What to get when you mix a pinch of surrealism, a bit of modern folklore, a heaping helping of talharpa revival and blend it together through effect blocks and loopers? The answer is the neo-zombie-post-folk and Estonian duo Puuluup - multiple awards winning duo from Estonia!
An elegantly dressed gentleman with a gloriously deadpan sense of humour, playing the ancient Nordic talharpa (bowed and plucked lyre). But this is not an ethnomusicological romp! They direct the vibrations of the talharpa’s horsehair strings through effects, using alternative bowing and rhythm techniques. The mellow sighs of talharpa are paired with electronically amplified echoes, knocks, creaks and crackles. From such seemingly rudimental equipment, the rhythms that they loop and the melodies that they harmonize are immediate crowd-pleasers. They create delightfully slinky songs about all possible random things around them. The lyrics combine many languages as well as Puuluup‘s made-up language, being mostly abstract and open to different interpretations. And they season their performances with weird choreography.
It’s folk, it’s contemporary, it’s funny, and it’sdanceable!
Puuluup is: Ramo Teder i Marko Veisson.