Thursday, September 8, 2011

Reet


Rustic Estonian work songs and lullabies as imagined by a 1960s teenager with a guitar. I love this album. It's certainly sad enough. Each little wooden box of a song opens to reveal the story of a rural life lived rightly but tragically -- the lovelorn shepherd, the hayfield laborer under the heel of her feudal master, etc. The song lyrics read like scripts for miniature black & white allegorical films in the vein of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, films where restless teenagers buck against village customs and start toying around with modern ideas and music they hear on the radio... Reet Hendrikson has a lovely voice and is a damn fine guitar player. There is something about the Estonian way with rhythm and melody that keeps you off balance in the nicest way. Whatever it is it works well with these little nuggets of sorrow Hendrikson throws at us. Anyway enjoy. This has been my album of the summer but now that there's a chill in the air it seems to be even more relevant.



18 comments:

  1. Totally gorgeous. Thank you.

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  2. aah! i was vividly waiting for this one since you post your august mix!!!
    thanks a lot for this and all the other treasures... and please, keep going!

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  3. Absolutely wonderful! Very Vashti Bunyan.
    And that cover design!

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  4. Right On! I was hoping you might post this. Thanks so much.

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  5. Ah, no problem. Play this one for your friends!

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  6. I was listening to your latest compilation again during the early hours of last night/ this morning (I forget which) and the Reet Hendrikson had me completely spellbound.
    Thanks for sharing this gem.

    Perfect accompaniment to a roaring fire.

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  7. new link:
    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EBT78FES

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  8. thank you. wonderful music and blog

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  9. Lovely - this reminds me a bit of some of the earlier Värttinä albums, before they went all world beat-y. Those trilled Rs...

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  10. Hello, I am Federico from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Congratulations and thank you very much for this post: Reet is so beautiful.

    I am amazed with all your blog indeed :)

    Have a nice day,

    F.

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  11. Wow! That's fantastic! Thanks for sharing!
    I actually tried to buy this album and couldn't find it anywhere :(

    Do I need to travel to Estonia to buy it? I fucking would! Anyone knows?

    Cheers!

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  12. Please; might we have new link!?!!?

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  13. Hello Ben,

    Long time! I want to share with you this information about Reet (Google translator is needed).

    I wish you a nice day,

    http://eestimeel.blogspot.com.ar/2012/06/eesti-parim-folklauluplaat-reet.html

    Federico

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  14. cool! that's a nice photo of her.

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  15. Reet was born in Estonia in June 1944, but moved with her family to Sweden soon after. She went to school in Uppsala and graduated there in 1963. She went to North America on scholarships for some years but came back to Sweden. She did not get a family of her own and died in 2000.

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  16. link above says she committed suicide at age 56. =(

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  17. Is there any chance you could re-upload this beautiful album? I (and probably plenty of other people) would be eternally grateful!

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  18. https://www.mediafire.com/?do7vhemiixc5xzm

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