Ville Kangas: “The intention is always to find whether it is via odd combinations of instruments or sounds, through an unexpected choice of style, or…
Artist Profiles: Ville Kangas
Category: Artist Profiles
Artist Profiles: Vilddas
Vilddas was founded in 1997. The band combines pop tunes, traditional Sami chanting, called yoik, Middle Eastern instruments and ambient sounds. The multitalented vocalist, Annukka…
Artist Profiles: Susan Aho
Susan Aho joined Värttinä in 1997, she hails from Espoo and has been playing accordion since the age of 13. She has been involved with…
Artist Profiles: Pekka Lehti
Pekka Lehti was born in 1965 in Joensuu, Karelia. He first entered the world of music by beginning to play the bass in a punk…
Artist Profiles: Nordik Tree
Hans Kennemark (fiddle, viola), Arto Järvelä (fiddle, octave mandolin) and Timo Alakotila (harmonium) first met at the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival in Finland, 1984. Hans’…
Artist Profiles: Mari Kaasinen
Mari Kaasinen is an original Värttinä member from Rääkkylä, has been singing and performing since she was two and a half years old. Previously a…
Artist Profiles: Kari Reiman
Kari Reiman plays fiddle. A native of Helsinki, “Reiska” has a long history of acoustic music, including five-string banjo, mandolin and guitar with several bluegrass…
Artist Profiles: Kirsi Kähkönen
Vocalist Kirsi Kähkönen, from Rääkkylä in Karelia, was an original Värttinä member from 1983 and sang with them exclusively until 2002. In 2002, she left…
Artist Profiles: Värttinä
Värttinä (meaning spindle) is an early progenitor of “New Finnish Folk.” Värttinä’s origins go back to 1983 in the village of Rääkkylä, in Karelia, the…
Artist Profiles: Janne Lappalainen
Janne Lappalainen is an original Värttinä member from Rääkkylä and is one of the band’s chief arrangers and composers. Janne, a student of Sibelius Academy…