Piknik

Uusikuu could just be the house band at the cosy local tavern of your dreams, with warm, relaxed vocals backed by accordion and fiddle, playing beloved standards and originals that sound like they should be standards. Two Finnish expats started the band near Stuttgart almost 20 years ago. Like the similarly loose-edged films of Aki Kaurismäki, they’ve won German hearts and awards by evoking Finnish culture from past decades. On their sixth album, this includes the 70s, with a playful tango take on Baccara’s ‘Yes Sir, I Can Boogie’ (Here as ‘Yes Sir, Alkaa Polttaa’). The romantically retro ‘Sulle Salaisuuden Kertoa Mä Voisin’ with guest vocalist Milana Misic is a 40s slow foxtrot that brings to mind Pink Martini and The Puppini Sisters. ‘Tunturitaival’ pairs laidback musette/Gypsy jazz straight out of a Paris café with lyrics about a reindeer, while ‘Pimeyden Työt’ is a bossa-flavoured male-female duet with a sensitive guitar solo steeped in trademark Finnish melancholy.