Album Review: Voimaa - Voimaa (self-titled album)

Voimaa explores music’s transcendent qualities on her new album with subtle new-age overtones as she balances minimalist flute with sharp electronics. The musician uses her go-to instrument and a couple of synthesizers to explore experimental narratives from her imaginative universe. On her self-titled album, she does this by blending flute explorations with thick ambient synth backdrops, often bypassing new age’s cheap fusion cliches for something exciting and thrilling. Some listeners might feel that Voimaa also does dive into the shadowy, archetypal waters of the fairy tale, weaving impressions of folklore narratives with modern sounds.

The opening track begins with dreamy synth pads that lull listeners into a turbulent sea of sounds. The sound design can be compelling, with spectral synths pads gurgling and writhing, haunting reverb trailing Voimaa’s flute, and paranoid bass keeping the hippies at bay. The album never gets quiet, you grow accustomed as the rest of the tracks follow the same formula but at times it becomes noticeably wilder and other times more tamer.

Voimaa spends a lot of time on the album soloing, but the best moments are when her instruments gel. On “Wyld,” she layers her instruments to build a shower of percussion over an inspiring flute melody. It’s a poignant exhale which skips the noodling that pervades her other tracks. Like waves crashing against shorelines and barriers, the song’s rhythmic noise batters the defenses without interruption. On “Divide Me” she goes further down the route, occasionally going into an unaccompanied solo which is answered by urgent but spacious flute sounds. In those suspended moments, you feel Voimaa’s conviction coming through. At its strongest, the album feels intimate; at its weakest it seems private to the point of opacity.

Periodically, sounds that draw attention to the artist’s presence (most notably, the flute) contribute to the arresting intimacy of the compositions and their performance; these sounds ground the sublime pieces with a needed sense of humanness, bridging the gap between the earthly and celestial. It’s all shrouded in a mystifying aura, contemplative and heartening and unpretentious. Nonetheless, the album is equally soothing where sparse, delicate chords evoke a sense of undisputed freedom.