1. Poor Girlie

 

The enchanter begins his work with some grounding words  before descending into trance. 

In the beginning I became interested in the rhythmic possibilities of these grounding words, a sort of a “spell rap,” and initially this was the basis for the rhythmic 11/8 and 13/8 form. Through the grounding words the enchanter transitions away from his everyday self and “gathers his powers” for the healing work. To me, my work as an adolescent psychiatrist is closely analogous with this earlier wizard work. Words have  power!

 

Dedicated to my drum kit, a pandeiro and a triangle. 

 

2. Refusing an old man

The words of enquiry as for the origin of an illness, and the incantation the wizard rushes in to help you!

“It’s running me insane!” is a curious and at the same time a creepy thought. Environmental elements coupled with stress are one factor in the onset of mental illnesses. “Refusing an old man” is a story of societal power balance and systemic gender-based power in a patriarchal structure/fabric. I fell in love, and in hate, with this story all at once!

 

Dedicated to frame drum cajón, and conga drums

 

3. Time and Again, You Misty One

 

What does the landscape sound like to a person in the grips of a psychosis? 

 

The initial spark for this entire album is in this question. I found the poem in Kanteletar as I was searching for material on sadness and grief, and on letting go. Grief over marrying and having to go to the husband’s family and house sometimes also meant grief over being subjected to domestic violence. 

 

Dedicated to a vibrator and a cajón. 

 

4.Please grant sleep

Am I asleep or awake?

From time to time I suffer from waking in the early hours, and the inability to fall asleep again. Why can’t I sleep? What rouses me this way? Who are we waiting for in the night? Who will save us? Will I go insane if this goes on much longer?

 

Dedicated to the sleepless, to a berimbau, and to existing on the edges of sleeplessness

 

5.Burn the Circle!

What is depression?

What were the root causes of melancholy and sadness before, what are they now? This is a story of hope. Inspiration to this piece has come from David Bowie’s Heart’s Filthy Lesson. 

 

Dedicated to the drum kit and a mouth harp.

 

6. Endless Night

Spellcasting to banish evil and the darkness!

At the end of this story the listener will take a peek through a small window into a sacred building where people, to their best ability, plead  the holy  to banish the forces that are raging outside.The dystopian vision in this piece is a metaphor of our current world, the endless night of our world that spreads its darkness in conflicts and in the regression of our values.

 

Dedicated to the  earthen beauty of the Udu drum.  

7. THE HANGED MAID TRILOGY

Part 1 - The Thicket

 

Life is a gift, but whose?

 

The dramatic arc of this song is a link to my work as an adolescent psychiatrist, to neglected youths and to suicide. A patient’s suicide is one of the worst fears of every psychiatrist. Young people with mental illness are often stigmatised, even if there are often very complicated issues at play, involving family and societal structures. 

 

Part 2 - The Storehouse

 

Who decides who is silenced? What kind of a girl is the right kind of a girl?

 

This song is an invitation to look at a possible interpretation of suicide as an act of preserving dignity and autonomy. These issues that challenge today’s society norms have been the subject of songs fora long time. This text is from a poem collected by E. Lönnrot in Vuokkiniemi in 1834 (singer unknown.) Parts 1 and 3 were conceived when the pianist Paula Präjtig played a track in the Frygian scale, improvising freely within a narrative dramaturgy.

 

Part 3 - Weep Not, Mother Dear

 

When two worlds collide – Who is there to comfort the mother?

Is a girl ever the right kind in the eyes of society?

What kind of a girl is the right kind of a girl?

 

The daughter reconciled her situation in her own way while maintaining her dignity, self-esteem and autonomy. This work is a canticle for the silent and the silenced!

When I was traveling in Estonia in the summer of 2023, I made audio  recordings of the pillars outside the Arvo Pärt center, an artist whom I revere.by  beating the pillars with my fists. From this material I created rhythmic figures and harmonies in the style of flamenco’s soléa for parts 1 and 2. Soléa represents solitude, inner pain, even despair. Arvo Pärt’s way of thinking about music and composition appeals to me greatly. I feel that this trilogy and the entire album is a celebration of and dedicated to Pärt’s idea of tintinnabulation, “the act of ringing bells”.

Translations into English of all the background stories by Piiastiina Tikka & Janne-Pekka Manninen