A Brighter Future

The past century-plus of recorded accordion music in Finland has been dominated by dance music, epitomised by countless polkas and minor-key Finnish-style tangos. Fleet-fingered accordionist Johanna Juhola often plays dance music and tangos, but far from the national schlager tradition.

Since her 2005 debut, she’s created a fresh, virtuosic mix of tangonuevo, folk, jazz, pop, hip-hop and electronic dance music – delving further into that on her self-produced fifth solo album. Her first in five years, she has a band whose members have played with Rinneradio and Jaakko Laitinen.

The high-tech production sounds chilly and mechanical on tracks such as ‘Elektroniikkakerho –Electronics Club’, ‘Micro Wave + House Band’ – complete with household appliances – and ‘Pachinko Sensei’, inspired by arcade games and Japanese multi-instrumentalist Shugo Tokumaru, all driven by relentlessly energetic keyboard work.

Fortunately, there’s also a warmer, more lyrical side to A Brighter Future, especially ‘Lähiökesä – Suburban Summer’, a melancholy childhood memory sprinkled with playground echoes. ‘Alarm’, the album’s only tango, is complex and unsettling, with sirens in the distance. The title-track, a midtempo schottische featuring electronic underpinning and wordless vocals from Venla Ilona Blom of Tuuletar, leads perfectly into Johanna Juhola’s bittersweet closing number, ‘Viimeiset Jamit – The Last Jam Session’.