Artist: Kauan
Album: Aava Tuulen Maa
Type: Album
Label: Firebox/Badmoonman Music

Kauan’s third album marks a departure from their old sound, but not one that would shock you to any extent if you’d heard the embryonic glints of what was to come hidden within their previous works. These Finns started out as a doomy/death band with large swathes of folk and acoustic moments. Now, there’s pretty much no metal to be found here at all. Gone are the growling vocals nestled amongst keyboard drenched doomy sections of their older works, eclipsed here completely by their neo-folky, shoegazing post-rock styled side.

If Virgin Black were to make a chill-out album using Sigur Ros’ recording equipment, layering mid-to-late Amorphis styled keyboards deep into the music’s fabric, ‘Aava Tuulen Maa’ is how I’d imagine it to sound. Even though I do miss the metal that has been reined in on this album, the music here is still of an exceptional quality, sewn together with a deeply nostalgic sentiment and achingly emotive crooned vocals. Guitars occasionally ripple with distortion, but there’s rarely so much as a power chord hit at any point. Instead the electric guitar is used to slide an echoing solo amongst the strains of acoustic guitars and gentle synthesisers. Kauan craft their music with such minimalism, drenching you with their subtle palette of musical colours that tenderly swirls around your room, caressing your mind into a state of relaxation throughout the course of the album’s runtime.

The album as a whole brings visions of autumnal forests, with sunlight sparkling through the tree’s canopy, spotlighting the soft bronzes and oranges of the floor below as the warm breeze slowly rustles through the leaves. Thus, ‘Aava Tuulen Maa’ is certainly not an album to throw on when you want to throw the horns or attempt to wreck your neck. Instead, it is a touching, poignant flow of soothing aural chocolate to sit and listen to with a glass of red wine, staring wistfully into space.

http://www.myspace.com/kauanmusic

Lars Christiansen

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