Pic: Mitro Härkönen
Pelkkä Poutanen debyt album 'Pyhä Veri Vuotaa' was nominated for Teosto award on 2022, which is one of the biggest art prizes in Northern lands.
It also had the 2022 Etno-Emma nomination.
"...one of 2022’s best World Music albums..."
- Music you need to hear/Rudy Carrera
"..it’s enticing, haunting, mesmerising, spiritual and hypnotic.”
- SONGLINES - Buzz Bury, April 2022​
”When a performer can do just about anything with her voice, one need only sit back and marvel at the possibilities. — — Once one gets past the acrobatic vocals, one is amazed by the rich sound world.
- FMQ, Amanda Kauranne, Feb 2022 ​
This debut solo album 'Pyhä veri vuotaa' contains folk music with a very modern twist and influences from around the world. The thread tying everything together is the concept of the sacred, including showing how the sacred sometimes turns into something quite absurd or brutal. Sacred is a tool of using power, it is political and it has a strong personal level.
"I do not fear the fire of Sinai that flashes like lightning.
With his bloodstained face, my groom from Golgotha to me is smiling".
- From song Jumalan morsian, text collected from hymns of a revivalist movement