MÄKKELÄ (FIN) feat. Pavel Cingl (CZ)

With his last two albums enthusiastically recorded by critics and radio in the greater part of Europe, the Finnish songwriter/performer Mäkkelä, who lives in southern Germany, toured an incredible amount of work in Europe and Canada in the years since 2015 and earned himself the reputation of one of the most exciting artists in the European songwriter scene at the moment. Painfully beautiful songs of a driven, yes possessed, between folkpunk attitude, storyteller tradition and vaudeville charm, matured on endless tour kilometers.

Like so many of his guilds, Mäkkelä ran the pandemic 2020, with cancelled international tours, maliciously into his career. Perhaps it was the ongoing conflicts with the Bavarian government over false accusations of subsidy fraud in the state aid measures that overflowed the proverbial barrel and led to two new album releases in 2021. The angry protest song/songwriter album "Trad & Anger", a virtually classic, acoustic, celebrated by the relevant media between traditional folk and current references, and now the intense, essentially reduced "Dog & Typewriter".

An album close to the artist’s live performance that bridges the gap between beat poetry, folk punk and great songwriting. This consistently scrapes the mainstream, brought him over the years a cultural prize of the city of Nuremberg, a nomination for the German Folk Award and a loyal following, but for the broad masses this is still just too cumbersome. Improvement is not in sight. Highly emotional shows somewhere between Strummer, Cohen and Waits.

On the album release tour of "Dog & Typewriter" he is accompanied by the remarkable Prague violinist Pavel Cingl (among others). Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross/UK, Mark Steiner & His Problems/NO, Lorraine Leckie/US, who is also largely involved in both current releases.

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

"Mäkkelä plays the soundtrack for the road movie of his own life, bitter, distorted and yet strangely beautiful." (Folker) [...] "Homeland" lies between a worker anthem of BILLY BRAGG and the intimate performance of a TOWNES VAN ZANDT, on the way with dusty shoes in dingy pubs, the acoustic guitar supported by a wistful violin. [...] just honestly, never cheesy [...] reminds me of one of my favorite projects of the genre, THE MEN THEY COULDN'T HANG, a shanty from the Finnish Baltic Sea, or something.

"Trad & Anger is exactly what it says on the tin. It's full of venom, concise, clear and pulls no punches, exactly how a proper folk album should sound. " (Fatea Magazine, UK) [...]folk, jazz, world moves, and topical/timeless folk songs. [...] spirited intensity underneath all of these songs." (folkworld.eu)