It’s a brand new year and I’m hoping to be much more active in with this blog than I was in 2024. However, it’s the same day job and certain old and some new health issues keep popping up, so it’s better not to promise anything else than “I will try”. That’ll have to do, added with “and I will also try to write shorter comments and that may help me comment on more albums”.
So in that spirit, I will open the 2025 season of FolkNotes with a Finnish ukulele album.
And why not, since ukulele master Markus Rantanen‘s third album, simply titled Ukulele 3, is utterly charming and almost zen-like in its deceptively plain form. As his two previous albums, this is music for solo ukulele, all pieces composed by Markus himself. And like in the two earlier releases, all the pieces are given Finnish first names, some male, some female, with no explanations.
The fragile sound of the ukulele reminds me of the Celtic harp: both instruments can easily get ran over by louder tools but when given their own space and time, they are magical.
Ukulele 3 contains music that carries echoes of Nordic trad, Renaissance and Baroque music and Markus’ own style that fits no preset style. It’s often contemplative, always beautiful, sometimes dazzlingly intricate. It invites you to calm down and listen, creating its own gentle sphere of sound and emotion. And his playing is so brilliant; one man and four strings can do wonders when Markus and his ukulele are at it.
So it’s a gentle opening for 2025 in this blog. Take it easy, people, there’s a long year ahead.
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All three ukulele albums by Markus Rantanen are available on all major streaming platforms.
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