I know, I know. WTF, Right? I can understand the Emma Salokoski Ensemble part. Barely. But what does ‘Veden alla‘ mean? It means under the water, when translated literally, and it’s my favorite album this year.

Back in the days of 5 years ago the band was called Emma Saloksoki Trio and they only released one EP. Luckily they realized that a singer, a bassist and a guitarist don’t form a very good band, so they decided to pick up a pianist and a drummer. Thus Emma Salokoski Ensemble was born.

Back in the days of 2005 the Ensemble released their debut album called Kaksi mannerta, Two continents. The album was the 4th best selling album in Finland for at least a week and their song Miksi sä meet (a cover version of Por que te vas) was the most played song of one radio station “for a long time”. Veden alla was heavily Brazilian influenced and is usually filed under bossa nova.

I’m a man opposing changes in artist’s or band’s new artistic directions. If you want to do some new kind of music you should just form a new band/use a different name instead of using your existing fan-base to sell more albums. [Magnus goes: "WORD!!"]

Back in the days of last August (now it’s a gimmick) Veden alla was released, but because Emma Salokoski Ensemble isn’t some über mainstream crap they don’t get many radio plays, so I had no idea that, instead of getting a solid bossa nova album, I would get an excellent progressive, Finish folk rock influenced album with a clear Helsinki sound. If the album would’ve been even slightly worse than their previous I would’ve been furious. You got lucky, Emma.

Veden alla has clear direction. It’s very emotionally charged, instruments are acoustic and Emma’s singing is more beautiful than ever, although I’m not sure if this emotion transfers if you can’t understand a word.

The album was Finland’s best selling album for a week or three but still didn’t get any radio time, which just proves that most of people are too stupid to listen to music, so they need to be told what sounds good and is worth their 3,5 minutes plus commercials.

Favorite tracks: Veden alla, Kehtolaulu (lullaby), Ja sun äänesi (and your voice), Tiistaieuforiaa (tuesday euphoria)