15 years ago Amorphis‘ guitarist Tomi Koivusaari began building riffs and songs that he could use on a solo album he planned to release on his 40th birthday. The debut album by his solo project Bjørkø (‘Birch Island’ = Koivusaari) took, however, years to turn into reality. As with many a musician, it wasn’t until the pandemic stopped touring that Koivusaari finally found the time to work on what became the album Heartrot. “Heartrot is a personal vision that’s naturally influenced by all the music I have subjected myself to over the years. It is, in a way, a soundtrack to an imaginary film. Musically the album’s guiding themes are a strong visual connection to nature and moods that are rarely happy or positive. Melancholy is always looming in the background”, says Koivusaari, who in the past studied movie sound engineering among other things. Even though the album is diverse, according to Koivusaari there are many factors that many of the songs share. The album is built on a strong foundation laid down by the tight band Koivusaari gathered to join him. Waltteri Väyrynen (Opeth, ex-Paradise Lost) plays the drums, Lauri Porra (Stratovarius) Is on bass and Janne Lounatvuori (Hidria Spacefolk) on keyboards. Half of the lyrics were written by Koivusaari’s old Abhorrence bandmate Jussi “Juice” Ahlroth. “Me and Jussi worked on the themes of the lyrics together, and he turned them skilfully into text: a lot left for the imagination and open to many interpretations. Some of the singers (Mariska, Ismo Alanko, Jessi Frey and Addi Tryggvason) wrote their won lyrics while the rest (Stian Thoresen, Jeff Walker, Petronella Nettermalm, Marko Hietala and Tomi Joutsen) interpret Ahlroth’s lyrics. The album was produced by my long time friend Nino Laurenne.” | 
