Eleanoora Rosenholm
A vivid contrast to so many bunches of late teens strumming their guitars half-decently and hoping that someone might get interested, Eleanoora Rosenholm is here to be heard and to be listened to. The concept – and just this once you might be forgiven to use such a word – is to combine pellucid, pretty pop melodies and ambitious backgrounds with gory lyrics about the many moods of a female serial killer who sometimes appears as a geisha, sometimes as a female Jekyll/Hyde, and sometimes as a rather more ordinary girl on her way to the local laundrette.
By now it is known that the frontwoman of the band is not really called Eleanoora and that ER's "godfather", as the band calls him, Mika Rättö is also responsible for a handful of other Finnish bands who clearly have taken more time and effort to come into existence than one drunken night in a local pub. But then again, the mystery is further intensified by a strange document appearing on the band's website: a summary of a doctoral dissertation of one Christa Steinway from the University of Stockholm, depicting in hair-rising detail the life and times of a Finnish serial killer from the early 20th century who just happened to be called Eleanoora Rosenholm...
Eleanoora Rosenholm's dark world began to creep into the consciousness of the common folk in autumn 2007 with the debut album Vainajan muotokuva. The lyrics were perhaps a bit too meaningful for those choosing the records to be played on the radio, but the intense gigging helped the word get around, and next spring's album Älä kysy kuolleilta, he sanoivat was already acknowledged in the polls as one of the most important Finnish releases that year.
Though the albums of Eleanoora Rosenholm are the outcome of a careful construction process, it's fantastic to see that now we are not talking about an ordinary concept band that looks good on paper but is essentially shit live. Songs that sounded ace already on the album gain new forms and colours when they are set flying free into the air. There and then you might just be forgiven for singing out loud how you are responsible for the bodies in the bottom of that lake and how glad you are that the end of the world is finally coming. Lah-lah-lah.
www.eleanoora.com
myspace.com/eleanoorarosenholm
