Lumottu Karkkipurkki (Vapaa systeemi)

Press Release

Lumottu karkkipurkki ('the enchanted candy jar') is a musical work of two concepts: a song cycle based on an obscure finnish children's book of the same name. The plot is simple; a boy buys a candy jar from an old 'witchy' shopkeepress. Every time the boy takes a colourful drop his surroundings change unexpectedly and completely. He meets strange beings in the nearby forest. The atmosphere is exciting and slightly scary. Ville eats all the drops and craves for more, but the woman with the shiny green ring is gone and so are the candies...

The other concept, Vapaa systeemi ('free system') has something to do with plucking stringed instruments growing moss and the speed control, but we don't want to get too specific here.

The cd is the first release of this music that provides more than a couple dozen copies for circulation. The prior ones were a tape on Huutomerkki-nauhat in the year 2000 and double 8" picture disc with gorgeous ornaentation by our man on Campbell Kneale's Celebratre Psi Phenomenon imprint a couple years later.

Lumottu karkkipurkki was the first release after Mr. Anderzén abandoned his harem (& the couple obligatory eunuchs) in order to work his way out in a more solitude manner, with his bare hands and the four tracks. So, besides from being darn good late night drooling accompaniment, this music has some sort of historical significance.
Ralf Normaali

Dream Magazine issue #6

Hallucinatory free folk meanders too far down the garden path and gets lost in the deep dark Finnish woods. Antlers and antennae. Eyes that can see in the dark quietly observing. A witches hat full of surprises. Surreal assemblages of human/alien frequencies. Gigantic soaring guitars weave high angular shapes, while tribal inhabitants chant. Wavering force fields of bent bells and cosmic coincidences stack up in the hallways. The clocks spin backwards faster and faster until they all stop at once. Ghosts spill up out of the ground around and surround the circle of hysterical drummers. Time travel by acoustic guitar. Cave fish, blind and blunted, swim in slow circular patterns. The scary nightmare is too compelling to awaken from. Walking is difficult when the ground keeps moving under your feet.

George Parsons