MIKKO JOENSUU - Amen 2

When music gets dubbed "spiritual", it usually conjures images of megachurches or drum circles, and a natural reaction is to dismiss it and move on. That's unfortunate because music, like few other mediums, has the power to connect people with themselves and others on a deeper level. It doesn't matter what you believe in, or even if you believe in anything at all. Sounds arranged to produce beauty and convey emotion are found in every culture, tribe and community throughout human history. Some forms of music are described as more visceral than others, but in actuality all of it is visceral in the sense that it appeals to us at a base level before an intellectual one. 

Within that context lies all the musical genres, the nuances, the balance between positive and negative. Finnish singer/songwriter Mikko Joensuu works within the positive end of the spectrum. Amen 2 is the continuation of an introspective trilogy of albums that finds Joensuu searching for meaning in his own spiritual reawakening. While for many that means finding and accepting a higher power, for Joensuu it's the opposite; after growing up in a religious environment, he has slowly come to find that God no longer exists for him. It's a life-altering idea that can take time - in Joensuu's case, the seven years leading up to 2015's Amen 1 - and manifest itself in any number of ways. Amen 1 is a sparse, strictly acoustic affair, just Joensuu and his guitar somewhere in the Finnish countryside. Amen 2 is the sun rising on his enlightenment, working towards a new understanding of life while still dealing with the lingering misgivings and loneliness of his previous beliefs. Song titles like "Drop Me Down", "What Have I Done" and "There Used To Be A Darkness" make no bones about their subject matter.

For the transition from all acoustic to a fuller sound, Joensuu draws inspiration from diverse sources. Classic shoegazers My Bloody Valentine, early Britpop and lush electronic soundscapes all color Amen 2 while still retaining the earnest vulnerability of folk heroes like Townes Van Zandt and Leonard Cohen. "Sunshine" is exactly that, painting a picture of verdant meadows and bright skies with an almost nursery-rhyme rhythm, while the isolated piano line that opens "Golden Age Of The Lowlands" immediately recalls Black Sabbath's "Changes", and not just musically; Joensuu's words of disillusion and uncertainty reflect those of Osbourne and Butler nearly forty-five years later:    

“Oh my dear lord I don’t know
Where is the place I should go
I buried my soul deep in the pure white snow
I’ve been medicating myself so long
To the point where my memories are gone
But you’d be surprised how time out of mind will pass on...”

Music entertains, but it can also educate, heal and inspire. Amen 2 does all that and more. Sometimes being a songwriter call for more than just writing songs, and Mikko Joensuu understands that.

Amen 2 is available November 11 from Svart Records, preorders are available HERE.