Sometimes when I listen to music, I enjoy emulating a real image, a situation seen up close, a kind of photographic projection of the music contained on the record I'm listening to. Perhaps this happens because sometimes I download music from the internet and don't even bother to look at the cover. This gesture is not driven by the tiny part of me that feels like a pirate, but by the overwhelming part of me that loves music, which urges me to listen as soon as the download is complete, or rather, the folder...

In this case, the album originates from Finland, a country that conveys coldness just by pronouncing its name. Finland... Brrrrrrrr. Consequently, the climate in this photo will be freezing. Marras (I believe it means November) is the first LP by October Falls, a solo project by Mikko Lehto. October falls, November, solitary, I might even add a touch of melancholy. The tracks have no names; they are all renamed with numbers, which will make my imagination a bit banal.

In almost all the tracks, the main theme is an intertwining of harmonious and icy classical guitar arpeggios, sad yet celestial. The piano accompanies them with majestic darkness, and in the most emotional moments, the snare keeps you tense and focused. It's truly melancholic but not so much as to make me see wolves in the slightly snow-covered forest where I'm imagining an introverted walk. The flute melodies feel like relief, and here in the forest, a ray of sunlight appears, hitting a leaf with a bit of snow on it; I see it melting, and a large drop falls.... Click! That's the image. A snow-covered leaf struck by a sunbeam that melts the snow, causing only one drop to fall.

This is the impact. A second, calmer, more reflective vision makes me notice something inside the drop. I zoom in. It's a splendid specimen of a Finnish woman. If this were part of a novel, I would describe her entirely (something like... her legs were as smooth as the sky or the two dimples in the lower part of her velvety back captivated my eyes) but since this is just a review, I'll simply tell you that she's running, as if she's escaping....

There you have it, this is the true image of Finnish apocalyptic folk that I've constructed. Definitive. 

The silliness of the review assures you it is not present in the album. 

Tracklist

01   Marras I (06:16)

02   Marras II (03:50)

03   Marras III (03:18)

04   Marras IV (01:56)

05   Marras V (03:17)

06   Marras VI (04:00)

07   Marras VII (04:12)

08   Marras VIII (05:12)

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