Saivo (Gate) (Ofgv) [LP]

The long gestation period of "Saivo" (four years) shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who knows and treasures Tenhi's modus operandi. The Finnish musicians follow their vision mercilessly down to the smallest minutiae, which means that all of the songs have seen various arrangements and the adding of new elements until all the details of the album fit into the overall picture. On "Saivo", Tenhi use a largely consistent instrumentation to inform the tracks with cohesion and unison. Guitar and piano are the predominant instruments; at times, they are supplemented by percussion, strings, and polyphonic vocals, all in order to create a melancholic realm of sound characterised by this-worldly sorrow and other-worldly joy. The result is an album that is introverted in the truest sense of the word: just as it is believed that Saivo, the realm of the dead, may only be reached by an access under ambiguous lakes and that the journey leads to a mirror image of this world, Tenhi's "Saivo" also looks to the inner realms.