Reviews

the quietus – from „tQ’s Reissues Etc. Of The Year 2023“ by Jakub Knera:  „In almost every country behind the Iron Curtain, distinguished musicians from the avant garde and academic music world had a chance to present a “second face” as a mainstream composer. Usually, they also wrote music for TV, radio, movies and animations in styles that were entirely different. For almost two decades from the mid-60s onwards, the Estonian Tallinnfilm animation studios brought together composers born in the 1940s and 1950s. Chamber music was interspersed with huge orchestrations, pop art merged with pop music, and solo showpieces intertwined with the catchy sound of synthesisers or Rhodes. Among the recordings documented on Anima POP are the funky themes of Olav Ehala, phenomenal work by ensemble Apelsin, the prog rock of the Rein Rannap Band, and catchy hooks by the well-known Arvo Pärt. They all showed how fresh and original music for children’s fairy tales could be, giving them an extra dimension.“

dustygroove.com: „An unusual set – not the pop you might expect from the title, and instead a whole host of short, mostly instrumental tunes from very obscure Estonian animated films! The styles here follow a bit of the modes of Polish work from the period – lots of electronics, used in very cool ways – sometimes melodic, occasionally funky, and all working together in a way that makes the whole collection work very strongly as a whole! There's some surprising early contributions from composer Arvo Part – including the cuts "Hirjaht" and "Operaator Kops Uksikul Saarel" – and Estonian jazz musician Tonu Naissoo turns in cuts that include "Meemeistrite Linn" and "Naerupall". The set also features work from Sven Grunburn, Rein Rannap, Olav Ehala, and Tonu Aare –- and features a total of 17 tracks in a very colorful package.“

boomkat.com: „Who knew Arvo Pärt made music for Estonian Animations?! ‘Anima POP’ is a revelatory survey of retro nostalgia from the Baltics that surely resounds with Stroom’s Alain Pierre reissue and Finders Keepers excavations of British animation scores.

Unless we’re in a parallel universe or someone's having a laugh, Arvo Pärt opens this account, of mainly instrumental music from ’60s-‘80s Estonian animated films, like you’ve never heard him, twanging surf guitar like Hank Marvin on a merry one. It’s a hugely enticing introduction to the decades of inventive art of a generation that emerged from Tallinfilm animation studios, who were splicing pop cultural, avant and psychedelic aesthetics to colour to the imagery of films for kids. As such, it’s all very much bucolic and uplifting, belying their sense of naiveness with craftiness with a blend of pop typical guitars, Rhodes pianos, and, as the set moves along the timeline, a fine strain of wigged-out synthesiser chops.

The level of tweeness is perhaps understandably high, but also dead charming with it, especially once we get past the winky-nudgy Finders Keepers type of psychy jaunts and into the likes of Grunberg’s effervescent space synth glyder ‘Klaabu Kosmoses’, proggy ‘Liigub Liigub’, and the free floating chorale harmony of ‘Linalakk Ja Rosalind’. There’s the sort of cod-reggae that could also have surfaced in some BBC kiddy’s series on Ehala’s ‘Aeg Maha’, sublime Rhodes and synth arrangement in Naissoo’s contributions, and at its furthest point, a killer cut of fruitiest electro-funk on ‘Kaelkirjak’ very in step with 1986, before promptly turning into a prog-fusion jam.“