Music
Press
"Backed by swirling fiddles and accordions and remorseless pounding drums, their exultant, semi-polyphonic singing is at once strident and alluring in a way that would make them perfect adolescent fantasy material if they didn't happen to be foreign and folk." - Daily Telegraph
"Attention-grabbing is not an issue for Värttinä's three women singers. Miero opens with the trio at their most ferocious....They careen from hoarse-voiced chanting to giddy ululating to some of the purest close-interval singing imaginable" - Toronto Globe and Mail
“There are few bands who have been together for over 20 years who still conistently thrill, surprise and amaze audiences all over the world. Värttinä has seemingly unstoppable creative energy.” - Fiona Talkington
"Exquisite beauty...groundbreaking yet steeped in tradition, definitely Finnish, yet worldly" - -Billboard Magazine
"Delicious knock-em-dead folk tunes, dangerous four part harmonies, judicious sounds of squeezebox and cracking rock rhythms." - -Tokyo Classified
Discography
Albums:
25 (compilation), SonyBMG 2007
Miero, Real World 2006
iki, SonyBMG 2003
6.12. (a.k.a. Live in Helsinki), SonyBMG 2001
Ilmatar, SonyBMG 2000
Vihma, SonyBMG 1998
Kokko, Warner-Nonesuch 1996
Aitara, Mipu Music 1994
Seleniko, Polygram-Sonet 1992
Oi Dai, Sonet-Spirit 1991
Musta Lindu (a.k.a. Black Bird), Olarin Musiikki 1989
Värttinä (a.k.a. The 1st Album), self release/Mipu Music 1987/1992
Photos
Bio
Värttinä is Finland's most successful contemporary folk music group, now celebrating their twenty-fourth year. Värttinä's roots are in the Karelia region of Finland situated at the Finnish-Russian border specifically in women's vocal traditions and ancient poems known as runos.
Fronted by three dazzling female singers and supported by six acoustic musicians, Värttinä composes most of their music and lyrics, based on traditional Karelian and other Finno-Ugric styles but with modern and thoroughly distinctive and original arrangements.
Since 1990, Värttinä have toured internationally and built a solid reputation as one the most inventive and uncompromising ensembles in the contemporary world music arena. Their live performance is well known to be thrilling and full of Nordic energy. The three front ladies stretch themselves to the whole vivid spectrum of women of the North: from virgins to witches, from enchantresses to mothers, from maids to murderers.
Fiona Talkington, BBC 3 Late Junction, said of the group: Värttinä has seemingly unstoppable creative energy. They thrill, surprise and amaze audiences all over the world. New York's Newsday described their music as a gale-force musical attack...beautifully poignant tunes...exotic but accessible, complex but exciting and the Billboard magazine as exquisite beauty...groundbreaking yet steeped in tradition, definitely Finnish, yet worldly.
Songlines Magazine (UK) voted their tenth album "iki" one of the "Top 50 World Music Albums You Should Own" and Utne Magazine (USA) voted Värttinä one of the "World's Most Soulful and Exciting Artists of 2003". As the most recent award, the Songlines Magazine chose their latest album Miero as one of the Top 10 Albums of 2006.
The new album Miero (2006) is the first of a two album license deal with Peter Gabriels Real World Records. All the Miero reviews have been unanimously positive with the album reaching Number 5 on the World Music Charts Europe and being picked Top 10 in Songlines Magazine "Top of the World".
Värttinäs other latest high-profile achievement is the role of co-composer for the stage adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, with the Toronto World Premiere in March 2006 and the London West End premiere in June 2007.
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