In the world of small kanteles, the long lasting, slow esthetic’s improvisation, means a combination of playing techniques, instrumentation and tuning systems; the old plucking technique combined with other playing techniques and the variety of timbres from historical small kanteles, which is deepened even more by strengthening the resonance via suitable tuning. (Read more: https://www.temps.fi/en/research/) […]
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The Kantele Manufacturer Elias Lönnrot
February 28, 2019
We all know Elias Lönnrot (1802–1884) as the father of the Kalevala–the Finnish national epic. But what people usually don’t know is that he, among many other things, was also an innovator and a manufacturer of kantele instruments, as well as also a teacher of the kantele. Here is one example of Lönnrot’s kanteles; SM95 […]
Read more...Trio Alison Melville, Ben Grossman, Arja Kastinen – some photos
December 20, 2018
I had the wonderful opportunity to play two gigs with these great musicians, Alison Melville and Ben Grossman, in November in Canada. Here are some photos of the concerts titled From Far Away, Nearby. The first one happened in St. Catherins at the Rodman Hall Art Centre (Nov 24, 2018), and it was organized by the Gallery Players of Niagara. […]
Read more...Trying out a new way of using the bow
December 19, 2018
As I was looking for new ideas by improvising sometime last February, I found a new way a using the bow. At first it felt more like easy and fun entertainment than a serious way of playing. Nevertheless, I tried out this technique a couple of times during the coming months as a part of […]
Read more...Two 5-string kantele replicas á la Billy Horne
March 30, 2018
Billy (aka Ivan Leslie) Horne is a very patient man. It must be a year ago (or 2?.. what -3?!! ..Ok, now I’m blushing..) when he gave me two 5-string kantele replicas for experimenting. The other has bronze strings and the other steel strings. Then somehow they were hidden behind the ever growing mountain of […]
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