LIVE REPORT: Altamullan Road

Taidetehdas, Porvoo; March 2nd, 2024

If you’re looking for magic, wonder, tenderness, and hope in your live music events, look no further than Altamullan Road. From the first show until their last, Johanna Kurkela and Johanna Iivanainen (and their families) have put on spectacular performances, oftentimes completely or near-completely sold-out. Having to cancel their album release tour due to COVID was certainly awful, but it seems to have made way for something a little different and a lot beautiful, so I, for one, am not sorry that I had to wait! Having seen the first show in Kitee and another in Hyvinkää, and having read what Kathy wrote about the show in Helsinki, it felt appropriate to go to that last show and see things had progressed after two months of touring!

Check out the interview we did with Altamullan Road here! Full gallery below!

So, as you know, I’ve seen this show a few times now, so I wanted to do something a little different for the final show. You can refer to the previous three(!) reports if you want to know about the show, the songs, and the atmosphere. There’s nothing much more than I can say on that front—this show was just as good as the others. This time, I tried to write down three adjectives that were invoked by the songs and I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could do it without repeating any of them as well (that’s sixty-six unique adjectives!). Here they are:

“Candle in the Dark”: peaceful, enticing, harmonious
“Art of Losing”: tender, tranquil, sweet
“Hearts of Old”: youthful, powerful, hopeful
“When it’s Time”: ethereal, encouraging, tear-inducing
“Jacob’s Dream”: chilling, tragic, mystical
“Fields of Gold”: rustic, light-hearted, loistava
“Thousand Years”: exquisite, adoring, endearing
“Interstellar Friends”: cosmic, haunting, deep
“Society”: enlightening, folky, playful
“Mustarastas laulaa”: sorrowful, lovely, delicate
“Dawn”: promising, calm, glowing
“Song of the Lark”: daring, bright, evocative
“Neverending Story”: fantastical, cheerful, enchanting
“Mama Werewolf”: honest, stompin’, alluring
“Go Slowly, Now”: storied, reflective, wistful
“Ainiaan”: magical, astral, dew-glimmery
“The Merry Scallywag”: vivacious, mischievous, siren-like
“Hey Brother”: unifying, warm, supportive
“The Should’ve Sent a Poet”: joyous, inspiring, freeing
“Maniac”: vibrant, fun, danceable
“Underwater”: aquatic, drifty, mellowdark
“What Was I Made For”: soulful, fragile, real

It’s worth mentioning that I happened to be seated next to some dear friends of Johanna Kurkela, who were using words like “exquisite,” “fragile,” and “I’m rarely impressed but right now I’m speechless,” so suffice to say that these Altamullan Road shows have been leaving a mark! And yes, there were tears.

Now, most of those descriptors up above are pretty self-explanatory and a few of them are used because of the songwriting, but some need a bit of further explanation. For example, “harmonious” was specifically referring to how gorgeously the two voices intermingle immediately in that first song. “Powerful” is appropriate, but it almost requires an oxymoronical precursor, like “tender” or “delicate,” because that power is expressed so gently. “Loistava” is a Finnish word that translates to all of the following: “shiny,” “glowing,” “bright,” “wonderful”; this combined form of both glowing and wonderful felt more suitable than anything I could come up with in English. “Adoring” was the best word I could find for “Thousand Years,” because I wanted to suggest that not all loves are romantic. When I referred to “Interstellar Friends,” the word “deep” relates specifically to emotions, as well as the depths of space and the limitlessness of love and friendship. “Dew-glimmery” is definitely not a real phrase, but “glimmering” alone does not encapsulate the imagery of morning light on a dew-drop and “dewy” has some potentially negative connotations that weren’t fitting. The same goes for “siren-like”… the way Johanna Kurkela sings in “The Merry Scallywag” feels like you are being lured into the waters by sirens and there isn’t an adjective that specifically suggests that. I used “unifying” for “Hey Brother,” because using “brotherly” or “sisterly” felt too gendered. And lastly, “mellowdark” is a word that I just had to make up because “dark” has so many connotations and I wanted to suggest that the song is dark, but in a way that’s soft, warm, and welcoming, not cold, scary, or lonely.

Nevertheless, it was surprisingly easy for me to find unique words to describe these live songs. These Altamullan Road shows have been so truly beautiful, emotional, and inspirational. I don’t regret, in the slightest, going to see them three times—I’d have gone every night if I could have! It’s been a magical experience each and every time, always luring me in at different times, and I’ve learned a lot of new songs that I love now because of this!

Furthermore, I’ve mentioned that live music just hasn’t been giving back the same thing that it used to for me lately, just because I’m rather burnt out on it. These were the first venue shows that I’ve been to this year that really filled me with the same joy that I get out of seeing indie shows in clubs, but dressed up in a higher-budget production. It’s been nothing short of spectacular—there’s nothing quite live music and this tour had everything: incredible performances, exceptional lighting, and wonderful sound quality. Fingers crossed that there will be another album from these two sooner than later! Now, I need to see Johanna Iivanainen playing one of her solo shows, and I wait with bated breath for any more of Johanna Kurkela’s projects to hit the stages!