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LP
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BNSD 080LP
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The title of the Lau Nau's tenth album, Aphrilis, derives from the Latin word aperire, meaning "to open." A fitting verb for the month of the year it is closely associated with -- April. And while the images of plants and blossoms coming back to colorful life after a long, cold winter feels appropriate when listening to the rich and lustrous bloom of music on Aphrilis, another definition of open feels even more apt. For under the abundance lies the memory of times of austerity, the friction of hard choices, the acceptance that nothing is fixed and the future is unknown. This literal and metaphorical exploration of complexity and contradiction makes Aphrilis a multi-dimensional antidote for our troubled times, one that emphasizes the quiet and communal over noise and spectacle. Laura Naukkarinen, the Finnish artist behind this project, has long kept her mind and spirit open to whatever sounds and creative ideas felt appropriate for the moment. For the past six years that has meant primarily working with modular synthesis. Running parallel to this work, however, has been a continued exploration of acoustic instruments and group performances with her trio Lau Nau ja Seitsemäs Taivas. Aphrilis arrives then like fresh growth in a creative season cycle. A companion to her brilliant 2017 release Poseidon, the album, says Naukkarinen, "felt like a needed moment to embrace songs with lyrics again." And through the creation of this work, she remained open not only to her own creative muse, but also the input of her chosen collaborators. Each player on Aphrilis -- Matti Bye on celesta and synths, Pekko Käppi on jouhikko, Hermanni Yli-Tepsa on violin and contrabass, Topias Tiheäsalo on electric guitar, Samuli Kosminen (Múm) on various instruments -- was given free reign to arrange their own parts to accompany Naukkarinen's compositions. Kosminen's lush fingerprint can also be heard in the mixing and production of the album, as with Poseidon six years ago. The moniker of this project may be taken from Naukkarinen's own name, but Lau Nau feels more like a band than ever before. RIYL: Múm, Amina, Björk, Espers, Julia Holter, Ólöf Arnalds, Sigur Ros.
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BNSD 080X-LP
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LP version. Color vinyl. The title of the Lau Nau's tenth album, Aphrilis, derives from the Latin word aperire, meaning "to open." A fitting verb for the month of the year it is closely associated with -- April. And while the images of plants and blossoms coming back to colorful life after a long, cold winter feels appropriate when listening to the rich and lustrous bloom of music on Aphrilis, another definition of open feels even more apt. For under the abundance lies the memory of times of austerity, the friction of hard choices, the acceptance that nothing is fixed and the future is unknown. This literal and metaphorical exploration of complexity and contradiction makes Aphrilis a multi-dimensional antidote for our troubled times, one that emphasizes the quiet and communal over noise and spectacle. Laura Naukkarinen, the Finnish artist behind this project, has long kept her mind and spirit open to whatever sounds and creative ideas felt appropriate for the moment. For the past six years that has meant primarily working with modular synthesis. Running parallel to this work, however, has been a continued exploration of acoustic instruments and group performances with her trio Lau Nau ja Seitsemäs Taivas. Aphrilis arrives then like fresh growth in a creative season cycle. A companion to her brilliant 2017 release Poseidon, the album, says Naukkarinen, "felt like a needed moment to embrace songs with lyrics again." And through the creation of this work, she remained open not only to her own creative muse, but also the input of her chosen collaborators. Each player on Aphrilis -- Matti Bye on celesta and synths, Pekko Käppi on jouhikko, Hermanni Yli-Tepsa on violin and contrabass, Topias Tiheäsalo on electric guitar, Samuli Kosminen (Múm) on various instruments -- was given free reign to arrange their own parts to accompany Naukkarinen's compositions. Kosminen's lush fingerprint can also be heard in the mixing and production of the album, as with Poseidon six years ago. The moniker of this project may be taken from Naukkarinen's own name, but Lau Nau feels more like a band than ever before. RIYL: Múm, Amina, Björk, Espers, Julia Holter, Ólöf Arnalds, Sigur Ros.
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BNSD 075LP
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5 x 4 is a new solo collection from award-winning Finnish composer, producer, and musician Laura Naukkarinen, recorded at Elektronmusikstudion EMS in Stockholm using the historic Buchla 200 modular synthesizer, an AKG BX20 spring reverb, and, on two songs, her voice. The album shows yet another side of her singular musical universe, by turns aquatic and meditative, always pulsing with energy. Lau Nau's ninth solo album, 5 x 4 is being released by her longtime co-conspirators Fonal (Finland) and Beacon Sound (US). Composed and recorded at EMS over a period of five years, the title is a reference to the Buchla's sequencer, which has five steps and four tracks, thus creating the characteristic five-beat tempo behind the compositions. The eight tracks that comprise 5 x 4 fluctuate between different moods: the contemplative hum of "Isopoda"; the coral-like tones and lush vocal melodies of lead single "Sessilia"; and the carbonated radiance of "Hyperiidea" and "Amphipoda". RIYL: Laurie Spiegel's Expanding Universe, Hiroshi Yoshimura's Green.
Artist statement: "I've been composing for five years at Elektronmusikstudion's Buchla. When I started the project, I wanted to compose about the change in the living conditions of plankton in the Baltic Sea and the variation in their biomass, but soon the logic and sound of the instrument took me with it. I started composing music for marine life, forgetting all the strict boundaries of the subject. The world of crustaceans and zooplankton opens up in the music: darkness and the light filtered by the eutrophicated sea alternate under the surface, the salinity of the sea varies and the turbidity of the water makes the observations soft and without contours."
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BNSD 027LP
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Finnish artist Laura Naukkarinen returns with her fourth album as Lau Nau and her first for Beacon Sound. Poseidon is a suite of delicate, wise songs that exist in a world all their own, treading the line between chamber folk and experimental pop with a distinctly Scandinavian melancholy. Centered around Laura's beautiful voice and piano (with lyrics sung entirely in Finnish), the album also includes a small cast of guest musicians on electronics, cello, bowed lyre, clarinet, harmonium, and more. Each song is a gem of its own, with lustrous melodies spun from the web of seasons, by turns ghostly and earthy. In Laura's own words: "I was playing with my grandmother's piano and shortly realized that I was composing songs are beginning for a new Lau Nau album instead of the film music that I was working on. The songs wanted to be performed on stage by a character called Lau Nau. It's the melancholic, always dreaming part of me that stands on the stage and shares these fragile moments with the audience. The songs on Poseidon are small secular prayers and messages of love, sorrow and care. Poseidon is a god of the sea but also the name of a certain bar... He veils us in the fog when the night falls." RIYL: Múm, El Perro Del Mar, Bjork, Efterklang. Design by Bijan Berahimi and Christine Shen for FISK. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll. Includes double-sided insert with lyrics in both Finnish and English and download card; Edition of 600.
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CD
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FR 101CD
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Hem. Någonstans is the fourth album by Lau Nau. This time she takes us to the fleeting borderline between contemporary classical and experimental music, true to her idiosyncratic style. The electroacoustic orchestrations pilot the listener through an archipelago of cloud constellations to rest on massive pillows of sound. Pekko Käppi, the emperor of the jouhikko (a traditional Finnish string instrument), plays all of the string arrangements on Hem. Någonstans. The album is an instrumental soundtrack to Lotta Petronella's 2015 documentary HOME. Somewhere, a boldly poetic film that takes place on the most remote islands of Finland, asking the question, "Will the human soul ever find a home?" Lau Nau's music adds its soul to the film and acts as its fourth character, alongside the three main subjects. Laura Naukkarinen aka Lau Nau (born 1980) is one of the more interesting names in the Finnish music scene. She composes, records, and produces her music mainly by herself. Her first solo albums were released in the US by Locust Music (Kuutarha (2004) and Nukkuu (2008)), and she has been touring the world ever since. Lau Nau began composing film music by accompanying silent films and contemporary dance and theater. Her original score for Jan Forsström's 2013 film Silmäterä (The Princess of Egypt) was nominated for a Jussi Award for Best Music, and her 2012 album Valohiukkanen (FR 088CD/LP) was nominated for the Teosto Prize, one of the most prestigious art prizes in the Nordic countries. At the time of this release, Lau Nau tours and plays concerts in a family-friendly tempo and accompanies silent films while working on her next album and preparing compositions for theater.
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FR 088CD
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Recorded in 2011 on Kemiö Island, in Turku, Tampere and Stockholm, this is Lau Nau's long-awaited third LP, Valohiukkanen. An articulate work of delicate beauty featuring nine new Lau Nau originals and one cover version, it is adorned by an array of instrumentation, and enhanced by the integration of rhythm and percussion -- a thing rarely heard on Lau Nau albums. Although it's safe to say the mood is still firmly rooted in the shadowy side of life, we are occasionally taken to a disco -- yet that, too, sounds as if it may have been organized by Death. Tonally and texturally rich and immersive, the new record includes contributions from Pekko Käppi on jouhikko, Jaakko Tolvi on drums, Antti Tolvi on bass and alto clarinet, Kristian Holmgren on guitar, synths and percussion and Matti Bye on grand piano and celesta. The cover photographs were taken by renowned Finnish photographer Susanna Majuri, as part of her "Imaginary Homeland" series. Lau Nau is the musical alias and persona of Laura Naukkarinen. Her debut album, Kuutarha, won acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork and Dusted, with The Wire naming the LP amongst their top 50 albums of 2005, and citing her Philadelphia show of that year amongst "60 concerts that shook the world." Valohiukkanen continues the path laid down by her previous records, but if her psych-folk roots are still visible then the branches are further reaching, the music imbued with a timeless, cinematic breadth of vision. Retaining her penchant for a fragile, spectral other-ness, these 10 interrelated snapshots draw the listener towards Naukkarinen's idiosyncratic, finely-honed sound-world, unconsciously paralleling other luminaries such as Smog, Sigur Rós, or Linda Perhacs with her singular sense of purpose.
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LP
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FR 088LP
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LP version. Recorded in 2011 on Kemiö Island, in Turku, Tampere and Stockholm, this is Lau Nau's long-awaited third LP, Valohiukkanen. An articulate work of delicate beauty featuring nine new Lau Nau originals and one cover version, it is adorned by an array of instrumentation, and enhanced by the integration of rhythm and percussion -- a thing rarely heard on Lau Nau albums. Although it's safe to say the mood is still firmly rooted in the shadowy side of life, we are occasionally taken to a disco -- yet that, too, sounds as if it may have been organized by Death. Tonally and texturally rich and immersive, the new record includes contributions from Pekko Käppi on jouhikko, Jaakko Tolvi on drums, Antti Tolvi on bass and alto clarinet, Kristian Holmgren on guitar, synths and percussion and Matti Bye on grand piano and celesta. The cover photographs were taken by renowned Finnish photographer Susanna Majuri, as part of her "Imaginary Homeland" series. Lau Nau is the musical alias and persona of Laura Naukkarinen. Her debut album, Kuutarha, won acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork and Dusted, with The Wire naming the LP amongst their top 50 albums of 2005, and citing her Philadelphia show of that year amongst "60 concerts that shook the world." Valohiukkanen continues the path laid down by her previous records, but if her psych-folk roots are still visible then the branches are further reaching, the music imbued with a timeless, cinematic breadth of vision. Retaining her penchant for a fragile, spectral other-ness, these 10 interrelated snapshots draw the listener towards Naukkarinen's idiosyncratic, finely-honed sound-world, unconsciously paralleling other luminaries such as Smog, Sigur Rós, or Linda Perhacs with her singular sense of purpose.
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