Every now and then I find myself engaged with a track not so much because of the music, but because of the story that sits behind it. Someone out there might remember a couple of posts I wrote at Easter about Kalandra and Catself songs, which had personally affected me, and the same has happened with this track from Finnish folk rock band Antti Kokkomäki & Tammikuun Lapset.
In 'Etana' (the pre-release single from their forthcoming album), singer Antti Kokkomäki writes about his relationship with his elderly Grandmother, whom he'd had a distant and slightly cold relationship with. Affected by the 2nd World War, and stubbornly trying to maintain her independence, a conversation with her just before she passed away suddenly brought warmth and understanding to their relationship, and brought solace to them both. Firstly, i think to openly write about a personal situation like this is brave, but its made me too consider family relationships, different generations, and the situations that people from those eras have encountered through their lives, and how that has affected them as people. Of course it also a lovely tribute to a brave lady who no doubt faced more hardships in her life than we can ever imagine.
Musically 'Etana' is nicely written, with subtle instrumentation and I really like the arrangements and harmonies at the end of the song. You can watch the video here - the song is written in the Finnish language incidentally.
So this is the pre-album single from Antti Kokkomäki & Tammikuun Lapset, who in the tradition of Nordic bands, have been hidden away in a tiny Finnish cabin to produce the album, with only a mouse for company (note: I made the bit up about the mouse). The album I think is to be released later this year. We have just so many new releases, submissions and new band discoveries to write about that I have no idea if we will have chance to do a review, but we will try and give it a listen obviously.
Etana is published by the Finland based independent label Sulka Records