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Duo Ruut: Ilmateade review – soft psych-folk channels hazy days and snowy rides | Jude Rogers' folk album of the month
The pair play with the traditions of Baltic Finnic runo song to explore the connections between the weather and emotion, giving ancient forms crossover potential
Playing with the texts and repetitive motifs of runo song, a form of traditional oral poetry specific to the Baltic Finnic languages, their music holds a glistening minimalism in its rhythms and a crossover sheen in its sound. Good entry points include the earwormy melancholia of Vilud Ilmad (Gloomy Weather) and the itchy handclaps, in five beats to the bar, propelling us through Suvi Rannas (Summer on the Beach), in which we’re told, in Estonian, of days hot with horseflies and a sky broad and bare. Their new album, Evigheten Forestår (Eternity Imagines), collects slåttetralling(Norwegian vocal dance tune improvisations) from across their homeland, their tones by turns spiky, perky, sad and sacred.
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