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Markus: s/t (Huutomerkki)
Markus is yet another well-hidden link in the rapidly growing chaplet of highly capable Finnish tone-benders. Just like many bands from New Zealand and to some extent Norway there seems to be the sort of openness in Finland's underground scene that makes artists do whatever comes to mind no matter what the current vogue might be. It's not that the music of Markus is that groundbreaking or experimental, it's just so clear that he plays the exact same thing as his heart tells him. Perhaps it's the isolation, perhaps it's the lack of possibilities to hit it big-time even if you play fairly straight alternative music that makes the Finns downright uninterested to adapt to any given formula. What's more important in this specific case is that we get a six song EP that is packed with elegantly crafted outsider folk numbers that is more traditional than the fellow folksters like Kemialliset Ystävät but by no mans less interesting. What Markus lacks in surprises he makes up for in melodies and sonic goodness, like the profoundly sad but still rather up-beat opener "Nights In the Valley." "Trees" sounds like Dirty Three covering some long lost folk band and don't get me started with the slightly more experimental "On Our Walk Along the Bank." It has multiple mournful melodies of violin, guitar and jazzy percussion strolling by one another just like friends that have to go in different directions but takes every chance to postpone the final goodbye. Markus aims for the heart, makes it and breaks it in two. When you hear it, you will feel it. Essential!
- Mats Gustafsson, Broken Face 13
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Another new name (to me) from the Finnish outsider folk scene - this is more traditional than Kem. Ystavat or Avarus, sounding more as if the band are getting gently stoned in the woods.
- Boa Melody Bar
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Markus (the Anaksimandros, Avarus, Kemialliset Ystavat) is a multi-instrumentalist, a genius with the violin. This CDR includes incredibly beautiful folk music, medieval dance music and some abstract slightly Mick Turner-esque guitars.
-Eclipse Records
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"On this six-song EP multi-instrumentalist Markus Mäki imagines his own interior world of folk melodies, nostalgic moods and extra-musical atmosphere. Overdubbing himself on vibrato-less electric guitar, kantele, louhikko (two traditional Finnish instruments) and percussion, he weaves brittle melodies, minimal bass drum pulses, scattered shakers and found sounds into enchanting cinematic miniatures. On “And She Saw the Stars Above” a lonely whistling and metallic xylophone lightly brush against a lazily strummed guitar. “One September They Arrived” fades out with a gentle rain, its pattering rhythm gently overtaking the ominous, cyclical dirge of guitar and kantele. Straight-forward, delicate and intimate music from one lone soul to another."
- Matthew Wuethrich, All About Jazz