Sad to say but the extent of my knowledge of Finland as a music producing country is limited to four things – Sibelius, The Leningrad Cowboys, Death Metal and Jimi Tenor. And to be quite honest, I know diddly-squat about all of those really so it’s with gratitude that I received this album recently from the powers that be at W & H, in an attempt to broaden my musical horizons towards the distant, northern shores of Europe.
Drowsy (AKA Mauri Heikkinen), as the Eno-esque title of his second album suggests, deals for the most part in quiet music - delicate acoustic works with whispered voice and sparse instrumentation being the overall style, with some exceptions. More left of field than contemporaries Adem and Iron & Wine, Drowsy’s sound is at once, both enigmatic and intimate. The spirit of Syd is also present and correct here, especially in the opener ‘Bakery’ and ‘Treehouse’, both of which are similar to the crazy diamond in their rather random approach to composition and delivery. And our Finnish hero seems to have a thing for fire, wood and snow – probably very important things if you are from Finland, with many of the lyrics here displaying a fascination with all things flammable and icy.
The stand-out songs for me here though are perhaps the more Spartan ones – ‘Hues’ which is a gorgeously hushed piece of music-making with just vocals and guitar, ‘Go Well’ with its pastoral lyrics, intricate finger picking and tinkling bells, the haunting ‘Bed of Pyre and Wood’ and the sweeping ‘Words of Warmth’ which both sound to me like perfect music for a night watching the northern lights, but that may be just me getting carried away with the Finnish thing. And it’s not often that instros are the strongest tracks on an album but the last one here may well be my favourite, ‘Plangent Suite’ - an atmospheric piano-led piece that brings to mind the best moments from the second side of Eno’s ‘Before and After Science’.
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All of these songs are so strong for me that the Barrett-type numbers and the comparatively brash instrumental ‘Good Old Odd Good’ sound slightly out of place – the latter, resembling a Decemberist’s backing track, being especially incongruous and whilst there is nothing wrong with these individual tunes per se I can’t help thinking that the album would gel together rather better with some judicious trimming and a little re-ordering of the track sequence.
Even with that criticism though, ‘Snow on Moss and Stone’ is still one of the best records I’ve heard so far this year, full of austere but warm beauty and marks Drowsy out for me as a big talent to watch and a bit more interesting than that other recent Scandinavian success, José Gonzales. One gets the feeling that he is capable of a more focused effort and if that happens we are in for some great pleasures indeed, for this is one of the most distinctive musical voices I’ve heard for some time and one which I greatly look forward to hearing again soon.
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