Estonia

 We arrive in the Baltic states on our virtual travels, starting in the east with Estonia.  Although declaring neutrality during World War II, they were overrun several times, first by the Germans than the Soviet Union, who occupied the Baltic states until 1991.  Their language is related to Finnish and therefore totally unintelligible to the average human.  I have yet to visit the country, but by all accounts it's worth a visit.  Their national epic poem is the Kalevipoeg, which tells the story of a giant who throws rocks at his enemies, talks to hedgehogs and finally gets his feet cut off by his own sword.

We start at the north-eastern town of Rakvere, where violinist & singer Maarja Ruut was born in 1986.  She is classically trained, but started experimenting in different genres, most notably Estonian village folk, but also Hindustani music, and electronica.  Her interest in Estonian folk came when she discovered an archive of 78's from pre-Soviet times, which became her inspiration to create her more contemporary folk using a loop station to add layers to her music.  Here is a track from her 2016 album Une Meeles (In the hold of a dream) called Siidisulis Linnukene (The Silken-feathered Bird):

Next stop is Talinn, the capital of Estonia.  I'm not actually sure where folk-rock band Trad.Attack!  are based, but they were formed in 2013, taking archival folk recordings and adding their own rock tunes and rhythms to them.  They spine of the group is a trio consisting of Sandra Vabarna on vocals and torupill (Estonian bagpipe), Jalma Vabarna on guitar and vocals and Tõnu Tubli on drums.  Live they really rock the place, especially in their home country, but they have toured internationally.  Here is a live version of the song Jaan'kene from their 2015 album Ah!:

Multi-instrumentalist, story-teller and anthropologist Polina Tšerkassova was born in Talinn in 1986, but is ethnic Russian.  First and foremost she tells fairy tale-like stories form all over the world in Estonian, Russian and usefully English.  She accompanies those stories herself with a number of exotic instruments.  She has an absolutely captivating and enchanting style.  Here she gives her own version of what she does, of course in story form, from her 2017 album Singing Stories (also available in Estonian and Russian).  The piece is called Who Is a Storyteller:

Duo Ruut were formed in 2017 by 2 young women, Ann-Lisett Rebane and Kateriina Kivi, who play one(!) Estonian zither between them and singing together in harmony.  They were still teenagers when they were mucking about in the music room of their school trying to arrange a song together.  They tried every instrument they could or couldn't play until they stumbled across a neglected Estonian zither, which they considered uncool, but tried it out nevertheless.  They soon discovered that they could produce sounds on it, which are not traditionally associated with this instrument, and the rest is history as they say.  Given that Estonian folk tunes appear to have a tendency to be quite simple with sometimes only 2 or 3 notes, this sounds like the result would be very sparse and minimalistic, but they somehow produce a beautiful richness of sound and atmosphere.  Here is the title song from their 2019 album Tuule sõnad (Words of the Wind), which is a spell to drive away the wind.  Apparently the Estonians don't like weather of any description and therefore have a spell to ward of any weather condition.

I'm not sure where Kannel Player and folk musician Eva Väljaots was born in 1986, but she is Estonian, but now resides in Helsinki.  The kannel is the Estonian version of the Finnish kantele.  Her music is purely instrumental and inspired by nature.  Here's the title track of her 2021 album Hundinuiaõis * Bulrush Bloom:

Next stop is the small town of Märjamaa, where mouth harp player and singer Cätlin Mägi was born in 1979.  She plays mostly traditional Estonian music, using a loop station to accompany herself on the parmupill, the Estonian version of the mouth harp.  In fact she uses about 50 different types of mouth harps, which she interchanges mid-song giving the impression of a whole band playing along.  The effect is fascinating.  Here is the opening track to her 2018 album Mu Pill Parmupill (My Harp, my heart) called Koka Nokast (Wood Shavings):

 Finally we visit the south eastern town of Võru, where folk singer and multi-instrumentalist Mari Kalkun was born in 1986 (1986 seems to have been a very good year for Estonian musicians, must have been something in the stars...).  The region where she grew up is surrounded by woodlands and nature, which has inspired her style.  She is considered one of the driving forces behind the revival of Estonian folk.  She accompanies her songs on piano, Estonian zither, accordion and guitar.  Here's a song from her latest 2023 album Stories of Stonia called Lend Põhjataeva All  (Flight Beneath the Northern Sky):

That's it from Estonia, it's only a small country.  Next up on our imaginary travels is Latvia.  In the meantime you can follow the journey so far on my Tripline map.