Some of excellent Estonian jazz, traditional, folk and rock music:

OLEG PISSARENKO TRIO
RAIVO TAFENAU & MEELIS VIND
TULLI LUM
PEENID SÖRMED
WIRBEL 
UNTSAKAD
GRAND MARINO
KOOOS
WEEKEND GUITAR TRIO
NORDIC SOUNDS

Jazz
OLEG PISSARENKO TRIO
          Oleg Pissarenko (acoustic guitar)
          Taavo Remmel (double bass)
          Tanel Ruben (drums)


The idea of the jazz-trio, founded in 2000, is to create beauty and peace that emerges in music in opposition to the modern mentality of rushing. The airy and sparse music offers enough space for meditation. Although the band consists of three players, their aim is the entirety and fullness of sound.
Oleg Pissarenko is a young talented musician who plays jazz on acoustic guitar, sometimes with strong flamenco touch. Taavo Remmel is a versatile double bass player, one of the most sought- after instrumentalists in Estonian jazz. Tanel Ruben is one of Estonian top drummers playing in several jazz groups, also working as a percussion teacher.
Tulli Lum unplugged at Viljandi Folk 2000

Listen an example (MP3 )

Traditional
PEENID SÖRMED
Group (Fine Fingers) started in autumn 1997 as band of students of Viljandi Culture College. One of the main purposes of their activities is to find different ways of interpretating traditional songs and tunes (mainly Estonian). Performer of Viljandi Folk Music Festival 2000.

Peenid Sörmed

Listen an example (MP3)

WIRBEL

Meelika Hainsoo (song, fiddle, bowed harp)
Krista Sildoja (fiddle, song, bowed harp)
Elo Kalda (chromatic kannel, 6-string kannel, song)
Kristjan Priks (double bass)

The name of our group is derived from the fact that all our instruments have tuning pins - virbel. 

We present folk songs, also more recent songs that are not yet so played-out. An important place in our repertoire belongs to traditional instrumental folk music in arrangements that perfectly befit our modern world.
Part of our music includes sacred folk music, well suitable at church services. In addition to concerts, performed both individually and together, we have given whole lecture-concerts about Estonian folk music and folk instruments, and we have a special programme for children. We are, however, only too happy to play dance music. In our ‘dance hall’, the respectable dances dating from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, will hopefully become more understandable and enjoyable to the audiences.
You can dance and sing along to our music, which at times requires a bit of concentration, but most importantly - we try to live in modern times.

Contact: krista@kultuur.edu.ee

Wirbel

Listen an example (MP3)

Popular Folk

UNTSAKAD

Margus Põldsepp (harmonica, Estonian and Russian harmonica)
Jaanus Jantson (song, guitar)
Ilmar Kald (fiddle, song)
Jaanus Põlder (mandolin, song, fiddle)
Marek Rätsep (bass, song)

The band was founded in 1992. Margus, the soloist and leader of the band, has merged his one-time passion for punk music and love for traditional music (one can hear sometimes, that Shane MacGowan is one of his role models). The band and it's music is not hobby for him, but his love, work and lifestyle and because of that has many young people in Estonia found the way back to their grandparents' popular songs and dancing tunes.

Many of ensemble's songs and tunes have been collected on the expeditions to South Estonia and witch were in the top 10 lists at the turn of the last century. Usually band gives two concerts a week, in places like village halls, but also in huge popular nightclubs in Tallinn and other parts of Estonia.
Their latest, fifth, album is called "A Girl from the Sailors Inn". As is evident from the title, it mostly contains the songs of sailors from Estonia and elsewhere.

Untsakad

Listen an example (MP3)

   GRAND MARINO (Association of Small Accordions)

Rock

KOOOS

Tõnis Mägi (song, piano)
Riho Sibul (song, guitar)
Robert Jürjendal (guitars, samplers)

The trio KOOOS (TOOOGETHER) brings together some of the best names on the Estonian blues and rock scene, who have worked together several times, but under this name gathered in autumn 2000. If one can stick a label to their music at all, it would be chamber rock. It is music meant to have a break from superfluous decibels, to get together playing for themselves and their audience. Together they have created warm musical landscapes that have drawn enthusiastic applause and sometimes surprised even the musicians themselves.

Tõnis Mägi is one of the best known and acclaimed pop and rock singers in Estonia, whose carrier stretches well over 30 years. Over the recent years he has successfully concentrated on performing his own music, often the only accompaniment being himself on he piano.
Riho Sibul is a guitar player and singer, who has played jazz rock, fusion, blues, and folk music. He’s a man who does not waste time on trifles when on stage. Both Tõnis Mägi and Riho Sibul are main players in Ultima Thule, one of the leading Estonian rock bands for more than a decade.
In Robert Jürjendals music one can find traces of Robert Fripp ( - one his guitar teachers). Intelligent, precise, transparent, sensitive in his handling of instruments, often using sampler, with a great sense for ensemble paying, all this has made Jürjendal one of the most sought after stage and studio musicians and guitar teachers in Estonia. He is also active in the groups Weekend Guitar Trio and Fragile.

Listen an example (MP3)

Crossover

WEEKEND GUITAR TRIO

Tõnis Leemets (guitar, sampler)
Mart Soo (guitar, sampler)
Robert Jürjendal (guitar, sampler)

Consisting of three outstanding guitar players with most diverse musical backgrounds, Weekend Guitar Trio produces composed and improvised music for electric guitars & live electronics. Their unorthodox sound combines the improvisation of modern jazz and the traditional music of various world cultures, as Chris Rivituso of Moscow Times has put it.

ROBERT JÜRJENDAL (1966) has studied classical guitar & composition at Tallinn Music School. He has written music for films, theatre, art exhibitions and performance projects. Robert has participated in various Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft courses and performance projects (tour with the Berlin Guitar Ensemble in august 1996). He is also working with several musicians as a producer & composer. His musical influences are contemporary electric music, ethno music and ambient soundscapes.

TÕNIS LEEMETS (1972) has studied guitar & composition and is currently studying electronic music at the Tallinn Music Academy. He is a freelance producer/guitarist and performs dance music with several local DJs and his own project TREEE. He has composed music for films, art exhibitions and dance shows.

MART SOO (1964) has studied jazz guitar at Tallinn Music School and played improvisational music with Christoph Gallio, Samm Bennett, David Simons, Lisa Karrer, Jason Hwang, Vladimir Tarasov's Baltic Art Orchestra, Takashi Kazamaki, Tunnetusüksus, Kalle A. Laar and Skirmantas Sasnauskas. He has composed music for performances, theatre and radio plays, exhibitions and films and performed in Europe, Japan and the USA.

Weekend Guitar Trio has 3 albums to their credit. Their current release "Animotion" was recorded in late 2000 and has been described as their best effort to date. Drawing influences from jazz and ambient to progressive rock and country (!) the album features 12 tracks of contemporary instrumental music that according to some enthusiastic fans will redefine the word "guitar".

Weekend Guitar Trio has an extensive history of touring and playing live. They have performed at festivals in Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Russia, France, Germany and Moldova. One of these festivals was attended by Bill Shoemaker of the Jazz Times Magazine who later wrote: "The biggest surprise of the festival, however, was the Weekend Guitar Trio, composed of Robert Jürjendal, Tõnis Leemets and Mart Soo; incorporating an arsenal of effects, a variety of extended techniques, such as bowing the strings, and a few choice pieces of peripheral hardware - a CD of Estonian choral music altered by a bank of pedals was inspired - the WGT created striking soundscapes that lingered in the mind long after their set was over."

The international guitar competition in Lausanne, Switzerland, gave them the 1st prize in the "jazz and contemporary" category.

Weekend Guitar Trio has shared stage with local alternative DJs and the British DJ-duo Spring Heel Jack as well as with players of traditional Estonian instruments (kannel and bagpipe).

With the new Beg-The-Bug Records release "Animotion", Weekend Guitar Trio will spend most of their future time touring and promoting the album. Aime Hansen of the Nädal Magazine writes: "The Weekend Guitar Trio plays music that I would call psychedelic jazz. At their concert I felt as if I was in curved space, where the laws of 3-dimensional physics are not valid." If that sounds like a place to be, Weekend Guitar Trio is most definitely as good as it gets.

Listen an example (MP3)

NORDIC SOUNDS

            Villu Veski - saxophone
            Tiit Kalluste - accordion
            Raimonds Macats - keyboards

           

The sax player Villu Veski and the accordionist Tiit Kalluste are both men quite well-versed in matters jazzy, folksy and improvisational. Curiously enough, it was only few years ago when they’re jointly discovered for themselves the singular grace and racified melancholy of the music of the North.

After a number of duo concerts the tightly bonded tandem “stumbled” into the music of  Faeroe Islands, and – kaboom! love at first sight! This grew into an on-going passion and resulted in a yet deeper absorption in the music of the rest of region. At the end of 1998, “Sounds of the Nordic Islands” appeared, a fair and graceful album that injected a fair dose of fresh inspiration into both musicians.

 “The Baltic Sea, with the indeterminable coastline of its lands and islands, is our Mediterranean of the North – just as open to all cultures as the Other Mediterranean, which has been the cradle of European civilization in the south. For the Baltic-Scandinavian peoples, the Baltic Sea space has been a program, which we have filled with our history, and which we today fill with our essence. It is up to us to choose the ways and the means. Here you have two Estonian men, who have plucked notes from the Nordic islands, and have transformed them for us into today’s world. Here is one way to capture the tunes of the Nordic Mediterranean.”

These words of the writer turned President of the Estonian Republic Lennart Meri accompanied Villu Veski and Tiit Kalluste successful record “Sounds of the Nordic Islands”.

The musicians: “We have composed music based on improvisations of the ethnic music of Nordic Islands. The idea is to combine ethnic music of the islands and elements of modern jazz. It’s like a musical travel report from the Nordic Islands, inspired by nature, folk music, legends and myths.”

Villu Veski and Tiit Kalluste have given performances with “Sounds of the Nordic Islands" in Gotland, Aland, Öland, Faeroe Islands, Saaremaa, Muhu, Hiiumaa, Pori International Jazz, Krakov Euro Cass II Congress, The Baltic Palette Conference in Stockholm, Tartu University Assembly Hall, XII World Saxophone Congress in Montreal, World EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Royal College of Music in London, Wagner Hall in Riga, Moscow, Vilnius, and in many churches in Estonia.

By today, Veski-Kalluste Duo has completed “Sounds of the Nordic Islands II” as a sequel to their first concert programme. In addition to music’s thoughtful- philosophic expressivity springing from duo’s first compositions, several sounds and rhythms have been added maintaining an invisible link between both roots and modern times and representing a key to the musical language of “Sounds of the Nordic Islands”. Live electronics, ethnic percussion and double bass appear as addition to saxophone and accordion.

Listen an example (MP3)
Real Movie: Villu Veski / Tiit Kalluste 5-tet at the Viljandi Folk Festival