The Finnish band Kiila plays folk with a free-jazz attitude. On this new record this results into atmospheric, soothing and ethereal but above all just beautiful progressive folk.
Silmät Sulkaset is not a record that sounds traditional Finnish. Many songs have an Eastern feeling. The music sounds meditative like Gjallarhorn does at times. But Kiila is more open to experiments than this group. This is proven by the improvisation ‘Kiviä ja taivasta’, that sounds psychedelic. During a song like ‘Kateet linnut’ the band sounds somewhere between Tindersticks, 16 Horsepower and Sigur Rós. Especially comparisons with this last band is evident more than once on this record.
The ethereal aspect of Kiila is (luckily) not too dominant. Due to this Silmät Sulkaset is not a record that will doze you into sleep. The record deserves a good listen every moment of the day, but is recommended to wake up with. Guaranteed you have a fine day. I am sure this year there will not be many records as beautiful as this one.
