Burning Hearts

Le Futur Pompiste, which released one marvelous album in 2004, Your Stories and Your Thoughts, before the vagaries of adult life scattered them far and wide; and Cats On Fire, whose debut long-player, 2007's The Province Complains, captivated all who were lucky enough to hear it (among them the writers at superlative U.K. magazine The Word). It was inevitable that this pair of bands, whose music shares a poise and sophistication rarely heard anywhere, never mind within the modest environs of Finland, would find each other. When they did, two members - Cats on Fire drummer and multi-instrumentalist Henry Ojala, and Le Futur Pompiste singer Jessika Rapo - decided to make yet more music on their own. The result is Burning Hearts. "We grew up in neighboring cities in the province of Ostrobothnia, in the Swedish-speaking parts of Finland, before we moved to the southern part of the country," Henry says of himself and Jessika. "We were both in bands as teenagers, and we met occasionally at concerts and through friends. But it wasn't until 2004, when Le Futur Pompiste and Cats on Fire toured together in Sweden, that we got to know each other better." Recently, Jessika has been touring with Cats, and she also appears on The Province Complains.