Mullova, Philharmonia, Järvi, RFH review – clear paths through the forest

★★★★★ MULLOVA, PHILHARMONIA, JÄRVI, RFH Clear paths through the forest

Familiar works refreshed as precision joins passion

Visit Ainola, Sibelius’s woodland house by Lake Tuusula north of Helsinki, and you’ll be told the story of the green stove. It appears that the famously synaesthetic Finnish composer identified the shade of his heating installation with the key of F major.

CD: Susanna & The Brotherhood of Our Lady - Garden of Earthly Delights

Hieronymus Bosch inspires a creepy commentary on present times

Lyrics such as “are we hunting for life among misery, Satan have pity on my long distress” and “we’re on a ship of fools, sails laughing and singing to hell” telegraph that, as a commentary on the present, Garden of Earthly Delights isn’t painting a rosy picture.

theartsdesk Q&A: Hedvig Mollestad, Norway's bridge between heavy metal and jazz

THEARTSDESK Q&A: HEDVIG MOLLESTAD Norway's bridge between heavy metal and jazz

The genre-busting guitarist talks about new album 'Smells Funny', a rotting eyeball and more

Norway’s Hedvig Mollestad Trio reset the dial to what jazz fusion sought to do when it emerged, and do so in such a way that it’s initially unclear whether they are a jazz-influenced heavy metal outfit or jazzers plunging feet-first into metal.

Hannigan, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - the sublime and the beautiful

Music of grandeur and delicacy from the Nordic lands

With the London Symphony Orchestra often playing like some commanding and relentless force of nature, Sir Simon Rattle steered two mighty avalanches of Nordic sound into a concert of granitic authority last night. However, I suspect that many people will have left a packed Barbican thinking most of the uncanny winter wonderland that separated these two mountainous symphonies.

CD: Jaakko Eino Kalevi - Out of Touch

Prolific Finnish sonic auteur favours style over impact

Out of Touch hinges on the yearning “Conceptual Mediterranean (Part 1)”, the seventh of its ten tracks. At this point, over two-thirds of the way into the album the yacht rock via early Eighties, late-night blue-eyed soul amalgam has bedded in to such a degree it’s become possible to home in on the song rather than its conceptual foundations. Way back, decades ago, the track could have passed for a Hall & Oates demo but here in the early 21st century it’s a triumph of putting theory into practice.

CD: Teksti-TV 666 - Aidattu Tulevaisuus

★★★★ CD: TEKSTI-TV 666 - AIDATTU TULEVAISUUS Finnish reimagining of familiar touchstones

Intense, inventive and impactful Finnish reimagining of familiar touchstones

Finland’s Teksti-TV 666 set their musical stall with 2016’s 1,2,3 album, which collected the tracks from their three EPs to date. Now, with their first album proper Aidattu Tulevaisuus, the nature of what they are comes into even sharper focus. In essence, they merge the attack of My Bloody Valentine and “Death Valley 69” Sonic Youth with a punk rock urgency and Krautrock motorik drive.