Sunday 4 December 2016, 8pm
“Don’t be fooled, this is a full-on, fucked-up, inspired, deeply innovative record with its teeth firmly in noise, sound-sculpture, improvisation and great song writing. The most obvious comparison would be Ghédalia Tazartès, as Käppi fuses a vast array of recording techniques with a love of the traditional, in full awareness of the avant garde... a truly moving sprawl across arid landscapes and darkened skies, forever bereft of a long absent northern sun.” – Foxy Digitalis, review of Pekko Käppi's album, ‘Vuonna 86’.
“I, Pekko, am a player of Jouhikko – the ancient Finnish-Karelian bowed lyre. My music has been described like this: « In his hands the rough sound of weaved horsehair strings are swaying between the foul and lovely – dirty and pure. The old songs of unwritten tradition, timeless and dark stories mediates in his mouth. »”
Commanding influences as varied as gypsy field recordings, Greek rembetika, Russian folksongs, Faces, and Black Sabbath, Toronto's Picastro craft starkly discordant soundscapes where murmured vocals cascade alongside a rich panorama of dissonance and string-laden dynamics.
“It's a beautiful car crash of an album, simultaneously pretty and dissonant, and utterly compelling no matter how jarring it gets.” – All Music
“What raises Picastro above the herd of atmospheric noise-makers is that these tracks aren't instrumental jams, they're songs - with all the structure and emotional closure that this implies.” –The Sunday Times U.K.
