Kaustinen

At the beginning of the 1980s, Kaustinen's team of players was still heavily dominated by men. Moved by this, violinist Kreeta-Maria Kentala asked her friends to join the first Kaustian female pelimanni band, and that's how Akkapelimannit was born. The new album is a cross-section of the band's accumulated repertoire over the years, which includes, among other things, compositions by band members and relatives. The productions of Kaustis pelimann composers Konsta Jylhä and Wiljami Niittykoski have naturally always been an important part of Akkapelimannie's repertoire. Kaustis traditional songs, the songs of the traditional greeting at the beginning and the traditional multi-part wedding dance, purple, have been combined into a sikkerm. The charm of Kaustis's music keeps its surface from decade to decade. The dance-like accompaniment of harmonies and bass strongly carries the musical story forward, while the violinists embellish lightly curving melodies. Thoughts fly with the music to the summer landscapes of the river valley: the bubbling Mosalankoski, wide open fields, swirling daisy bushes and high-flying swallows. The Akkapelimann players are musicians from Kaustine: Minna Järvelä trains violinists at the Lahti Conservatory, Jaana Virkkala teaches music to classroom teacher students at the University of Jyväskylä, Kaija Saarikettu is a professor of violin music at the Sibelius Academy, Maria Pulakka and Leenakaisa Sandberg are violinists of the Central Ostrobothnia Chamber Orchestra and Kreeta-Maria Kentala is a freelance baroque violinist. Merja Wirkkala has done her life's work as a soloist and cantor of the National Opera, Kaarina Nisone as a pianist-accompanist at the Central Ostrobothnia Conservatory. The players have in common a childhood of playing and singing in Kaustinen, and all of them got their first big musical experiences from pelimanni music.