Pekko Käppi Eero Turkka
Taito Hoffren

Girilal Baars

 


Äijä during rehearsals for Miehen Tiloissa, November 2006. Photo by Mervi Junkkonen.

 

The power and the beauty of a small male choir, each voice sharing equally in the music, is for me one of the ultimate musical experiences. The songs we choose to sing are usually old, sometimes in strange languages that are hard to learn, but the energy generated makes the task well worth our while.
   Polyphonic vocal traditions are very common around the world, historically, as well as geographically. We have been collecting songs that we like, including songs from the Ukraines, Mordvinia, Albania, Georgia, Russia, the USA and Estonia. We are constantly adding new songs and traditions to our repertoire, as well as some of our own arrangements and compositions.
    We made our debut at the Etnosoi festival in Helsinki in October 2001 and have since performed in various concert halls, bars and festivals. In the summer of 2002, we did several concerts at the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival, Finland's largest folk music festival. In the spring of 2003 and the autumn of 2004, we did small Swedish tours.
    In late 2006 we worked with the performance/voice-theatre piece "Miehen tiloissa." The director of this piece was Juha Valkeapää, voice improvisor extraordinaire.
    In March 2008 we did a small tour of Finland with our traditional material. The tour coincided with the release of our first album Jet-Black, which has received brilliant reviews and has sold rather well...
    September and November 2008 sees the revival of
Miehen tiloissa, with dates in Pori, Helsinki, Tampere and Turku.

listen to some live tracks

 


Äijä at the Baltic Circle Theatre Festival, Helsinki, November 2003. Photo by Krista Keltanen.

 

home

contact