Solo artist Helena Haaparanta, who is known for her long and exceptional career in the metal scene with bands like TACERE and CRIMFALL, released a beautiful and melancholic new single, “Harmaahaikara,” [trans: grey heron] independently on November 24th, 2023.
The song opens with melancholic piano, haunting vocal lines, and what sounds like dogs barking but is actually the heron itself, interestingly enough. Singing mainly about loneliness, the song’s music does a wonderful job of backing up the true Finnish misery that the song portrays through the magic of dark-pop/iskelmä. As it progresses, the listener is enveloped in a beautiful sort of sadness that runs deep, sweeping the listener off their feet and into an audio world of longing.
Helena comments on the song: “‘Harmaahaikara’ was conceived on my family’s land, in the middle of a forest, while I was curing a prolonged burnout. For a couple of summers, I had seen a European blue heron on this small boggy pond and admired it’s remarkable, horrifying song. I found a lovely common cloud sample of a blue heron’s voice, and laughed when noticing it’s rhythmic pattern went in the exact same tempo I had chosen for the pre-production demo I had been preparing.
”The song is a reckless memory of someone important you have known that you’d eventually lose during those heated moments in that first summer night. Although the ’heron’ might be returning again in the next springtime, letting go really hurts. ‘Harmaahaikara’ is my third and so far most iskelmä-like single. The beautiful melody lines of the wistful, dark-pop tune almost hug the listener, while painting a nuanced image of nature, where someone who’s just found another lonely one, has to learn, that love requires its freedom.”
Helena‘s superpower – who also works in voiceovers – is to lure mind-blowing performances out of the musicians she’s producing. “Harmaahaikara” has been heard at Helena’s gigs, where she – alongside guitarist Juho Lapinlampi – creates a multidimensional and often haunting soundscape. Organic elements are laced with electronic gadgets, and her genre-anarchistic touch is very much present. Check out the new single below, or on the usual streaming services!
Written by Bear Wiseman
