Bergå Folk Project is a new ensemble featuring four leading Finnish folk music artists. Their self-titled debut album will be available May 13, 2022. “Bergå Folk Project” includes an international repertoire, sung in eight languages and played on thirteen instruments. It presents listeners a range of world and folk music influences. The collection is based on the Folk Songs series by Italian classical and experimental music composer Luciano Berio (1925-2003), whose songs Bergå Folk Project “returns” to their folk roots.
The set consists of folk songs primarily from the Mediterranean and Caucasus regions as well as North America, all arranged by Berio in the style and means of contemporary music. In the hands of Bergå Folk Project, the songs are transformed considerably.
Topi Korhonen, the band’s guitarist says: “At this point in time, making this kind of stuff gives me somewhat mixed feelings; despite the exhilaration of the process, the back of my mind is filled with doubt as to whether our way of working is – and here I quote Mikael Mattila – “nothing more than privileged dilettantes sampling from the sandwich table of world music.”
The musicians Esko Grunström, Aili Järvelä, Topi Korhonen and Iida Savolainen, who collaborated as an ensemble for the first time, are amazed at how easy and natural it was to work together.
“This project is a prime example of how music knows no borders. You can hear in every song how different influences can feed off each other and rise together to something completely new. One of my own favorites is Esko’s passionate recomposition of La donnaideale, which takes influences from Mexico, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. And probably other places too,” Savolainen says.
Bergå Folk Project includes Esko Grundström on bass, accordion, harmonium, kantele, vocals; Aili Järvelä on lead and backing vocals, violin, harmonium; Topi Korhonen on guitar, mandolin, lead and backing vocals, harmonium, trumpet; and Iida Savolainen on viola, lead and backing vocals, jouhikko, violin, octave violin, harmonium.
Additional musicians: Abdissa “Mamba” Assefa on percussion; Tommi Asplund on violin; Anna Grundström on cello; and Tomas Takolander on backing vocals.
Author: World Music Central News Room
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