Finnish dream pop duo Karina search the woods for lost childhood memories in the tender but haunting video for “2000”.

Karin Mäkiranta and Helmi Tikkanen mark the first anniversary of their second album, matter-of-factly titled 2, with a cinematic video directed by Joona Möttö. The pair are known for quietly meditative, sometimes gently playful songs, among which “2000” stands out as decidedly more dramatic, even though it wasn’t necessarily the band’s intention. “It started off as a quiet song with only kantele and guitar. Somehow it took a left turn in the studio,” discloses Mäkiranta, the duo’s singer and guitarist.

Karina‘s “2000” is a contained, melancholic drama; however, a private rage one sinks into in solitude. The guitars and drums gather to create a hazy wave that rolls throughout the song and periodically calms down as if to urge the listener to devote their full attention to Mäkiranta’s delicate vocal. The interplay between instrumental gradation and softer vocal parts maintains a flow that proves a perfect soundtrack for a short film. Camcorder aesthetics and washed-out colours of the childhood sequences brings back memories. It calls to mind carefree days, along with futile childhood endeavours and celebrations that didn’t bring the joy they promised.

In the video, a cocker spaniel pulls on the leash as she leads her human through the trees, casing down the white-powdered, red-cheeked harlequinesque character who keeps anxiously looking over her shoulder as she slowly shuffles forth on the forest path. Once, she used to cheer up a little girl who’d been sad to sit at her birthday table alone and couldn’t get her red kite to fly up. But the girl grew up eventually and turned her adult back on childish games and colourful cakes, letting her formerly dear companion sink in sorrow.

Exploring the themes of pain and longing, hope and disappointment, the song and the video fit perfectly into the strange mood of a second March spent at home.