Heartcore

Fonal is the leading label of new outsider music from Finland and here are some of their most significant releases to date. The first full-length by the Finnish duo Kiila, released in 2001. Packed in a beautiful 6-page digipack, it contains 9 tracks and a total of 39 minutes of music. Kiila makes music with everything that's around, and a massive array of instruments have been used here: clockwork, bowed saw, bowed guitars and bass guitars, drums, percussion, computers... you name it. The album is full of heart and has received many warm words from all over the world. As Niko-Matti Ahti explains in the liner notes, "Heart core has preserved a lot of sustained work and spontaneous expression. We have spent time and energy on listening to music, talking and thinking about it. We have listened to these songs as to our favorite records: critically, carefully and with devotion, often and for long periods of time, in many situations and states of mind. The main difference between these processes - listening to our favorite records and listening to Heart core - has been that we have changed the sounds on Heart core whenever necessary. We have omitted sounds, played new ones or modified existing ones. We have thought about arrangements, searched for sounds and altered structures. The whole time, however, making music has been subordinate to listening to it."