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Folk and world music fans need no explanation who VÄRTTINÄ are: The Finnish/Karelian women's ensemble is one of the most successful acts to have emerged from the genre.
What started in 1983 as a recitational project of the sisters Sari and Mari Kaasinen in in the small village Rääkkylä, Karelia, in today an international top act of 4 singers and a selection of some of the finest instrumentalists in the Finnish folk and rock[!] scene. Since the early 90s the band does not concentrate on the "pure" Finno-Ugric tradition alone, but rather presents their pieces in a more "rock/pop"-oriented manner (especially on stage). Even if some folklore purists have not been much amused about that, the fact remains that in doing so, Värttinä have rendered the sounds of Karelia and the bordering regions in a totally new way, and above all, won a huge audience for this kind of music. In 1991, the album "Oi Dai" confirmed the success of that direction : The production stormed up the charts quickly, and the band became the talk of the scene. Newspapers spoke of the "greatest folk phenomenon of the last 20 years", whilst an international audience also began taking notice of Värttinä. All of sudden the band found itself in the midst of a packed tour and festival schedule, taking them all around Europe. Everywhere they went, the world music community enthusiastically welcomed them. "Oi Dai" has meanwhile gone platinum. Things moved fast from then on. In 1992, the album "Seleniko" followed, which immediately entered at No. 1 in the European World Music Charts. In 1994, the next album, "Aitara", was another immediate success. Värttinnä albums were released in the USA and Japan with no less success than in Europe. Tours outside Europe followed. "Aitara" was awarded the prize of "Best Contemporary World Music Album" by the NAIRD (now AFIM) in 1995. After two further successful albums ["Kokko" 1997 (Nonesuch) and "Vihma" 1998 (Wicklow/BMG)], countless co-operations with renowned artists and a simply inestimable number of live performances all around the world, "Ilmatar" was recorded in late 1999 and released in some parts of Europe in autumn 2000, initially on the label Wicklow/BMG, which, however, was closed down shortly afterwards. For the release of Ilmatar in Germany, Värttinä decided to go with Intuition. |
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