Laulu Laakson Kukista

VINYL FORMAT. Insound Staff Pick - 2008! This is the highly-anticipated second full-length release on Fonal Records from Finland's Paavoharju, a collective formed around two brothers -- Lauri and Olli Ainala and their troupe of associates. The group is a collective project of ascetic born-again Christians. Laulu Laakson Kukista (A Song About Flowers of the Valley) evokes the sounds of raindrops falling on a sheet metal roof melting together with an old television's random dot-pattern noise. Backwards pianos, backwards vocals, tilted organ and baroque beats lean against sweeping operatic soundscapes and gossamer back-porch folk singalongs. Leena Uotila's soft voice echoes in empty, dusty rooms. Cat-owls gather to the skies, apple trees are blooming and waves rock a barrel against the pier. Suddenly all this started to form esoteric mildew to cassette's magnetic tape. Mind-bending devotional rock-opera from the deepest Finnish forests.