Remastered and joined together in a single release, the first two Nest EPs see the light again! Fabled Lore and Hidden Stream, originally released in 2000 and 2003, will finally be available on vinyl as part of a comprehensive reissue work via Avantgarde Music!
Nest is an atmospheric folk / acoustic group from Finland, formed in the summer of 1999, mainly focusing on the use of the Kantele, a traditional Finnish instrument. The project, led by multi-instrumentalist and visual artist Aslak Tolonen (also member of Syven and several others), has always kept a shy behaviour, releasing three studio albums along the quarter of a century and playing selected live gigs.
We reached out to A.T. to comment on these reissues. “Fabled Lore is the first Nest release, originally released as a CD-R demo. It also contains the first ever Nest song “Land Behind the Mist”. This particular song solidified the Nest concept – the kantele (a traditional Finnish lap harp) as a lead instrument on top of atmospheric synthetic soundscapes. A lot of experimentation was done with this formula, and eventually a recipe that had the elements in just the right proportion was found. The result ended up combining my love for the melancholic Finnish folk music of the older tradition, fantasy themed instrumental music made with synthesizers, spoken word storytelling, and worlds spawned from the imagination. Nevertheless, even on this first release, experimentation beyond the borders of the above was emerging. For example, heavy metal like distortion was applied on the kantele (instead of a guitar), and the results can be heard on the song “An Oaken Citadel”.
To celebrate this reissue, the sound is revisited and improved in numerous ways. The original had an ascetic dry sound, that has now been made voluminous and the aural dimensions have been expanded significantly – without compromising the original material and keeping its spirit intact.
Hidden Stream is the first professionally released Nest EP. I made great effort to have it be the best Nest material yet, since there was no guarantee that more Nest music would ever get to be released professionally. The songs on this release expand on the concept on the demo. They are more complex, more varied, and also have more experimentation. There’s more vocals – done mostly in a spoken word narrative style that I felt fitted well with this sort of fantastical storytelling music. It also includes a lot of animal sounds and sounds of nature – which work well in enforcing these natural themes. The experimentation with distorted kantele continues and is broadened – namely on “Harbinger Of A Greater Winter”. This time the heavy distorted kantele is the main element of the song, handling both the rhythmic backing and the lead stuff – and I am especially fond of the lead part where a distorted kantele harmonizes with a clean one.
For this reissue, the soundscape is greatly improved. The essence of the originals is retained, but the dry sparse sound is made more vast, and with greatly improved depth. Hopefully you enjoy this new version as much as I do”.
– A.T. / Nest
You might want to follow each of the four Nest releases, as most likely the last one will be offered with a special box to case them all.Fabled Lore / Hidden Stream is the first instalment in Nest’s vinyl and cd reissue schedule on Avantgarde Music and will be followed by the releases of Woodsmoke, Trail of the Unwary and Mietteita – this last one for the first time ever receiving a physical release.
