Menoizikul; Midweek Musicalisms

Let's end February with a soft metal sound. Metal? Yes! This Finnish chamber group is a neoclassical metal band... that is to say, they play metal music heavily influenced by "classical" music. (I don't make this up, it's a 'thing'!) The three cellists are all classically trained graduates of the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki. You heard that at work with the song Live Or Die last month. Today's piece is rather more sedate.

Sacra could be many things; 

• 
  the plural of sacrum - the seat of our physical structure, the base of the spine and the part connecting us to the pelvis - the centre of our skeleton, in a way. In meditation, the sacrum provides stability to our torso and connects us to the earth; it is
• the Swadisthaana chakra; its colour is orange; its sound is "vummm"; it is the pulling of the tides and the lure of the moon; it is the centre of our creative selves. When this chakra is balanced and functioning properly, we can expect our relationship with ourselves and the world to feel harmonious, pleasureful, and nurturing
• the sacra were private rites of worship in pre-Christian Rome, as well as the utensils used in that worship,
• or it may be a reference to one or other card from a set of three richly-ornamented cards, placed on the altar during a Tridentine mass, containing the texts of prayers (Catholicism)

Any or all of these might have informed the essence of this piece. Played in traditional chamber ensemble style, with a hint of the heavy and darker notes of metal, the gorgeous throb of the drum centres the composition like the beat of a heart, the thump of blood in the veins. Even the cellos manage a percussive sound. I bliss to this and play it often. Does it mesmerise you, too?