Kauan - "Sorni Nai" [2015]

Artist: Kauan

Title: Sorni Nai

Genre: Atmospheric Doom Metal, Post-Rock

Country: Russia

Release date: 2015

Track List:

1. akva
2. kit
3. khurum
4. nila
5. at
6. khot
7. sat

To finish with the topic of Finno-Ugric music, here's a recently released album of a band from Urals (Chelyabinsk) named Kauan (just like one of the best Tenhi albums, right). I don't know if the band members have Finno-Ugric ancestry, but at least I don't know any other Russian metal band whose lyrics are entirely in Finnish. However, this particular album is named after a creature in Mansi mythology, and the track names are just their numbers in Mansi language. The music on "Sorni Nai" is post-rock for the most part, but it's still heavy enough to be counted as metal. Many metal review sites have praised this album as a masterpiece, and while I won't call it as such, I still can say that I enjoyed it a lot and I hope you'll do so too.

Second To Sun - "The First Chapter" [2015]

Artist: Second To Sun

Title: The First Chapter

Genre: Progressive/Math Metal, Post-Black Metal

Country: Russia

Release date: 2015

Track List:

1. Spirit Of Kusoto
2. Red Snow
3. Me Or Him
4. Land Of The Fearless Birds
5. The Blood Libel
6. Narčat
7. Virgo Mitt
8. Chokk Kapper (Bonus Track)
9. Narčat (Demo Version, Bonus Track)

A full-length alfum from S2S, following their "Three Fairy Tales" EP which I posted here not long ago. While the cover art betrays the band's "core" roots, and their music still can be considered mathcore/"modern metal", there's a clear influence of atmospheric black metal on "The First Chapter", and Vladimir Klimov-Lehtinen himself insists on calling his music "black metal". As much as I dislike his pretentious and arrogant attitude (which shows up in this discussion, for instance), it's sadly not uncommon among both progressive metal and black metal musicians, and it doesn't stop me from enjoying the music itself.

Like the earlier S2S releases, "The First Chapter" is entirely instrumental, but each track is supposed to be based on some story from the history of Finno-Ugric peoples. Not sure if F/U-themed metal is really becoming popular on here, as some people say, but S2S surely made a good contribution to that scene.

Messier - "Rõõmurikkuja" [1998]

Artist: Messier

Title: Rõõmurikkuja

Genre: Neofolk

Country: Estonia

Release date: 1998

Track List:

1. Rõõmurikkuja
2. Hani
3. Keskaja kaitseks
4. Vahepala
5. Enne hommikut
6. Hoge jage
7. Kui nad olid...
8. Lõpu lugu

A really obscure neofolk oddity from the 1990's Estonia. This is a cassette demo which I found in this blog (a very good one, by the way). The music is quite nice to my ears even despite the low production quiality, but I don't even know what to think about these vocals... Anyway, if you're interested, you can find the download links in the blog that I mentioned above.

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...)

Download
(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.

Download

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.

Download

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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