Tenhi
Väre

Breath whispers / squeezes salty drops / raindrop furrows my hollow face / sea waves / cut through the void / pouring down with suffering. [Vastakaiun]

This is the poetic and brief text of the opener of this work, perhaps these few verses would be enough to realize and understand the tormented vision that pervades the entire work in question.
The Tenhi, good Finns as they are, clearly let themselves be assisted by the synergy between man and environment, by symbolisms captured in nature in the description of painful human experience, painting with pure strokes of mournful cadence, the winter cold of the tundra and at the same time the intangible consistency of the human soul.
Listening to this CD without accompanying it with the contemplation of the snow falling beyond the window panes means savoring an ethereal masterpiece only halfway.

These sounds have the incredible ability to describe every single snowflake that falls from a gloomy sky, dressed in a uniform gray. The small and light white flakes that, with the electricity of the coldest air, slowly descend and then rise again, giving their fate to the breeze, remaining suspended in the air for endless moments, almost as if they didn't want to settle on the ground and join the others on the cold soil. The larger and aesthetically perfect ones, however, fall, subject to a more direct path, too bulky and heavy to resist gravity, ending their life more quickly. Others, only half-crystallized, follow the liquid part, falling vertically, offering a brief and sharp presence in the void.

The trio from Kemi (Finnish Lapland) opens the album with 'Vastakaiun', almost eight minutes of funerary tempos marked by a minimalist drum and ultra-cadenced bass among scattered tears of strings and piano, all occasionally enlivened only by a flute. In this white tundra of emotions frozen in time, Saarikko's mournful and rare verses resonate almost whispered, in slow motion, like muffled solitary steps on a thin layer of white crystals at the edge of a frozen lake.

In the subsequent 'Jäljen' and 'Vilja', in addition to the already mentioned instruments, there are warm chisels of acoustic guitar, like fog pushed by a cold and light wind, caressing the snow-covered ground, brushing solitary trees with bare branches reaching up to the sky, yearning for ancestral answers. Following 'Keväin' and 'Yötä' (= 'Night') are dark chapters illuminated only by the light of some eternally slow and melancholy verses.
'Suortuva' and 'Tenhi' are intertwined as a single work in two acts, with strings (Inka Eerola: Violin; Eleonora Lundell: Viola; Kirsikka Siik: Cello) prevailing over the other instruments in the first, and acoustic guitars in the instrumental track that bears the band's name, which remains one of the most appreciable chapters of the album.
'Sutoi' first and 'Katve' then foresee novelties initially almost rapid from the acoustic guitars, always intertwined with the presence of the flute but also of other instruments that give a more folk touch to the sounds, seasoned with a harp and a didgeridoo, remain dark and resonate with tribal echoes.
The following 'Varis Eloinen' with a tormented mood, also with a tribal flavor, is just a dark prelude to the closing 'Kuolleesi Jokeen', ethereal and ideal for closing a work with somber shades that translates the fragile human knowledge into music.

Ancient and melancholic atmospheres, characterized by a dark, icy environment, but at the same time warming and fascinating the soul of those who reflect in it, giving them comfort. This is Tenhi, this is Väre.
Pure goth-folk-ambient art, like a poem where the soul finds itself and feels its most intimate nature.

TRACKLIST:
1) Vastakaiun (07:58)
2) Jäljen (04:54)
3) Vilja (04:59)
4) Keväin (02:24)
5) Yötä (05:26)
6) Suortuva (07:01)
7) Tenhi (06:14)
8) Sutoi (05:54)
9) Katve (03:08)
10) Varis Eloinen (06:37)
11) Kuolleesi Jokeen (03:04)