Islaja & Entertainment For The Braindead @ Ausland Berlin | Friday, 04.04.2014

As a release concert for her new album SUU on monika enterprise, Finnish artist Islaja will give a performance at Ausland. Live support comes from Entertainment For The Braindead while monika label founder Gudrun Gut and Heidi Mortenson who produced the Islaja album will play DJ sets.

monika is proud to welcome a new artist to her roster: the Finnish producer and composer ISLAJA aka Merja Kokkonen. The new ISLAJA album marks a radical transition for the former folk musician into a solo-artist who skillfully arranges lyrics, melodies and imagery into a much more electronic style than she has been known for in the past. The album is called S U U which is Finnish for “mouth”, and ISLAJA’s bold vocal style and lyrical content will make you want to tune in to what’s coming from her S U U.

Islaja | Skeleton Walk
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=qPIetgasVmM

ISLAJA has been part of the contemporary music scene for several years already producing wonderfully arranged surreal pop-tracks in her solo work as in Keraaminen Pää 2010 as well as in collaboration with other musicians as the Hertta Lussu Ässä project in 2011, released on De Stijl (USA) or recently as a contributor to AGF’s Kuuntele compilation in 2013. In total she has previously had four full length albums on Finnish label Fonal plus one on Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! Records.

Islaja | Rohkaisulaulu
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=eLns3M-uPc8

Still, so far it has mainly been insiders of the underground music scene that have been familiar with her work. Her music is associated strongly to the D.I.Y. scene so represents a prime example of a female musician who has developed a singular musical and aesthetic expression. Now with her fifth album appearing on Gudrun Gut’s monika enterprise in spring 2014, the latest activities of Berlin based Finnish pop-musician ISLAJA have shown a surprising change in style and sound.

Entertainment For The Braindead | A Smile
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=b3ZIal3rh5A

entertainment for the braindead is a berlin based one woman lofi orchestra. since 2007 she has been writing and publishing songs, gathering guitars and banjos, ukuleles, flutes and other little items to accompany her voice in fragile arrangements. when at home in her berlin headquarter, she crafts paper cutouts for CDs or bakes cookies to go along with the music. and every now and then she carries heavy bags full of gear and instruments through train stations and airports, lulling audiences in close-by living rooms as well as far off places such as bosphorus metropoles or californian deserts.