Finland - Helsinki Part III & The Rest of Uusimaa

 As we carry on our exploration of the music of Helsinki we first encounter percussionist Minna Koskenlahti.  Her music is difficult to categorise.  She has a back ground in folk music and plays in various bands, but as a soloist she explores the limits and limitlessness of percussion, giving her instruments a melodic approach creating a minimalistic, intensive and hypnotic sound.  Here is the first half of her 2021 album Toinen/Other:

DANTCHEV:DOMAIN is a Helsinki based Finnish/American/Bulgarian outfit, led by Finnish/Bulgarian singer Anna Dantchev.  They dabble in Bulgarian folk combined with Nordic Jazz and cinematic storytelling with splashes of contemporary pop and rock.  Dantchev sings in English and she is supported by a nice brass section as well as a twinkling vibraphone, distorted guitar and punchy bass.  This is the title track of their 2022 album The Lions We Are:

Early music trio Ensemble Gamut! are a collective of early music and folk specialists looking for new ways to perform medieval and renaissance music by combining traditional instruments and electronics in innovative ways to create their own soundscape.  Their name derives from a medieval music theory by Guido of Arrezzo, but also means colour reproduction, whilst the Finnish word kamut means friends and Kamu is shorthand for Finnish folk music.  Here is a track from their 2022 album Ra called Lapsed caick laolacatt:

In 1998 the contemporary dance theatre group Tsuumi was founded, complete with their own in-house band the Tsuumi Sound System, who have since recorded several albums and toured extensively separate from the dance troupe.  Their music is described as world music, but sounds more like Finnish folk rock.  It's definitely rooted in Nordic folk with fiddle and accordion upfront backed by a strong rhythm section and saxophone.  They really seem to rock the place during live performances.  Here is a 10 minute extract from a concert at the Montelago Celtic Festival in 2017.  Some of those tunes can be heard on their 2013 album Floating Letters:

Saxophonist and reed player JoneTakamäki was born in Helsinki in 1955 and has been prominent Finnish avant garde and improvised music scene since the late 1970's.  For his latest collaboration he has teamed up with 2 Turkish musicians, multi-instrumentalist Umut Çağlar (of Konstrukt and Karkhana) and drummer Fahrettin Aykut (of BABA ZULA) to record a live session as Myth of the Drum (2022).  It blends free jazz with East Asian Zen sounds.  Here is an extract from the album:

Finally leaving Helsinki, although we could easily spend more time here, we are staying in the Uusimaa region as we are heading for the town of Kerava, just northeast of Helsinki.  This is where musician and composer Milla Viljamaa was born in 1980.  Her main instruments are piano and harmonium and she dabbles in various genres from folk to chamber music, opera to film music.  One of her most enduring love affairs is the tango though.  She has collaborated a lot with accordionist Johana Juhola, but this tune is from her 2011 solo album Minne and is called Neiti Marplen Tango (Miss Marple's Tango):

Next we are heading east for the town of Loviisa in the region of Uusimaa, where part of the world folk band BergåFolk Project comes from, the other half hailing from Helsinki.  They arrange folk songs from all over the world and give them their own interpretations, singing them in their original languages.  They are quite new on the scene, but are already making waves for their energetic live performances.  Here is an Italian song from their 2022 self-titled debut album called La Donna Ideale (The ideal woman):

That's it from Uusimaa for today, next we are heading to the east of Finland for our last leg of Scandinavia.  In the meantime you can follow my virtual tour on my Tripline map.

Finland - Helsinki Part II

 Continuing our exploration of the music of Helsinki, we start with young progressive folk band Vimma.  Lead vocalist Eeva Rajakangas has been dubbed the Greta Thunberg of Finland for her environmental activism alongside fellow band member and violinist Pessi Jouste.  This apparently is reflected in much of their lyrics, which sadly I don't understand.  Here is a song from their 2019 debut EP Studio Live called Kuu:

Their latest YouTube release that hasn't found it into any recordings yet has some English subtitles and was filmed after a train carrying coal was blocked by the 2 activists and others in protest against climate change and fossil fuel exploration:

 Folk metal band Ritva Nero formed in Helsinki in 2017.  They combine 18th century dance tunes such as Mazurkas, Polkas and Maanitus on instruments such as saxophone, Finnish bagpipes and nyckelharpa with metal drum and bass to create a contemporary party metal folk style of their own.  Here is a tune from their debut 2022 album Immortal Tradition called Master of Maanitus:

Acid folk duo Akkajee consists of two women or 'akkas', akka translating as a head strong woman with a decisive attitude and a sharp tongue, playing the viola and nyckelharpa as well as singing and playing a home made stomp box.  They tell stories (which sadly I can't understand) seasoned with pulsating beats and floating soundscapes.  This is the title track from their 2021 album Lastenkerääjä (Child Collector):

I first came across singer and pianist Vilma Talvite when she started a series on her YouTube channel called 100 songs from 100 countries, where she took her viewers and listeners on a virtual tour of the world during lockdown.  Apart from her solo projects she is also lead singer of the folk/pop band Valma & Varsinaiset.  Here is a song from their 2018 album Laulaja vailla äntää (Singer without a stutter) called Eturivin tyttö (Girl in the front row):

 

Contemporary folk trio Pauanne mix old archive recordings with violin, keyboards and drums and a fascinating blend.  The recordings, some of them 100 years old include spells from Sámi healers, a sermon from a western Finnish prison and cattle calls from Karelia.  They say, they are fascinated by the 'outrageous beliefs' of the past and its endemic prejudices, paranoia, fear of foreigners and persecution of women.  They feel that these traits are still very much alive, just dressed in modern clothes.  Here is a song from their 2019 self-titled album called Siihen laihin eläny (Lived up to that law):

That's where I'll leave it today, as it looks like we will linger a bit longer in Helsinki next time.  Until then you can follow my virtual travels on my tripline map.

Finland - Uusimaa & Helsinki Part I

 Next on our virtual trip around Finland we reach the region of Uusimaa, which includes the capital Helsinki.  First up we stop in the city of Espoo, where the all female kantele quartet Kardemimmit come from.  They were formed about 2005 by 2 sisters Anna & Leeni Wegelius and Jutta Rahmel and Maija Pokela.  Apart from playing various forms of the kantele, the national instrument of Finland, they sing self-composed or rearranged folk songs in tight harmonies inspired by the traditions of different regions from all over the country.  Here is a carefree love song from their 2009 album Kaisla called Huoleton rakkaus:

Also born in Espoo in 1964 is accordionist Maria Kalaniemi, who we met on our last post together with Eero Grundström.  She has also worked with pianist Timo Alakotila, whom we also met last time round.  In 2018 they produced an album together with Johanna & Mikko Iivanainen (vocals and guitar respectively) called Seimiyö.  Here's a song off the album called Heinillä härkien Kaukalon:

Finally we arrive in the capital of Finland and the 'Pearl of the Baltic Sea', Helsinki.  It is ranked as one of the most desirable cities in the world to live and is brimming with culture and music.  I have never been, but it's on the bucket list.

We start with one of my all time favourite acts, the vocal quartet Loituma.  They've been going since 1989 and still occasionally get together, but have only released 2 albums during their long career, both of which are hard to get hold of these days, but they scored one huge hit, when initially a Flash animation featuring their song Ievan Polkka went viral.  An old performance from 1996 of the full song soon surfaced and went viral too.  The song featured on their 1995 self-titled album (later released internationally as Things of Beauty) and reinforces my impression that Finnish is just a joke language...

More recently we have electro folk outfit Okra Playground.  They combine traditional Finnish folk with instruments including the kantele and the bowed lyre with a more modern contemporary approach.  Recently their most recent album Itku won the best European album of the year award from Songlines magazine.  The music is dominated by the 3 female vocalists and strong rhythms.  Here is the title track from the album:

'Vocal folk hop group Tuuletar are also relatively new on the scene.  The all female quartet has made some waves at Womex in Budapest and New Zealand, using only their voices, beatbox and even overtone singing, but deeply rooted in Finnish culture and language.  Here's a haunting song from their 2019 album Rajatila / Borderline called Lähteellä (At the Source):

The first musical instrument I ever set eyes on was probably a harmonica.  My Dad had an old diatonic harmonica from his days in the Rotterdam Harmonica Orchestra (yes there used to be such a thing...), which lived in a drawer of our living room cabinet with old shoelaces, buttons, scissors and other useful paraphernalia.  Later, as a teenager, I got into the blues and as harmonicas were cheap, I bought myself a Hohner blues harp.  I managed to get bluesy sounds out of it almost from the first moment I picked it up and managed to get quite good at it.  People still ask me how I do it, and I literally can't explain it, except that I seem to have a natural affinity with the instrument, even though I rarely play it.

Anyway, this long preamble serves me as an introduction to the next act, the harmonica trio Sväng, who were established by Eero Grundström, whom we met in the last post.  It consists of 4 varying types of harmonica, playing anything from Balkan rhythms, Slavic melancholy to passionate tango, world music from the north and wild improvisations.  It is quite a unique combination.  Here's a funny video of them explaining what their name means, whilst playing harmonica and cooking sausages:

Here's a medley from their 2021 album In Trad We Trust called Katrilla, Pilkkua ja Wappua:

Born in 1966, Sanna Kurki-Suonio has been part of the Nordic neo-folk scene for a long time.  She was a founding member of both Swedish-Finnish act Hedningarna as well as singing and playing the Kantele with Loituma and British/Finnish collaboration SANS.  She has also had a successful solo career with her band the snappily named Sanna Kuurki-Suonion Kuolematon Erikoistysteemi (Sanna Kuurki-Suonio's Unparalleled Special System).  This is more folk informed indie rock with elements of psychedelia. This is a track from their self-titled 2015 album called Häävalssi:

As I said Sanna Kurki-Suonio is also a vocalist for British/Armenian/Finnish quartet SANS.  It's the brainchild of British multi-instrumentalist and zither player Andrew Cronshaw and he is also joined by Armenian duduk player Tigran Aleksanyan and reeds player Ian Blake.  The music is roots inspired, but a conversation of different traditions, including Karelian, Armenian and English folk.  Here is an extract from a Womad concert with some of the songs included on their 2018 album Kulku:

That's it for today, next time we'll carry on exploring the music of Helsinki.  Until then you can check out my musical ramblings on my tripline map.