Celenka - Villoi Varsa (2021)
BAND/ARTIST: Celenka
- Title: Villoi Varsa
- Year Of Release: 2021
- Label: Nordic Notes
- Genre: World, Folk
- Quality: FLAC (tracks)
- Total Time: 42:24
- Total Size: 238 MB
- WebSite: Album Preview
Eero Grundström: Harmonium, vocals, harmonica, stamping
Emmi Kujanpää: Vocals, kantele, stamping
Jarkko Niemelä: Trumpet, vocals, stamping
On Villoi varsa, Celenka brings to the fore old Karelian female singers who performed the traditional songs from their villages and families to folk song collectors in the early 1900s. The album includes songs by Olga Kottina, Matro Tikano, M.F. Makarova ja P. Ivanova, and even lyrics recorded under a pseudonym ”One wife” whose actual name the collector didn’t bother jotting down. The songs are in Karelian, Veps, Finnish and Russian and represent a multilingual and multicultural Karelia in the midst of a period of war and persecution.
Many of the songs by Karelian women are straight out of Chekhov’s plays: in Vanusha a better life is sought in Moscow, in Brihat hebot lovers meet in a cherry orchard and the title track Villoi varsa takes us on a wild wooing ride. Although the world depicted in the songs is obviously patriarchal and every woman, man and horse has their scripted part to play, the stories and ageless melodies touch us even today. In 2021 we dream of better days just the same.
The band has gathered most of the album’s material from archives between 2016 and 2020 and arranged the songs to combine the voices of the three musicians with the sound of the harmonium and kantele as well as the trumpet solos by Jarkko Niemelä that will rival the trumpets of Revelation. The album also includes some songs by the musicians themselves, like Eero Grundström’s Balkan-influenced Työväenlaulu (Engl. Working Class Song) which resonates with both the Russian Karelian socialist past and the plight and precarious position of the artist in today’s society.
The album weaves together personal and political history. When the leader of the music department of Finnish radio in Petrozavodsk, Ahti Sonninen, collected songs by the Veps singer Olga Kottina for the Greater Finland project during the Finnish continuation war, a young 19-years old soldier served in Petrozavodsk. He was none other than Emmi Kujanpää’s grandfather Veikko Kemiläinen. He never spoke of what he experienced there but he did lament the loss of his beloved mandolin there. When Emmi, as a 19-years old young folk musician, was about to leave on a concert trip to Petrozavodsk in 1999, her grandfather asked if she could bring his mandolin back for him, should she happen to come across it. The mandolin was nowhere to be found but Emmi did discover the song Ljotal golub (Engl. The Dove Flew) there, when it was performed by a local group, Myllärit.
Tracks:
01 - Celenka - Vanusha (4:03)
02 - Celenka - Brihat Hebot (3:57)
03 - Celenka - Ljotal Golub (4:28)
04 - Celenka - Tikan Kolo (2:02)
05 - Celenka - Villoi Varsa (2:18)
06 - Celenka - Sina Sad & Neditse Le, Nedo (4:10)
07 - Celenka - Juopukat (3:25)
08 - Celenka - Nevanjoen Neito (3:20)
09 - Celenka - Tyovaenlaulu (3:30)
10 - Celenka - Batrineasca & Lelo (4:40)
11 - Celenka - Veden Rannalla (6:32)
Emmi Kujanpää: Vocals, kantele, stamping
Jarkko Niemelä: Trumpet, vocals, stamping
On Villoi varsa, Celenka brings to the fore old Karelian female singers who performed the traditional songs from their villages and families to folk song collectors in the early 1900s. The album includes songs by Olga Kottina, Matro Tikano, M.F. Makarova ja P. Ivanova, and even lyrics recorded under a pseudonym ”One wife” whose actual name the collector didn’t bother jotting down. The songs are in Karelian, Veps, Finnish and Russian and represent a multilingual and multicultural Karelia in the midst of a period of war and persecution.
Many of the songs by Karelian women are straight out of Chekhov’s plays: in Vanusha a better life is sought in Moscow, in Brihat hebot lovers meet in a cherry orchard and the title track Villoi varsa takes us on a wild wooing ride. Although the world depicted in the songs is obviously patriarchal and every woman, man and horse has their scripted part to play, the stories and ageless melodies touch us even today. In 2021 we dream of better days just the same.
The band has gathered most of the album’s material from archives between 2016 and 2020 and arranged the songs to combine the voices of the three musicians with the sound of the harmonium and kantele as well as the trumpet solos by Jarkko Niemelä that will rival the trumpets of Revelation. The album also includes some songs by the musicians themselves, like Eero Grundström’s Balkan-influenced Työväenlaulu (Engl. Working Class Song) which resonates with both the Russian Karelian socialist past and the plight and precarious position of the artist in today’s society.
The album weaves together personal and political history. When the leader of the music department of Finnish radio in Petrozavodsk, Ahti Sonninen, collected songs by the Veps singer Olga Kottina for the Greater Finland project during the Finnish continuation war, a young 19-years old soldier served in Petrozavodsk. He was none other than Emmi Kujanpää’s grandfather Veikko Kemiläinen. He never spoke of what he experienced there but he did lament the loss of his beloved mandolin there. When Emmi, as a 19-years old young folk musician, was about to leave on a concert trip to Petrozavodsk in 1999, her grandfather asked if she could bring his mandolin back for him, should she happen to come across it. The mandolin was nowhere to be found but Emmi did discover the song Ljotal golub (Engl. The Dove Flew) there, when it was performed by a local group, Myllärit.
Tracks:
01 - Celenka - Vanusha (4:03)
02 - Celenka - Brihat Hebot (3:57)
03 - Celenka - Ljotal Golub (4:28)
04 - Celenka - Tikan Kolo (2:02)
05 - Celenka - Villoi Varsa (2:18)
06 - Celenka - Sina Sad & Neditse Le, Nedo (4:10)
07 - Celenka - Juopukat (3:25)
08 - Celenka - Nevanjoen Neito (3:20)
09 - Celenka - Tyovaenlaulu (3:30)
10 - Celenka - Batrineasca & Lelo (4:40)
11 - Celenka - Veden Rannalla (6:32)
Year 2021 | World | Folk | FLAC / APE
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