MARRASMAA about witches, magic and head cinema

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The Finnish duo Marrasmaa was founded in the summer of 2012. What is special about the formation is that their music is played with two kanteles. The kantele “is an old Finnish instrument that is only played by a few people today,” explain Janne Ojala and Juho Piirto. What’s the story behind the band’s complicated name? The Finnish word for November (“marraskuu”) means “month of death”, and “marras” means “dead”, “maa” means “land”, so Marrasmaa could be translated as “dead land” or “dying land”. “The name Marrasmaa seemed to capture the autumnal melancholy we heard in our music,” nods the duo.

We’ll stick to the subject of “names”. The title of the new album “Noidat” means “witches” in Finnish. The pair elaborate: “The inspiration came from the legendary Finnish band Mana Mana. They have a song called ‘Noidat’, which has this eerie and witchy atmosphere that we both liked. At first we wanted to do some kind of weird kantele cover of this song, but instead we decided to produce a witch-themed album. ‘Noidat’ also refers to old Finnish folklore and paganism, which we are both interested in. Only 100 years ago there were folk healers, witches and seers in Finland. These witches were mainly respected healers, but some of them were also feared figures who were believed to be able to harm others with their magic. The witches’ knot on the cover of our album is an ancient symbol that was used to protect against this kind of magic. The cantelas we use have a very bright and beautiful sound, so we wondered how dark we could make the music sound with these instruments. We tuned the cantelas to a new, witchy-sounding scale and replaced the keyboards from previous albums with electric guitars to create darker backgrounds that fit the theme better.”

Marrasmaa ‘s instrumental music is incredibly intense and paints pictures in the mind. “For us, the album describes an inner journey through darkness to face one’s own shadows, leading to hope, acceptance and catharsis. The details and mental images it evokes are slightly different for both of us, but the overall picture is the same. It’s also always nice to hear how people interpret these songs in their own way and what mental images the music creates for them.” There are already plans for another album in the future: “We already have some ideas about the direction it should take and it will be different from ‘Noidat’, they explain and continue: “We’ve also talked about playing live shows at some point.” – But until then, let’s enjoy the album “Noidat” first.