recorded music

Sibafest, an open-door event showcasing various artistic activities, education, and research conducted at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, was held in late January. The event, which celebrated its tenth anniversary, comprised concerts, engaging workshops, inspiring talks, and fascinating teaching demonstrations. As this collection of photographs demonstrates, classical repertoire and contemporary sounds took myriad fascinating and colourful forms.

By day, Tero Halvorsen is a mild-mannered archivist, but in his spare time he fights against time and oblivion. His tiny record label Finlandia Classics releases historical recordings made by Finnish singers celebrated in their day that would otherwise languish in radio vaults and private collections – and eventually disappear. While the operating environment for the recording industry has become challenging to say the least, Halvorsen’s passion and vision keep him going.

The vinyl industry is overheating, and pressing plants are reporting delays up to 10 months to deliver new product due to ever-growing demand for vinyl. While the labels and artists are struggling to get to grips with the new timeline, there’s a new pressing plant opening up in Helsinki in 2022.

In the Spring of 2020, Finland was dragged into a state of emergency by the coronavirus pandemic. While some struggled with the combination of working from home and supervising their children’s distance learning and home care, others carried on living and working like usual. All of a sudden, there were lots of people who had more time on their hands than before. How did the COVID-19 blight effect the consumption of music and what kind of music did Finns turn to in these trying times?

The music trade has long been overshadowed by falling sales. There have, however, been some signs of recovery in the past couple of years, due mainly to the growing supply of streaming services. Listening habits and preferences are also changing.

In 2001, it was a hundred years since the first Finnish records appeared on the market. Pekka Gronow, the then head of record archives at the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle, wrote about this exciting story for FMQ.

On September 26, 1972 the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) lifted the ban it had imposed over the years on individual records. It also decreed that the same principles as those for other material should be observed in choosing records for radio programmes.

Children’s music underwent a huge transition in Finland in the 1960s and 1970s. Composer Pekka Jalkanen witnessed and contributed to this development. In this article from 2011 he discusses the history of Finnish children's music.