Annanland

I saw the sky of van Gogh and started hearing music

To be or not to be an artist 

The latest recording by Finland-Swedish singer-songwriter and folk singer Désirée Saarela feels like something new and different for herself. Although it is her ninth album, she has never before created music with visual artists and their thoughts as her starting point – and neither has she called herself an artist.

– It started with Vincent van Gogh, I’ve always been fond of his paintings. I started hearing music in them, especially in the way he paints the sky and the fields.
Then the incredibly versatile Tove Jansson entered – visual artist and author to the famous Moomin books. Saarela had the opportunity to visit her home studio and play there.

– And in some way Tove Jansson made me brave enough to call myself konstnär, which in Swedish feels much more complex than the English word artist. I needed to look for understanding in other artists in order to free myself, and in that way try to achieve something universal. I am really fighting for the possibility to do this. In the world we are living in today, it has to be possible also for others than Taylor Swift to make music.

 

Sounds from Vienna

Austria played an important role in the process. Désirée Saarela has visited the country at several occasions during the last years, and some of the songs were written in Vienna, inspired by Austrian visual artists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. 

Thanks to the festival Glatt & Verkehrt, Saarela got the opportunity to be artist in residence in Krems, in the northeast of Austria, and there she got the idea to sing in two languages, both in Swedish and English. Back in the days, when Saarela started to write songs, her working language was English, but during the latest years she has really sticked to Swedish. Suddenly the songs started to come in two languages, sometimes switching language in the middle of a phrase.

– First I thought it was completely crazy, something I just can’t do. But on the other hand it is liberating. Mastering many languages is my effects unit.

 

Create your own Otherland

“Everything is possible”, it says on the wall in Désirée Saarelas working space in her home in Pedersöre, Ostrobothnia. During the recording process she also got herself a tattoo around her right wrist with the same motto. 

– We are living in hard times right now. But in some way we should still be able to create our own Annanland, our Otherland. How can I try to grow, do I have dreams I’d wish to achieve? Yearning for something that takes us further, that is what Annanland means to me.

By way of using other artist’s thoughts as a mirror Désirée Saarela has also come to the point of calling herself an artist, something she didn’t dare before.

– In Swedish you mostly address someone in the music field as a musician or an artist, not with the word konstnär, which is quite complex. But in English the word artist means it all, in all genres.
Annanland also gets visual shape in an exciting collaboration with Swedish visual and screen artist Malin Skinnar, who has created digital tapestries / animated backdrops for Saarela’s live performances of all the songs on the album. The sleeve is made by French visual artist Chloé Kelly Miller, who Saarela came into contact with through an acquaintance at the artist residence in Krems. Through this link the lyrics to one of the songs on the album, Ultima Thule, surprisingly ended up at Millers exhibition in Carrousel du Louvre last summer. 

 

In grandmother’s house

All songs are quite recent compositions, none of them has been waiting in the drawer.

– The song Annanland is the oldest one, I wrote that one in January-February 2023. And the last songs, Schiele and Klimt, I wrote in February-March 2024. And in March 2024 we were already recording.

Although the recording process has taken Saarela down to Central Europe, she considers her roots as being really important. The album was recorded during four intense days in the house of her grand mother in Lappjfärd. It is only her and the guitar, no other musicians feature this time. On the song Annanland you can hear the wall clock ticking in my grandmothers kitchen. Some other soundscapes are featured as well, among them Café Korb in Vienna.

– They have the best apfelstrudel in the world! Except for these sound files, everything is recorded in complete, straight-forward takes. No cutting at all. 
– On a symbolical level, to record in my grandmother’s house felt really important to me. It is a place where I’ve spent time during my whole life, although I’ve otherwise moved around quite a lot. At the same time you try to find you own way and look for new things you also have to go back and get a hold of the person you’ve always been. 

 

Text: Tove Djupsjöbacka

Désirée Saarela: sång, gitarr, cavaquinho / vocals, guitar, cavaquinho

All text och musik / music and lyrics: Désirée Saarela
Alla arrangemang / arrangements: Désirée Saarela

Inspelning och mixning / Recording and mixing: Jarno Alho, Tampere, Finland
Masterering / Mastering: Janne Hakanen, Tampere, Finland

Producent / Produced by: Désirée Saarela

Digitala gobelänger, animerade backdrops för Annanland konserterna, screen artist / Digital tapestries and animated backdrops for Annanland live concerts by screen artist: Malin Skinnar, Sweden

Pärmbildens konstverk / Front cover art: Chloé Kelly Miller, France

Grafiskt arbete / Graphic design: Erica Sjölund, Sweden

Foton / Photos: Andreas Haals, Finland

Booklet