Beautiful vinyl edition from Merja Kokkonen aka Islaja. First track sounds like a take on Yoko Ono doing "Mrs Lennon" from Fly while Jandek jams along on guitar. The rest of the album is dominated by swarms of organ drones in a hypnotic Euro surrealist style that reflects on the classic Bridget Fontaine/Areski sides topped off with those evocative, just slightly out of phase double-tracked vocals, all navigating with a zagged, fractured almost free jazz logic and weird hints of primitive dub damage that provide glimpses of the kinda parallel universe where a phantom Nina Simone might front Can. Certainly her most dramatic and evocatively arranged piece of the puzzle to date. Recommended.

Brand new split 7” from zonked Finnish folk spirit Merja Kokkonen of Avarus/Kemialliset Ystävät et al and fellow subterranean basement wowzers, TV-Resistori, covering each other’s songs. Very personal/handmade feel, zoned atmosphere, great use of the format.

New LP by this Finnish electro-pop unit on Fonal who had a previous split 7” with Islaja. Printed inner sleeves. “TV-Resistori's debut album came out in 2004. With their childlike melodies and cheezy synthesizer tunes names like Stereolab, Raymond Scott, Karkkiautomaatti and Mouse On Mars might pop up. If Fonal ever has a hit single it might very well come from Tv-Resistori. Yrjö's and Päivi's male/female vocal duets have become more and more the center of the songs. Now with the apt record engineering skills of the drummer Aleksi they have truly found their own sound Tv-resistori will release their follow up “Serkut rakastaa paremmin” (translates as Cousins Love Better).”

OOP 2004 release, limited to 400 copies, from this Finnish behemoth featuring Islaja.

Latest album from Merja aka Islaja with a classic bats Euro-chanteuse sleeve ala Brigitte Fontaine and more of an experimental electro-pop feel that internalises her recent experiments with Blevin Blechdom and Samara Lubelski. “Islaja has left the forests and moss-covered paths behind. Through an underground tunnel, she wandered off towards the city and found you again. She came in through the door as you were taking out the rubbish. Or through the window you opened on a summer’s night. Do you feel as though you’re not alone, even if there’s no one else in the house? Look around you and you’ll see – Islaja, petrified into a ceramic head on your window sill, on your television set.” – Fonal.

Latest album from Merja aka Islaja with a classic bats Euro-chanteuse sleeve ala Brigitte Fontaine and more of an experimental electro-pop feel that internalises her recent experiments with Blevin Blechdom and Samara Lubelski. “Islaja has left the forests and moss-covered paths behind. Through an underground tunnel, she wandered off towards the city and found you again. She came in through the door as you were taking out the rubbish. Or through the window you opened on a summer’s night. Do you feel as though you’re not alone, even if there’s no one else in the house? Look around you and you’ll see – Islaja, petrified into a ceramic head on your window sill, on your television set.” – Fonal.

First saw this all-female trio that features Lau Nau, Islaja and Kuupuu back in the day when they toured the UK with Taurpis Tula and Virgin Eye Blood Brothers but this is the first official document of their existence. Hertta Lussu Assa feel like the central transmission point for a bunch of diverse Finnish modes, using toy instruments and keyboards that are as surreal as anything from Tomuttontu but cut with an eerie nocturnal aspect that comes out of the deep forest folk of Kuupuu or even Paivansade. At points the three voices combine in choral wraiths that float above bubbling microtonally-detailed drone in a way that is deeply narcotic. Melancholy music box melodies are situated in the middle-distance above small percussion sounds and subtly bent strings. If you like your femme-fronted folk cut w/dilated drones, broken down piano and wheezing loops then this is pretty much your dream trip.