Värttinä enchantresses shine at Savoy concert

Tolkien brings dark flavour to band's music

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By Pirkko Kotirinta
     
      It started with the title track, and ended with the wild Riena. At its first Helsinki gig since the release of their new album Miero, the Finnish folk/world music group Värttinä had to give two encores.
     
Miero was released in late January. In the meantime the band had gone to Toronto, Canada, to celebrate the theatre spectacle The Lord of the Rings, which had been worked on for a long time. Värttinä composed the music for the massive production along with the Indian A.R. Rahman.
      Reviews of The Lord of the Rings have been mixed, but any possible harm to Värttinä will have been mitigated by the fact that the band itself is on a very strong roll, and is in great demand around the world.
      For instance, the band recently got confirmation for its booking at the Womad Festival in Britain in July.
     
The group's strengths were apparent at the concert at Helsinki's Savoy Theatre. The few slight missteps in harmonisation did not hurt the pace of this versatile mix of new and at best excellent songs.
      The array of music extends from the moving Maaria, which extends its reach to beyond this world, to the tauntingly seductive Lumotar - literally "Enchantress" - in which the on-stage radiance of the three Värttinä blondes exudes its most honeyed charm.
     
The women are also capable of a shifting into a completely different, downright diabolical gear, when the trio performs songs typified by serpentine hisses and curses, such as Riena, Synti, as well as Äijö from the earlier album Ilmatar.
      In the arrangements of these pieces the group makes excellent use of old Finno-Ugric strong words, which the singers take full advantage of, using their entire bodies to express the feeling.
      Drummer Jaska Luukkarinen deservedly got the loudest applause for his solo during the instrumental interlude of the boys in the band. All others also spiced the whole with wonderful contrast and juicy detail.
      Taken from the older repertoire were Sepän poika, as well as Tuulilta tuleva, the opening track of the album Kokko (1996), with an arrangement updated for the Värttinä of the present day.
      Some of the vocals were channelled through some kind of a filter, which created an exciting archive-type echo to the singing - a good effect, when used sparingly. There was also efficient thickness and body in Ottajat.
     
After the echoes of Erama, sung a cappella in three-part harmony, the gig started its very compelling final surge. Lumotar, with its pop sound, was followed by a scary new arrangement of Vihma, and the wonderfully dark Riena, the opening track of the newest album
      The magnificent evening showed that the trips to Toronto were not in vain. Thanks in part to the Tolkien world, the Värttinä sound has found new lustre and darker tones.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 13.4.2006


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finger of fate pointed Lord of the Rings music towards Finland (28.3.2006)
  Finnish-fuelled Lord of the Rings is magnificent stage spectacle (24.3.2006)
  Finnish folk band excited at stage version of Lord of the Rings (23.3.2006)

Links:
  Värttinä website

PIRKKO KOTIRINTA / Helsingin Sanomat
pirkko.kotirinta@hs.fi