Summer shortly – and towards new adventures

The autumn is officially here. I played the first gigs of the autumn last week. With ENKEL we visited Tivoli in Copenhagen and Floating Sofa Quartet played at Folkmusikkaféet Allégården in Gothenburg, Sweden and at Godtfolk Festival on the island of Fanø, Denmark. The festival season came full circle: starting and ending on Fanø! 

The summer was filled with great gigs, nice trips, dancing, playing and good food. Maybe the best summer in my professional musicians life so far! So many good concert experiences! All this also means that there obviously was also very annoying logistical solutions, too many times of packing and unpacking the suitcase, deciding on concert clothes, sleeping too little and wherever. But in the end you usually still only remember the good moments with the friends and music, so it's still worth it!

Writing about the summer feels like a big task because there's so much happening in a little time. That's why I made a short description of my summer with bigger lines and random details!
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Pre-gig photo of our band at Folk Azores.

H o m e  t i m e s  i n  J u n e
It's not always easy to relax at home as a freelancer, always feeling this pressure of having to do something proper. Because I knew there will be happening a lot later on in the summer the pressure was gone and I enjoyed my time!

P i n s e f e s t i v a l, F a n ø, D e n m a r k
We played a debute gig with the Belgian bagpiper Marieke can Ransbeeck's band and stayed for the festival. The parties on Fanø are the best: it's like a trip back in time. All the people village gather together in the village hall to dance local folk dances to the local music. Hot, isn't it??

S e u r a s a a r i  M i d s u m m e r  B o n f i r e s,  H e l s i n k i, F i n l a n d
I love Midsummer! I always feel there's something special in that day. This year I got to spend it with ENKEL at the folklore festival in Helsinki. Truly my kind of Midsummer: seeing people dance to folk music in the summer night. 
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Fixing the harmonium at Førdefestivalen. Photo: Førdefestivalen

F ø r d e f e s t i v a l e n,  N o r w a y
On the plane I started to read the first book of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels. It was a very weird feeling not to step out in hot and busy Naples but in a chilly and fresh Norwegian mountain climate. In the festival restaurant I got to eat my favourite Norwegian speciality, the fish cakes.

I started to play accordion because my grandfather played and he was a big idol of mine. In the concert on Sunday afternoon at Førde the feeling hit me once again: I bet my grandfather could see this coming, me getting to go to all this places by playing the box! Thanks Kustaa, let's keep these feelings coming! <3

K a u s t i n e n  F o l k  M u s i c  F e s t i v a l,  F i n l a n d
Kaustinen is my highlight every year. This year the biggest thing and memory is ENKEL XL concert, the big show we arranged at the main stage of the festival. We had tens of guests, dancers and musicians joining us. It was such a powerful feeling to play what we usually do and just have an army of musician and singers behind us! 
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​F o l k r o t,  S w e d e n
A gig that I had no expectations for turned out to be a very nice and cozy late night gig with a dancing audience!

K o r r ö f e s t i v a l e n, S w e d e n
Extremely hottest festival of the summer. I had such great time jamming in the kitchen of our accommodation with ENKEL and friends from Farandi band. Also I've never been that hot and sweaty in my life than I was at the ENKEL gig at Korrö. Oh my Lord, imagine the feeling of sweat going down in all the possible places under your dress meanwhile you are trying to sing a gentle love song with feeling. Shiiiit! 

F o l k w o r k s,  U K
It wasn't a festival but after a little culture shock it turned out to be a great teaching experience with lovely teenager students. I've been living in Newcastle and I do a lot of work in English but it totally hit me that I mostly work with Nordic people and not native English speakers... Haha! 
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Feeling fresh after a whole night traveling from Durham to Edinburgh to Stockholm to Mariehamn.

K v i n n f o l k,  M a r i e n h a m n,  Å l a n d
Such a horrible trip to make during a night from Durham in UK to Mariehamn in Åland (islands between Finland and Sweden). One of the moments when you wonder if all this makes any sense. But in the end I got there in time and we really had the loveliest gig with ENKEL. What made the gig special was that we managed to speak the whole gig through in Swedish! What a sudden change to my brain who had just worked very hard with their English skills. Felt me feel soooo powerful, JA DÅ! 

M u s i k  o v e r  P r æ s tø  F j o r d,  D e n m a r k
One of the coziest festivals I've ever visited and one of the best gigs in the history of ENKEL. WHAT AN ENERGY ON THE DANCE FLOOR!!! And we crusted the whole Danish folk music scene with ENKEL stickers. Also I was asked to play in the festival's party band which was a collection of random musicians who were performing at the festival. With these people I didn't know beforehands we played a 75 minute concert after two hours rehearsals. Fun times, I enjoyed it very much! 

F o l k  A z o r e s,  T e r c e i r a,  A z o r e s
Food was great. We saw dolphins out at the sea. I was accompanying a Finnish folk dance group Kimurantti. Their repertoire is mostly Karelian and Eastern Finnish tradition, it was great to learn those tunes and perform them! Also they are so skilled dancers that it really made me inspired. Acrobatic folk dance moves, here I come!
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ENKEL in action.

​Now it's time to pack the suitcase again. I'm off to Lapland to perform with the Nordic harmonium project Marja-Liisa Orgelsuite for the next week! 

Have a lovely autumn everyone!