MÄKKELÄ / Nightbird

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)

They still exist. The moments when you hear a voice or a song that makes you stop stunned, completely enchanted. Music that can be completely confused in its almost unreal beauty, in its mixture of pure happiness and bitter-sweet pain. Admittedly, often this does not happen, but the probability that it is really caught by the Swedish-Finnish singer/songwriter Nightbird aka. Anna-Stina Jungerstam from Vaasa very high.Heartbreaking song material to which the young Finnish woman accompanies herself on the acoustic slide-guitar miniatures.

Music that does not seem to be of this world and at no time makes the mistake of sinking into the usual self-pity. Deeply rooted in the tradition of Folk Blues, she succeeds in stylishly, blessed with a unique voice, inter-Nordic melancholy / longing and early Delta Blues to do her very own thing.On the 2024 tour with Mäkkelä, the young singer / guitarist will present her brand new, third album live in Germany!

“Nightbird is a singer-songwriter hailing from Vaasa, and in her music the folk and blues traditionis spun into a really captivating, personal and fresh world, a world where you have to gowandering... I myself hear something very universal in her music, which means that it can workanywhere. And I strongly recommend you to hear this live. She’s definitely got it: there’s nothingsuperficial about this.– Pekka Laine, radio host

“This is a singer-songwriter with class. I’ve heard only a few voices that can measure up to her. AndI’m not just saying this because. There’s something special about her. Everything from the way sheplays the guitar, to how she sings. It can be deep and melancholic, happy and dreamy. It’s as ifthough there lies a magical shimmer over the stage and Nightbird is like a mythical creature, a fairy,sitting on that stage.”– Kultursidan.nu