MÄKKELÄ

Consistently past every expectation for years, the Finn Mäkkelä, with his poetically dark songs - not quite wrongly labeled again and again as "Folk Noir" - is certainly one of the most exciting artists of the European songwriter scene at the moment. Painfully beautiful song material that brings the folk tradition of storytelling into the 21st century. Centuries, coupled with a rarely seen stage presence and intensity, have made the performer one of the most striking live acts in the genre.

Or as the Nuremberg News describes in a review of the current album "Dog & Typewriter" (9pm Rec/Broken Silence): Messersharp song poetry, as rough as the asphalt of the street.Mäkkelä's consistently on the mainstream pre-beischrammen, brought him over the years a culture prize of the city of Nuremberg, a nomination for the German Folk Award and a loyal supportership, but for the broad masses this is still just too bulky. Improvement is not in sight. Emotional shows somewhere between Strummer, Cohen and Waits.

"Wild Romantic mixture of American folk, blues, country and punk attitude" (Nuremberger Nachrichten, 01/2022)

"This album grows on you with each listen and is a definite musos album. With definite echoes ofTom Waits, Leonard Cohen and the booze lashed, cigarette stinking romanticism of ShaneMacGowan's lyrics, Mäkkelä takes a less trodden path and invites you on his journey in search for a'Homeland'."(Fatea Magazine, UK)