Lydia Loginova / Лидия Логинова

I've saved the best of obscure Finno-Ugric folk/pop music for the last, and this best is Lydia Loginova from Komi Republic. She starded to sing at least 30 years ago and managed to become one of the most popular artists in her home region, while remaining almost completely unknown to the outside world. It's an injustice because her songs are some of the best Finno-Ugric folk I've heard so far (she's even better than Marina Sadova, I think).

Don't know if she released any proper albums, but I made a compilation of the best songs I could find (I'm sure she has more, though). Very beautiful music, much more "folk" than "pop". She's also said to have the ideal Komi pronunciation, which might be useful for those who plan or currently are learning the language (I heavily doubt there are many of such enthusiasts, though...)

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(not sure about that, but one of the songs in the archive (the last one) might be actually performed by Victoria Pystina, who has a similar voice and manner of singing)

Tatyana Solovyeva / Татьяна Соловьева

Here's some more Finno-Ugric pop/folk that caught my attention recently. I couldn't find much info about Tatyana Solovyeva on the net (mostly because her name is too common here), yet I managed to find out that she's a writer and a singer living in Yoshkar-Ola. Her live performance videos are hard to find too, but here you can have one:

Looks like she has a full-length album consisting of 19 tracks, but I couldn't find it anywhere, so I'll just post all her songs I managed to find by a quick search. The quality of production is varied, but it's fairly good for the most part. Genre-wise, it's just pop music with some hints of folk melodies, but it's the best Mari pop I've heard so far (apart from Marina Sadova's songs). This is also the closest thing to my Hungarian pop/folk favourites like Nox that I could find near me.

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Anna Tulla - "Lembi" [2010]

Artist: Anna Tulla

Title: Lembi

Genre: Folk/Pop

Country: Russia (Karelia)

Release date: 2010

Track List:

1. Armaz
2. Elämä on ihana
3. Ilman sinua
4. Ilta
5. Kaunis valhe
6. Ken om värnik?
7. Missä ikinä oletkaan
8. Miun rakkahus
9. Ruskei kudžu
10. Tahon
11. Tarjoilijatyttö
12. Tiedän sen
13. Tule rannale
14. Tyhjiä kujia
15. Uuši vuosi

Like in case with Ladi Sveti's EP which I posted yesterday, this album is mostly just plain pop music which I have little interest in, but I'm posting it for a different reason. You'll have a hard time searching for another album which has songs with lyrics in Vepsian and Livvi-Karelian languages, and that's what makes "Lembi" unique.

Anna Tulla was formed in 2007 in Petrozavodsk (Karelia) with a purpose to create popular music with lyrics in minor Northern Finno-Ugric languages (primarily Karelian and Vepsian). Only few people speak these languages nowadays, especially few younger ones, so the members of Anna Tulla decided to focus on club-friendly pop music that might appeal to the young crowd, rather than playing authentic folk which few young people listen to. The line-up of the band has changed over years. In 2010, Anna Tulla was led by two vocalists: Daria Kuznetsova (Karelian) and Yulia Maximova (Vepsian). The band doesn't seem to be active anymore, as they haven't released anything after "Lembi", and Daria now lives in Helsinki.

About 1/3 of songs on "Lembi" have lyrics in Finnish, and the rest are in Vepsian, Livvi-Karelian, or Karelian proper (track #9 has some verses in Russian). I personally found the tracks in Vepsian and Livvi-Karelian to be the most interesting, as the proper Karelian language is just way too similar to Finnish (especially the eastern dialects). There's no full download of "Lembi" anywhere, but you can listen to the whole album of the band's official site.

Here's also a small photo shoot of Daria and Yulia which was taken the same year "Lembi" was released (Yulia is the one wearing a purple jacket and a light blue dress, while Daria wears a red top and a short blue skirt). I think Daria's looks are more appealing to me (although I've looked into Yulia's more recent photos, and they're quite beautiful too). Daria also has very beautiful legs:

Ladi Sveti - "Веръя" [2015]

Artist: Ladi Sveti

Title: Веръя

Genre: Folk/Pop

Country: Russia (Udmurtia)

Release date: 2015

Track List:

1. Веръя
2. Пӧяд
3. Шузимемын

 Ladi Sveti is the stage name of Svetlana Ruchkina, the voice of Silent Woo Goore. Unfortunately for those who liked the "rock" side of her creative output, her solo works are just pop with some Udmurt folk influences (not much, to be honest). However, while I can't describe is as "great" or awesome", it isn't the worst kind of pop music out there (as someone has described it, "imagine Moloko singing in Udmurt language), and it's surely better than most other Udmurt pop I've heard so far (for some reason, the Udmurt folk/pop scene isn't as impressive as the Mari one). "Веръя" is a maxi-single containing 3 original tracks and 3 remixes which weren't included in here.

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Silent Woo Goore - "Питырес" [2015]

Artist: Silent Woo Goore

Title: Питырес

Genre: Folk-Rock

Country: Russia (Udmurtia)

Release date: 2015

Track List:

1. Питырес

I'm promised to post some more obscure Finno-Ugric music until the end of this year, and let me start with a new single from Silent Woo Goore. I really liked their debut "Toleźe" (2012), and having at least one new track from them after 3 years of waiting is nice for sure. Like their earlier songs, this one is heavily influenced by Udmurt folk music, and the lyrics are about how "everyone and everything has its time, and we are all subject to the passage of time" (if I understood the release notes correctly).

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félperc - "destructible world" [2009]

Artist: félperc

Title: destructible world

Genre: Post-Rock

Country: Hungary

Release date: 2009

Track List:

1. and then they pushed the button
2. clouds are fading away
3. destructible world
4. i can't see the future
5. they should probably be dead by now
6. over

For some reason, today seems to be a good day for reviewing releases from 2009, and here's an interesting discovery from Szombathely, Hungary. I decided to download this album solely because of its cover art and wasn't disappointed - while it might be not quite not as impressive as the debut album of Képzelt Város which was released the same year, it's still one of the best post-rock releases I've listened to as of late, and it does have that "spacey" atmosphere which I love in Hungarian instrumental prog-rock and post-rock. Sadly, it looks like the only member of Félperc has abandoned the project long time ago, as there were no new releases since 2010.

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Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat ‎- "Koskemattomuus" [2009]

Artist: Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat

Title: Koskemattomuus

Genre: Harsh Noise, Power Electronics

Country: Karelia

Release date: 2009

Track List:

1. Perkele!
2. Koskemattomuus
3. Tiedustelija
4. Äänisen Aallot I
5. Äänisen Aallot II
6. Totalitaarinen Valtio
7. Elämä Juoksuhaudoissa I
8. Elämä Juoksuhaudoissa II
9. Odotan Maailmanloppua

If I understand correctly, this release by Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat is some sort of a follow-up to their "Valkoinen Terrori", recorded in 2001 and released 8 years later. While "Valkoinen Terrori" was inspired by Finnish Civil War, "Koskemattomuus" seems to be inspired by the later events of Winter War and the Continuation War, and it definitely doesn't glorify such sort of events (which makes KM's attitudes resembling those of Brandkommando). This release also includes attempts of "deconstructing" some old Finnish military-related songs, in the same manner as Toroidh dealt with "Ack Värmeland Du Sköna" by Jussi Björling:

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Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat ‎– "Valkoinen Terrori" [2009]

Artist: Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat

Title: Valkoinen Terrori

Genre: Harsh Noise, Power Electronics

Country: Karelia

Release date: 2009

Track List:

1. Raja, 1918
2. Riitakysymys
3. Hukka
4. Kuolemaantuomitun Hyvästijättö
5. Valkoinen Terrori
6. Punainen Ja Valkoinen
7. Moment Of Silence

Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat are (were?) a very obscure harsh noise collective from Karelia (no idea if they're from the Russian or the Finnish part of that region). Almost everything is known about them (not too much, admittedly) is gathered on this page. If it's to be believed, they have 3 anonymous members and define their style as follows:

"Raw old-school industrial on the bones of SPK and THROBBING GRISTLE through the prism of Japanese harsh-noise and Finnish hardcore-punk. Nihilistic nightmare. Diffused synth hiss, pretentious harsh-noise arcades, crispy scurfy hateful power-electronics. Another spit into the face of rotten society and shitty system. There were a few closed gigs. Also, loads of recordings were made. Most of them have been destroyed. Some parts of tapes full of piss and vinegar have just been lost or erased during terrible hangovers. All that have been saved - works from 1997 and later. Those are sounds recorded on our 4-track. The sounds of sick buzz in our heads. Torn apart sheets of iron and stone walls of slaughterhouses spattered with blood. This is the shit rubbed in the silk white sheets of modern industrial. This is the true old-school noise! No modern bullshit and nazi crap!"

According to the same Discogs page, this particular cassette was recorded in 1999 but released only 10 years after (40 physical copies). Side B is said to be completely silent (hence the name "Moment Of Silence", but the only rip of "Valkoinen Terrori" I could find has it as a lengthy noise track. As a whole, it's easily one of the best underground noise releases I've heard so far, and the samples of old Finnish songs (the title track, for example) are nice too. Judging from the track names, the album is dedicated to the events of Finnish civil war of 1918. The band name means something like "Criminal Keepers of the Forest" (a reference to some partisans, maybe, but I don't know for sure). Expect much more obcure Finno-Urgic music to be reviewed on here in the near future, although it'll be nowhere near as noisy as KM.

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