LD11: Live and Direct Listens IV - Ruth MacKenzie - Kalevala

Today's episode of Live and Direct Listens features a musical interpretation of a Finnish epic poem. It's 33.6MB and 1:02:03 long. Ruth MacKenzie's album "Kalevala: Dream of the Salmon Maiden" is a mixture of Finnish and English folk song punctuated by a high pitched call named "kulning", which is actually a Finnish animal call. MacKenzie has said that in Kalevala she realized that beauty and ugliness are not too different and also that there is very little separating the earth, the animals and the human voice.

The original written work that the album is based upon is called the Kalevala, it was published in 1849 and is a collection of oral tradition which may come from as far back as pre-recorded history and include fragments as recent as the Iron Age. Part creation myth, part folk song and poetry, it has a national Finnish holiday dedicated to it (February 28th) and has influenced numerous artists, of whom Ruth MacKenzie is one.

There's an overview of the Kalevala here on wikipedia, along with the source text (in english) here on wikisource. You can buy it from Ruth on her site and also find it on iTunes.

I hope you enjoy today's show. It's a little bit different from things you normally hear on the radio, and I wanted to share it with you in the hope that it would touch something within you and awaken part of you. Thanks for listening, and please tell me what you think.