Barry Andrewsin Disko is a pseudonymn of Jukka Herva. Hailing from Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland and the current home of Santa Claus, Jukka now lives now in Turku, Finland. Barry Andrewsin Disko (Barry Andrews’ Disco) doesn’t have anything to do with the keyboard player of XTC or the Irish politician of the same name. The moniker comes from Christmas albums Jukka made as a teenager as presents for his buddies, a wryly humorous acronym that belies the care and attention to detail that has become synonymous with the name. These are the roots of his music that you can now hear on his debut album ‘Kuka siellä?’ (‘Who’s there?’).
B.A.D.’s music is a multilayered, wobbly, hissy, filtered take on pop. Jukka utilizes a variety of instruments, from 80s synths, to samplers, drum machines, drums, cassettes and guitars to name a few. In Finland he is often cited as being a cross between Risto and Paavoharju. He also shares similarities with the open-hearted pastoral psychedelia of Syd Barrett (or perhaps more specifically cult Finnish psych legend Pekka Streng) and Animal Collective in their most lo-fi form.
Jukka has been recording the material for ‘Kuka siellä?’ steadily, and without any specific plan for a release, for a number of years. The inception of the album came to be when Fonal offered Jukka a recording deal in late 2011, and Jukka and label boss Sami Sänpäkkilä began an intuitive, collaborative selection process from a shortlist of almost 20 songs. A compendium of sorts, some of the songs date to the early 00’s. ‘Pam pam’ and ‘Lampaita’ are some of the first ever B.A.D. recordings. ‘Talitintti’ was composed in 2003 for a short movie, while Rangaistus is from the aforementioned Christmas album from 2004. But of course, the old resides amongst the new – the result being a luxuriant patchwork held tight by a remarkably singular vision.
The covers are scanned from original woodcuts made by Kaisa Kunelius. They are abstract but you can feel they effectively portray the themes of the album, dreams, nature, tiredness, obmutescence and melancholy. ‘Kemijoki tulvii’ (‘The River of Kemi floods’) deals with memories from Jukka’s childhood, and is a farewell to his hometown of Rovaniemi. ‘Viime yönä’ (‘Last Night’) is a childlike song about sleeping, that feels almost like a Michel Gondry movie in song-form, with Jukka sleeping very well, despite thieves rummaging through his VHS collection and mice eating his food. ‘Yö seuraa yötä’ (‘Night follows the night’) is Jukka’s nocturne, painting images of the nature of Lapland and the polar night.