Smokey Visages
I don't have much information on these guys besides what their press release says: that the band is Juha Tuukkanen and Terhi Koivisto, from Finland. They met in Helsinki and worked on ideas for music for ages - Juha having been interested in producing electronic music since the age of twelve, and Terhi intrigued by her mothers' singing to her as a child...
Anyway, the result of years of work together is Wall Of Soul: fourteen tracks of funky, soulful, modern jazz flavored with electronics and a flair for the cinematic, not unlike Germany's Jazzanova, or the UK's Cinematic Orchestra or Nostalgia 77 (who you may have heard here). All the music is composed by Juha with various musicians playing the instruments, and horn arrangements by Mikko Pettinen and Antti Hynninen, and Terhi's honey-dipped-soul vocals on a third of the tracks.
I know that's not much to go on, and I apologize because I usually like to really dig deep into what I post. What I was able to dig up is that the Norden (meaning Finland, Iceland and Scandanavia - no Finland is NOT part of Scandanavia) music scenes are so genuinely rich with all kinds of music, from folk music that differs by country and region within country, to the northern jazz scene, to modern pop music that can be tracked from ABBA to Annie. The richness of the history of Finland's music scene alone is incredible - check this page out for a small slice of mod Finnish musical history.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: there must be something in the water or in the air up there in the north. Or maybe it's the fact that the sun is in the sky 24 hours a day for part of the summer.
Anyway, Spyritual's dark, smokey, quirky and jazzy album comes out next month on MFR fav's Kitty-Yo, and if you're into it do check it out - I am definitely feeling it at the moment, because, you know, sometimes it's kind of nice to listen to some deep, mournful sounding tunes.