Duo Ruut
The title of the album translates as “The Weather Report” and weather is a running theme throughout the tracks, as the songs tell “stories from different times, different people and most of all, from different weathers.” “Udu” (Fog) [video below] begins with a 6/8 pulse being tapped on the wooden body of the kannel, which is then taken up by plucked strings. A solo voice comes in over the top, while the chimes of intermittent sweeps across the kannel's strings cut through it all like a searchlight in the mist.
Some of the songs and melodies here have their roots in Estonian music with its strong vocal traditional, but there are other wider, more contemporary influences in evidence to a greater degree than on Duo Ruut's first album Tuule Sõnad, both in the harmonies and the production. They have also enlisted a number of guests to contribute to the proceedings. “Vastlalaul” (Sledding Song) has the addition of two male voices, the Estonian nu-folk duo Puuluup. Things start off gently enough with a nice lilting melody and underlying bowed strings, but then the tempo steps up, presumably reflecting the speeding downhill descent being described, and we suddenly find ourselves in Estonian boogie territory, propelled into a dizzily careering groove until it comes to a stop all too quickly as we hit the snow at the bottom with a bump.
“Interlude” features some fine electric guitar from Erki Pärnoja on a track which is effectively an instrumental piece. As with the rest of the album, the sound is sparse, the main pulse being just a single harmonic playing the off beat as the kannel chugs underneath and Pärnoja comes in with some tasty phrasing on guitar while Rebane and Kivi vocalize in the background.
While there is inevitably a sense of missing out on a key dimension of the work when listening to singing in an unfamiliar language, with Ilmateade it doesn't seem to matter too much for most of the time. Without ever feeling overcrowded there is so much going on musically, especially in the vocal pairing at the centre of it all, that there's plenty here to enjoy. And the way Duo Ruut use words, repeating them and playing with the phonetics, they manage to transcend literal meaning. At times, and the track “Pulmadeks” (For the Wedding) is a good example, I found myself being reminded of the special qualities of The Roches. That's not to say the music of Duo Ruut is derivative, on the contrary I find it highly original, but it's put there as a reference point. For anyone who remembers enjoying that wonderful New Jersey trio, many years ago now, you might just love this.
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Ilmateade is the second album from Estonia's Duo Ruut, Ann-Lisett Rebane and Katariina Kivi, who have been singing together for eight years, since they were in their teens. In essence their music is characterized by the two of them harmonising vocally while accompanying themselves on a meter-long 42-string Estonian zither known as a kannel, closely related to the Finnish kantele. Facing each other across the instrument, they produce a rich mix of sounds from what is a relatively basic instrument, by using different playing techniques: plucking, strumming and hammering the strings along with some electronic processing here and there. They have already been enjoying a degree of success, particularly in Europe, with appearances at Glastonbury and at Denmark's massive Roskilde Festival, and listening to Ilmateade it's not hard to understand why they're getting such a good reception.
