- The Estonian composer and producer finds her own sonic language on a remarkable LP.
- In 1905, the painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela was at the shore of a lake in Finland, finishing up his masterpiece-to-be Lake Keitele, a serene landscape with a hidden symbolic meaning. 115 years later, Maarja Nuut was at her seaside studio in Estonia, "randomly wiring modulars, experimenting with [her] voice, and strumming old Vermona organ"—that is, creating her latest LP, Hinged. Previously, these artists engaged with Northern European tradition, mythology and folklore, and have both arrived at the impressionist way of creating art specific to their present moment. Like ZULI's Terminal (which is his subjective experience of living in Cairo) or Tirzah's Devotion (her love story rooted in South London), Hinged is an impression of a particular time and place. And yet that specificity makes it universal.
Critically acclaimed for reworking Estonian traditional instrumentation and songwriting, Nuut gained international prominence in 2016. Her debut LP, Une Meeles, echoed a global decolonial re-awakening and paid homage to a Baltic tradition of using neo-folklore as counterculture. She continued to work in a similar direction on the next two releases in collaboration with synth-head Hendrik Kaljujärv (AKA Ruum), combining Estonian folklore with atmospheric techno.
Nuut defined her work by duality and described Une Meeles as the "boundary between reality and dreams," Muunduja as "a state of being between states, the warping of time's arrow using sound" and World Inverted as the "friction between contrasts." On Hinged, though, she seems to have found oneness, embracing the modern sound of Eurorack and experimental possibilities of voice as today's embodiment of "what has come before."
Nuut started work on Hinged when she inherited her grandmother's farm. Sorting through the personal possessions of five generations of her family turned her attention to her personal roots instead of hundreds of years of Estonian national tradition. Now she uses her voice to express raw, intimate feelings. On "kutse tantsule_a call to dance," she vocalizes a questioning "hm?" and a surprised "ah!," as if they were overheard from the conversation in a room next door. Being present at such "an imaginary reunion of relatives" is almost uncomfortable, like eavesdropping, because of how vulnerable Nuut feels here.
"Hinged almost feels like my first real solo album as I've recorded and produced it all alone", she told Folk Radio. As a classically trained violinist, she was used to recording at the studio and performing pre-written material. But last year's Narva Art Residency, which took place on the border of Estonia and Russia, resulted in Fantasias For Violin & Guitar, a recording of live improvisation with the artist Sun Araw. The new experience informed how she approached Hinged. "This time the experiments with different ways of recording myself, searching for the right character and sounds became an integral and most enjoyable creative part of the whole process," she said. This playfulness shines on "subota," which is the most off-beat, dance floor-ready song she's ever made.
Hinged peaks with "a feast," whose accompanying video provides an insight into the name: it shows a circle of life, from the network of roots to the process of growth and the ascent into the sky. In a spiritual way, it could be a celebration of life and whatever comes after. In a morbid way, it's a decaying body of a loved one becoming nutrition for worms. In an artistic way, it's the interpretation of time that has an immediate and direct effect on Nuut's life. The clock-like rhythm is counting down the time left until death—an inescapable reality for every human, who space-drifts on this rock, surrounded by peaks, valleys and a few 100 percent organic pools, and powers through a big improvisation called living.
Tracklist01. hinged feat. Nicolas Stocker
02. on vaja_in need feat. Nicolas Stocker
03. kutse tantsule_a call to dance
04. mees, kes aina igatses_a man ever yearned
05. vaheala valgus_i hear behind the moon
06. subota
07. a feast
08. jojobell feat. Nicolas Stocker
09. a scene_merevees
10. moment