As it turns out, the people at Finland's Svart Records have a musical taste which extends beyond the mere “Rock”, “Metal”, and “Punk” genres, as proven with this one-man NeoFolk act Pyhä Kuolema (band name translating to “sacred death”).
Helsinki based, Pyhä Kuolema is the solo band of one Mikko Pöyhönen, whom started the project shortly after the demise of NeoFolk duo Tuhat Kuolemaa, feeling the need to continue with something more intimate, emotional, spiritual, and personal. So he composed a set of songs which he subsequently recorded all by himself, and released as the album Saavun Vaikken Kulkisi through the small Anima Arctica label (only 300 copies printed) in 2011. In spite of having already enough occupations through his being part of NeoFolk/ Lounge quartet MAA, and of gloomy NeoFolk duo Tervahäät, Mikka still found enough time to write yet another set of classic “man+guitar” NeoFolk songs...of which the lyrics, by the way, are in the man's native language!...and in the meantime he's also signed that new album to this somewhat “bigger” label.
So, there you have it: classic “man with guitar” acoustic songs...ah, two exceptions : the track “Valkoinen Nainen”, on which not only an additional electric guitar occurs, but also a backing singer; and “Katajan Alla” is no song, but an instrumental (a beautiful one at that, too!). Also, something weird's done on album closer “Surmaajien Surmaja”, with something reminiscent of wind (the album titles doés translate as “sping wind finger”, you know) gradually taking over halfway through. Vocally, I would not say Mikko is among the most gifted singers, his voice relatively frequently trailing of onto the wrong half notes, but overall he passes the test. Weirdly enough, the only song off the current album to be found at Svart's SoundCloud page (http://) soundcloud.com/svart-records...is that “Valkoinen Nainen”, whereby a somewhat wronged image might come across. However, the debut album can be found on Bandcamp, so you might wanna check that in stead.