JOENSUU, MIKKO - Amen 3 (Sealed) (3LP)

Svart Records is thrilled to release Amen 3, Mikko Joensuu's third solo album. The Finnish singer-songwriter's new album is more than the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Amen 1 and Amen 2: it is the final chapter in the story begun by its predecessors. Each album is part of a triptych, with Amen 3 integral to the whole picture. Yet, still, Amen 3 stands on its own. Amen 3 begins with "Birth", a song which is actually a goodbye: a break with all that has come before. The album ends with "Pearly Gates", another goodbye: but one which is irrevocable - the end to the creative and soul-searching artistic process inspiring all three albums. Overall, Amen 3 describes a dream, woken from during "Dream About A Miracle" when Mikko embraces what will come after he has left behind what moved him to compose this deeply personal musical voyage through who he is, what has made him and who he has become. Each album is an unfiltered manifestation of Mikko's search to free himself from her past and move on. In her home country, reviews of the "snow-white pure" Amen 1 pointed to its intimacy and minimalism. Amen 2 was "moving toward the light" with "more life-affirming lyrics" than Amen 1. On Amen 3, Mikko explains that "the harmonic features of Amen 1 and the popiness of Amen 2 swim into another world where I forgot the usual ways I write songs. The songs live in a bigger world where I did not analyse what happened. Amen 3 is more free.