Authorjournalist and musician To Thella Johnson the promotion of Finnish culture has been a “lifelong theme”.
“I’ve always tried to connect these two countries in the way they live in me, because I’ve spent a lot of time in both,” says Johnson, one of the founders of the band Bottenviken.
by Thella Johnson, Mattias Björkas and Love Antell founded in 2020, Swedish Bottenviken released their album on Friday Du och jag, ett rike, ett landwith which the band covers Finnish songs in Swedish.
Swedish-Finnish Antell is a successful solo artist who is also remembered from the band Florence Valentin. Björkas, who currently lives in Sweden, is a Finnish-Swedish singer and songwriter, known for his bands Cats On Fire and Vasas Flora och fauna.
Yes AntellBjörkas and Johnson had previously translated Finnish songs into Swedish.
For example, Björkas had translated several Leevi and the Leavings songs into Swedish with the band Vasas Flora och fauna.
According to Johnson, who hosted a radio show focusing on Ultra Braha in Sweden, among other things, the trio wanted to see if they could convey the original atmosphere of the song in another language.
Johnson describes the project as scientific and artistic.
“We were united by the desire to convey these texts in Swedish, but also to explore the space between languages and cultures. We wanted to see what happens when the language of the song changes.”
The project members knew each other beforehand, but had not worked together before.
At the beginning of 2020, just before the start of the corona pandemic, they met at a party in Stockholm and stated that they were interested in spreading Finnish music.
After the corona time started, translations and ideas flew electrically from one member to another, and the album began to take shape.
Johnson’s according to him, working on the songs was “partly really challenging”.
It was the most challenging Maija Vilkumaan No. After hearing the song for the first time, Johnson remembers thinking that you couldn’t sing something like this in Swedish, because it has such strong images in Finnish.
“For example, in ‘mother’s eyes are blurry’ is something that, as a Finn, you can feel strongly.”
Also Rosita Luun the song produced challenges. How do you translate into Swedish when something goes “wrong”?
Among the easier songs were Scandinavian Music Group In the end, however, we are alone and Ultra Bran Pärnu.
“They came really quickly and easily.”
“
“In the section ‘mother’s eyes are blurry’ there is something that as a Finn you can feel strongly.”
Johnson’s according to Bottenviken is part of a larger phenomenon where artists have started to make art more boldly, for example in Swedish.
Last year for example Anna Järvinen and Tapio Viitasaari published Lila-Lila album in both Finnish and Swedish.
Johnson says the band received good feedback on the songs they covered. Swedes have praised the beauty of the melodies and compositions. Finns, on the other hand, have commented that the songs still sound Finnish, even though the language is different.
The feedback from the versioned artists has also been quite positive.
I recently finished my tour at the Finnish Institute in Stockholm Samuli Putro invited Love to his gig, and they performed together you’re my spouse now -song in both languages.
For the disc the resulting songs are a collection of the trio’s most beloved songs in Finnish. The only common thread was that both old and new music was wanted.
The oldest song on the album is By Toni Edelmann composed by Arma’s closeness. The second oldest is the album’s title song, Far Röyhkän The kingdom of love (1983), which has turned into a form Du och jag, ett rike, ett land.
The album’s freshest offerings are Rosita Luun, Joose Keskitalon and songs from the Spice Girls.
Bottenviken the musicians tried “probably 100 different songs” when planning the album. The ones that worked best were selected.
Among other things Litku Klementin Train to Kainuu missed the ride, which “annoys” Johnson because it’s such a good song.
“It just didn’t get done. We still couldn’t get it as good in Swedish.”
Johnson hopes that the song will be released in the future. “Maybe, I hope.”
In the summer and autumn, the band will play gigs in Sweden and hope to play gigs in Finland as well.
Another record is not in the mind, at least at the moment, because the members each have their own jobs, bands and projects.
Despite that, the cooperation continues “quite clearly”, says Johnson.
#Music #Finnish #hits #translate #Swedish #Swedish #band #album
