Well we've covered some slightly over enthusiastic anime prog rock ('Moron Police'), pretty perfect indie pop ('The Sideways') and some interesting and unusual electronica ('raudur'), so today we will feature an artist with a more traditional approach to songwriting. Heikki Rasilo is from Finland and we wrote about him back in early 2018 after coming across his EP from the previous year 'Before I'm Covered', which we liked for both the music and the artwork, and it's great to see him back 2 years on, this time with another EP entitled 'Sea Songs'.
It's a simple enough title, of course, and one that has been used many times before, but that reflects the nature of EP - stories about individual people and places, but all with a common theme. He describes it himself as from where 'the land meets the water, and the real meets the imaginary'', which I think is rather nice. 'Back into the Sea' sets the scene, and immediately I feel at home with that gentle acoustic guitar, and vocals that are warm and reassuringly unobtrusive - and I say that simply because they feel so natural and allow the stories to be told in a persuasive manner.
'Finnegan' has a conventional feel, with a tale of love being separated by distance, with analogies of the sea and fishermen being used, and I like the acoustic guitars at the end repeating the refrain, it just soft comforting feel. 'In the North of Spain' is probably my favourite song, the piano adds a lovely texture and as a storyteller 'Heikki Rasilo' is in his element, whilst the EP concludes with 'Irishman', which disappears off interestingly into a slightly different direction in a long instrumental section, but is held together by the lyrical content.
This is the opening track 'Back into the Sea':
'Sea Songs' was released just a couple of days ago. The lovely artwork is by 'Story of Yana' and you can find Heikki Rasilo on Facebook or Soundcloud.