Tenhi - Maaäet (2006)

Tenhi is a three person collective from Finland that makes absolutely breathtaking folk, classical and piano based music that I've been enjoying immensely for the past five years. Compared to a lot of the bands in the current neo folk scene, Tenhi has a sound that’s very complex sounding with intricate guitar work plus the addition of drums/percussions, bass, grand piano, harmonium, synth, violin, flute and vocals. Most of the songs are very tranquil, relaxing, melancholy and mysterious sounding and truly teleports the listeners mind to places they may or may not have been before. All songs titles and lyrics are wrote in the beautiful Finnish language and despite my lack of understanding these words I still feel that they speak to my inner soul and tell me of wonderful places and times.

After what was a four year span between this and their previous album, 'Väre' Tenhi made a triumphant return with, 'Maaäet' in 2006. Again, its a richly beautiful experience, spanning twelve songs at just a few seconds over an hour in length, and quite honestly its their finest creation to date.

This time around though things are much darker, melancholic and calmer sounding, while retaining some of the more up tempo moments from previous recordings. Most of the time the music primarily consists of just acoustic guitars, violins or piano, light drumming, and softly sung vocals, but there are moments where the music will take a sudden twist and becomes louder and slightly faster.

I’m always really impressed by just how gorgeous, distinctive, and stylish sounding Tenhi’s music is, and this album is certainly no different. These guys are definitely at the top of their class, and it seems with each recording they keep getting better. I don’t think it will take any more than one listen to this album or any Tenhi recording for that matter to realize this. One thing I did notice though is that this particular album sounds a bit better with headphones on. It seems to fully capture the atmosphere and you get the rich gripping feelings the band intended you to feel. It also creates the effect of vocalist Tyko Saarikko speaking directly to you as the songs progress onwards.

The album also comes housed in a digipak with a half sized booklet, which has various stunning paintings by Tyko himself as well as both the Finnish lyrics and their English translations for those that might be curious to know what the songs are about, though personally I've never read the translations before.

Maaäet surely comes off as one engaging and mighty fine album, which I've enjoyed tremendously over the past four years. Tenhi doesn't release music very often, but when they do you just know it's going to be something special. Last year the band lost long time member Ilkka Salaminen and they now continue on as a two piece, which makes me ever more curious to hear the long awaited new recording, 'Saivo,' which is still in production. If you've never heard Tenhi I highly suggest Maaäet, Väre or their debut, Kauan.