Week 767: “Paradise” by Kupla

Beautiful Song Of The Week

http://www.beautifulsongoftheweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Paradise.mp3

In 2017, Finland celebrated the 100th anniversary of its independence from the Russian Empire. In the lead-up to this occasion, its neighbour Norway tried – as any good neighbour would – to come up with the perfect birthday gift.

But what? Finland consistently ranks at or near the top in just about every quality-of-life list you’ll ever see. Healthcare, education, safety, environment, work-life balance…it’s basically a paradise. A frigid paradise, sure, but a paradise nonetheless.

So what do you get the nation that already has everything?

Well, some enterprising Norwegians had a great answer to that question: a mountain.

When the borders between Finland and Norway were made official in the mid-1700s, a fondness for straight lines paired with a lack of attention to detail resulted in a minor geographic quirk: the tallest mountain in Finland…wasn’t fully in Finland. The mountain, Mount Halti, was largely within Finnish territory, but its peak was 20 metres on the Norwegian side.

As Finland’s 100th birthday approached, the movement to give Finland the peak of its own highest mountain gained quite a lot of social media traction and news media attention. The Norwegian government was on board at first, but after looking into the paperwork, it decided that ceding territory would be counter to its own constitution, article 1 of which states that Norway is “indivisible” – and the campaign abruptly ended there.

Norway’s Prime Minister at the time stated that they would choose another “suitable gift” for Finland on the occasion of its anniversary, but try as I might, I can’t find any evidence of what they eventually settled on.

Part of me doesn’t want to know, because it’s safe to say that whatever it was, it wasn’t anywhere near as cool as a mountaintop. But I also want to know that Norway tried; that they at least gave Finland something cooler than a 100 Kroner prepaid Visa.

Please get in touch with me if you happen to know what it was.

What makes this a beautiful song:

1. Finnish DJ / Composer Kupla has a knack for very textured sounds. There’s a white noise in the background of this track that brings to mind falling snow.

2. The ascending arpeggios in the piano make me imagine someone hiking up Finland/Norway’s highest mountain.

3. The melancholic melody played by the clarinet makes me imagine a generous Norwegian standing at the top of Mount Halti, gazing wistfully across the border, constitutionally prohibited from giving his Finnish neighbour the gift he wants to give.

Recommended listening activity:

Practising your gift-wrapping technique.

Buy it here.

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