Eero Grundström

Swedish native speakers constitute Finland’s culturally most significant minority. Much of Finland’s music has Finland-Swedish roots, the best-known case in point being Jean Sibelius. The strength of these roots can be heard in Finland-Swedish folk music, with its minuets, ballads and regional specialties – a tradition very different from that of Finnish-speaking Finns.

"There are raucous dances with shifting metres, but there are also melancholic melodic arcs and soft moods."

"The JuuriJuhla-RotFest (Roots Festival) takes place in Espoo each year and says it has its own roots in the pelimanni folk dance music, although most of the concerts range much wider. It featured top names on the Finnish roots music scene."

"The disc probes deep into the soul while simultaneously being so strongly connected to the environment that it is dedicated to the wilderness. The music is full of the power of nature, the aches and pains of finding the wings of one’s soul, and the joy of discovery when one finally finds them."

"The varied use of vocal technique and storytelling go naturally hand in hand throughout this album."

“The music of Arctic Fire concert at the WOMEX 2019 was brave and contemporary, yet all of them drew in some way on archaic traditions in Finnish music.”

Once a year the Folklandia cruise gathers Finnish folk music and dance lovers together for a 24-hour journey on the Baltic Sea. In January 2019 Simon Broughton got on the board.

When violins first reached the shores of Finland via Sweden sometime during the 17th and 18th centuries, it seems that they jumped straight into the Perho River and swam upstream to the Central Ostrobothnian village of Kaustinen. The local playing tradition has remained unbroken ever since, with each village boasting its own unique playing style. Now the Kaustinen fiddle tradition has been nominated for inclusion in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

This band is in a class of its own: an ensemble of four harmonicas that creates its own material, drawing on Finnish folk music, Balkan rhythms and tango. Founded in 2003, Sväng put their inimitable stamp on everything they perform, demonstrating that Chopin and Sibelius too had a folk music streak in them!

"​Though they have only been around for three years, the quartet Suistamon Sähkö have grown into quite a phenomenon."

"The material is well chosen to represent the different characteristics of the Finnish tango, and of course Sväng builds on the story with their own compositions".

"If I had to choose one recording to preserve for the future or to send off to space in order to illustrate humankind’s history and humaneness, this album would get my vote."

The accordion queen Maria Kalaniemi has been around for 30 years but still continues to impress, now by singing as well.

The nature of folk music has always included the shameless borrowing of refreshing material from elsewhere – right now Baltic Finnish influences are rising to the top in Finland.