Maarja Nuut – Hinged
Independent – 20 August 2021
Maarja Nuut comes from Estonia and is something of a polymath. As well as being an accomplished singer, violinist, composer and electronic musician, she is an ethnomusicologist with a deep and abiding interest in storytelling and how myths give us an insight into how the modern world is unfolding. I have been following Maarja’s career with interest for a few years now, primarily because of my admiration for her relentless creativity and her absolute willingness to pitch her musical tent in any camp that suits her. Classically trained, she has also studied Hindustani classical music in Delhi, India, and explored the traditional music and dance of her native Estonia. More recently, she has been collaborating with renowned electronica artist Hendrik Kaljujärv (AKA Ruum) to explore computer-generated sounds and the more esoteric areas of looping technologies.
The pandemic affected Maarja, as it did many artists, and caused her to rethink her strategy somewhat. She says that“…‘Hinged’ almost feels like my first real solo album as I’ve recorded and produced it all alone. My background has been more about playing acoustic instruments and performing live so album recording has mostly been about going to a studio and being recorded by someone else but this time the experiments with different ways of recording myself, searching for the right character and sounds became an integral and most enjoyable creative part of the whole process.”
Describing the soundscapes that Maarja creates can cause problems; this is adventurous music. Lockdown has imposed a self-sufficiency on Maarja but, at the same time, allowed her to give full reign to her rather mischievous tendency to explore. For example, the opening title track is percussive in nature (featuring Nicolas Stocker’s drums which appear on two other tracks) and has, to me, a playfulness about it as she links a variety of samplers and sequencers to create music with a hypnotic pulse. ‘On Vaja – In Need’ starts in a similar vein but then introduces Maarja’s heavily processed voice into the mix to create a trance-like feel. Vocals are to the fore again in ‘Kutse Tantsule’, ranging from spoken word to vocalisations that demonstrate an astounding range in contrast to the deep pulsing bass synthesiser. The title means ‘A Call for Dance’ and is also the single from this album.
Maarja spent some time during lockdown experimenting with an old ‘Vermona’ organ (an analogue synthesiser made in Germany) that is used to great effect on ‘Vaheala Valgus’, a refreshing contrast to the heavier computerised and somewhat broken rhythms of a piece like ‘Subota’. She uses the English language for ‘A Scene’ that highlights both her talent as a lyricist and singer on a piece that has the feel of sung poetry. Most hypnotic and undoubtedly one of the tracks on this album that invites an immediate repeat listen. While the album may require a little dedication from the listener, not always a bad thing, I can’t emphasise enough what an absolute pleasure to listen to music like this from such a young talented musician. It is hard to relate her music to the work of other artists, and that is, I believe, one of its strengths. At the beginning of this review, I describe Maarja Nuut as a polymath; this may be why her musical path is so unpredictable; not knowing what direction she will take her music next also adds to the attraction.
Pre-Order Hinged via Bandcamp: https://maarjanuut.bandcamp.com/