Everyone might have ever heard of the mighty Korpiklaani. But it seems less certain that everyone has heard of the solo project of its singer, Jonne Järvelä, simply called Jonne.
The first, eponymous, album was released in 2014 under the label Playground Music Finland along with the superb video for “Metsään on iäksi mieli”.
The cover and the name of the one (Kallohonka) were revealed earlier this year and its release is planned for the 28th of April. For those who would like to know more about the meaning, “Kallohonka” is the Finnish world’s tree symbolized by the skull of a bear on a pine tree so that the soul of this one could go back to where it was born, in the skies. One could think of something pagan and deeply rooted in Finnish folklore but Jonne cuts these expectations off very quickly in this interview by Kaaoszine:
Musically this album is more of a band album than the first one. The first album just sort of happened. This time, through those couple of shows we played with the project, we thought more about what kind of stuff we want to play in the future live. That was more pop and less heavy, the style is a bit more world music. You can’t really say it’s Finnish folk music like the first one either.
That said, some very dark and shamanic pictures taken from the making of the music video of the theme song “Pimeä on oksan taitto” for the Finnish horror fantasy movie “Backwood Madness” were posted on the page so this atmosphere and signature might not be completely gone. The pop touch was indeed the surprising effect I had on the first single “Vieras”, which you can listen here.
Talking about the most recent and very Spanish single “En Ole”, Jonne tells the whole story behind it:
The only musical education I’ve ever had was learning to play guitar through flamenco songs with a teacher. […] I started playing guitar with this genre so it has a special place in my heart. “En Ole” actually came when I bought new nylon strings for my guitar, strong tension strings. And I wanted to try whether I still could play this kind of music. I can’t where I got the title “En Ole” but at first it was a kind of joke with myself. Then I just started to build it up.
(Source: Kaaoszine)
You can listen to “En Ole” here.
Kallohonka is out on the 28th of April.
