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Recently the Tallinn-based folk and acoustic label Ounaviks published a new compilation - "Toatuur 2" - that brings together eighteen performers from across the country, including several who've been showcased here before, such as Spice Mouse or Mari Kalkun. The first "Toatuur" compilation had been designed to gather "troubadours, home-based recording artists, and electroacoustic freaks"; this new album continues very much in the same vein. Any romantic, wandering spirit inherent in these opening remarks has already been set in motion by a series of live shows, not only in Tallinn, but also in Viljandi - a location connected with other Estonian artists we've celebrated, like Argo Vals.
Troubadours, home-based recording artists, and electroacoustic freaks
Ounaviks itself was founded in 2003 as a small, yet dedicated operation and the first "Toatuur" CD had come to light in 2006. The importance of another audio-gathering in 2011 could not, therefore, be overstated as a calendrical or archival statement, as least for the label's faithful employees. It's through these expressions of joint effort (come what may) that Ounaviks and its founder - Villem Valme - are able to both exhibit the enduring importance of a folk tradition and document the willingness of young performers to build a related local, if not national scene.
Valme, in fact, speaks of this new CD as "one story with eighteen authors." The quiet, consoling and joint narrative on display here may be profoundly lyrical in nature, but it requires a wide range of storytellers. Individual expression in a group setting.
Mari Kalkun, now nationally known in her own right, was instrumental in bringing these sounds together with Mr. Valme; they, in turn, were aided by Lauri Sommer (aka Kago) and Ramo Teder (Pastacas). Kalkun hosts a regular show on Estonian radio and was looking for new or promising voices to champion en masse, especially because at least one of the "Toatuur 2" participants has now emigrated to Canada.
Not only were sounds collected and showcased as one. The album's artwork (above) is a related jumble of tiny, easily forgettable objects that only create a joint impression of some consequence. Each artist was asked to contribute a personal item; all eighteen objects were then photographed for a fold-out CD cover. The resulting paper sheet can also be refolded in a number of ways, thus changing the front-facing artwork each time. Put differently, the compilation has no one star, no fixed center, and ultimately embodies a quiet, contented expression of parity.
One story with eighteen authors
These personal bits and pieces include a postage stamp, tea pot, wooden stool, compass, keychain, dead moth(!), toothbrush, windscreen wipers, and so on... (If that series can indeed be extended in any logical fashion.) Forming a miniature, mobile exhibition, the same bits and pieces have even traveled on tour together, promoting "Toatuur 2" as they do so. The staff at Ounaviks have likewise printed up a small number of t-shirts, celebrating the same bric-a-brac worldview.
Throwaway objects hope to make a striking impression.
The two artists stepping forth as the CD's promotional flag-bearers are Silver Sepp and Juhan Vihterpal. Sepp was born in 1982 and performs in a number of local ensembles, such as Rotoro, Svjata Vatra, and reggae collective Bombillaz. Rotoro, by way of additional context, involves a wide range of traditional Estonian pipers such that traditional, antique tunes are interwoven with passages of contemporary improvisation. Sepp approaches his craft as percussionist in a related manner: he reuses everyday objects - most famously bicycle wheels - in order to build modern, idiosyncratic instruments, and then shows schoolchildren how to construct equally appealing, "harmonious" tools from other forgettable junk.
The connections here with both Ounaviks' own raison d'etre and even the cover art of "Toatuur 2" are clear. Tradition is kept alive thanks to collective, underfunded(!), yet enthusiastic groupings, all of them adhering to conservative practice while granting the maximum room possible to individual and/or modern-day liberties. A local heritage allows both for the creation of novelty and a sense of enduring purpose.
Juhan Vihterpal, also a multi-instrumentalist, plays in the ensemble Rotsup, where folk, reggae, and trip-hop come together in witty patterns. The appeal of these clever yet respectful melanges has already reached neighboring lands, in that Vihterpal has collaborated with the West German Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra.
Operating with a similar sweep across borders and generic boundaries is the new compilation from Ukraine's Ultra Vague Recordings, which - as with Ounaviks - is the second in a hopefully lengthy series. The label's staff declare from the outset: "This second compilation is less trip-hop oriented than our debut. This time around we're offering you all sorts of sub-genres, from indie-folk or rock to indietronica. Thus we hope to show listeners Ultra Vague's growing roster of young and under-appreciated artists."
A growing roster of young and under-appreciated artists
The validation of a minor, lyrical register is extended here, even with the help of those Ultra Vague artists we've discussed before, such as Tinavie, Pur:Pur, Tanya Balakyrska, and Indie-Ya. From Dnipropetrovsk, for example, we find the outfit Frost Nova, also investigated on a prior occasion. They reappear this week, continuing the development what they like to call "neuro-pop" - a kind of nervous twitching in anticipation of something else (and bigger). Ultimately, though, the appeal of UV's catalog and general activity lies in the nurturing of a gentle, lyrical tone, rather than anything bombastic.
That's best shown by looking at some of the newer names here, since many of the performers have only a minimal web presence and are best known to (mere) friends, neighbors... or those folks who simply happen to live nearby.
Sophie Villy (Kiev)
A good example would be Sophie Villy, a young singer-songwriter with family connections to both Kiev and Tbilisi. Rather than make any overt or confident statement about her work, she instead employs a couple of press quotes. Whatever their abstractions (or stereotypes, even), these observations at least set the tone for a restrained, understated kind of enterprise. Translated back from the Russian, one of the quotes reads: "These songs transmit warmth from the very first chords. Sophie openly shares that warmth with others through her music. She's the same in person, too: both sincere and penetrating."
One can imagine how the paragraph continues.
A warmth from the very first chords
It's an appealing register, however, and is certainly extended through the sort of (miniature) self-presentation we see from other contributors - for example from Kharkov's Maria Group. Working with the downtempo, diminutive formats of "jazz, lounge... and something as light as clouds," the band's members nonetheless promise a display of "genuine emotion, profound sorrow, and an open heart." According to the same rationale, songs performed with volume and pathos lack all three qualities.
And so the ensemble's representatives move on as quietly as possible, penning sentimental melodies "along the rivers of your memory...": Mariia (vocals, keyboards), Evgenii Abin (saxophone), Konstantin Shepelenko (drums), and Evgenii Chernobrovkin (bass) - not to mention additional colleagues, friends, and admirers.
This general and genial trajectory - away from noisy self-celebration towards a kind of sentimental essentialism - is drawn even more clearly by the band Soulmama, currently based in St. Petersburg. Known to northern audiences through performances at both jazz and rock festivals, they claim their creative DNA to be a thematic or lyrical interface of "motherhood, homeland, and the spirit of Frida Kahlo." One might argue that once any such emotions, familial metaphors, or visual reference points are employed (from non-Slavic cultures!), there seems little need for language. A maudlin, yet attractive inclusiveness comes to the fore. And sure enough, we hear from the Krivoi Rog duo Eskiz Koda that they like to be known - quite simply - as Madre and Padre. "There's no need for any dictionaries or any interpreters in order to understand the musical language of this twosome."
Songs of motherhood, homeland, and the spirit of Frida Kahlo
The Ounaviks compilation uses noiseless, domestic bric-a-brac to symbolize its kindly, simple workings. The artists on the Ultra Vague collection, with links to Ukrainian, Georgian, and Russian locations, find a common language in sentimental musings. In fact, as we see, it's only through less noise or a flight from promotional clamor that they hope to underscore some of the heartfelt notions lacking in modern shoptalk. Hence, perhaps, the rationale of both compilations. They present and celebrate such quiet artists or outlooks that group enterprise is the only way to be heard.
And that brings us back to the pedagogical vein within both projects. Both Ounaviks and Ultra Vague endorse the kind of musicians who hope to foster and further an inherently collective form of expression - sometimes by tutoring the next, even smaller generation of singers.
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