine the metallic gray remains, only to then be gobbled themselves by a leaderless army of pulsating micro-robots. Got that? Now play backwards in slow motion. Surreal might just be an understatement. Packaged in a stunning ultra-heavy laminated full color gatefold cover with full color art labels, all created by Jonna. Pressed on audiophile 180gm vinyl. Limited edition of 750 copies." [label info]

"Kuupuu is a bit like a Finnish Grouper, her songs are murky and mysterious, the sounds feel disembodied and otherworldly, her vocals are ghostlike and gauzy, but those Grouper-like sounds are filtered through her Finnish folk filter, having spent time in Avarus, Anaksimandros and a handful of other big time aQ faves. Nearly half the record is made up of hushed intimate lo-fi ballads, muted and muddy and almost underwater sounding, her voice and musical accompaniment bleeding into each other until it's sometimes almost impossible to tell which is which, but those stretches of bleary eyed balladic drift and muffled shimmery dreamdrone are peppered with chucks of weird soft noise, abstract rhythmic workouts and some strange very Finnish sounding bursts of what-the-fuck chaos: plenty of clattery tribal percussion, detuned guitars, demented music box melodies, field recordings and found sounds, tape manipulation, gongs and bells and birdcalls, looped acoustic guitars, super lo-fi tape recorded voices, swooping backwards melodies, and the occasional jagged shard of feedback or streak of fractured crunch, but somehow Kuupuu manages to tie it all together into something much more cohesive and lovely than you might imagine.
Definitely for fans of all things Finnish and foresty and folky and freaky: Avarus, Islaja, Anaksimandros, Kemialliset Ystavat, Kiila, Shogun Kunitoki, Es, etc. And adventurous fans of Grouper might give this a try, if they're not averse to some weirdo noisemaking with their moody melancholia." [Aquarius Records]

www.time-lagrecords.com