Pillar of the Finnish folk music community

This album by 30-year-old Tallari has a track for every year. Running through this elegant retrospective is the incomparable collaboration of four musicians with a long history of playing together – Antti Hosioja, Risto Hotakainen, Timo Valo and Ritva Talvitie – in the company of numerous guests and styles. Three of the group’s members have already retired, but Ritva Talvitie continues in the revamped Tallari and on this disc really puts the present trio (with Katri Haukilahti and Sampo Korva) through its paces.

Though Tallari succeeds in transforming into whatever it wishes, something always remains – the fundamental lilt and the soulful playing.

Translation: Susan Sinisalo