folk holidays

WE DO NOT KNOW HOW THE TRADITIONAL RESIDENTIAL MEETING OF EXCEPTIONAL ZITHER PLAYERS WILL TURN OUT, BUT WE ARE CONVINCED THAT THEIR FRIDAY CONCERT TOGETHER WILL BE ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE FESTIVAL AS ALWAYS.

Jausmė from Lithuania plays the kanklés, Eva Väljaots from Estonia plays the kannele, Barbora Xu from Liberec plays the Finnish kantele and Chinese guzheng, and Michal Müller plays the Czech zither. Although these are sonically related instruments, each has a different history, comes from a different culture and each of the players creates quite distinctive music, although they are united by their relationship to poetry and nature. Moreover, so many zither players and distinctive artists in one place is not very common, so there is an opportunity to amaze not only Folkies but the world with something unheard of. Well, unheard of sounds like an advertisement for a miracle, so without exaggeration: we are sure to see extraordinary music brought out in colour by multilingualism. There will be singing in Czech, Finnish, German, Estonian, Lithuanian, Chinese and, according to Barbara Xu, maybe even English and, in case of emergency, the language of "lááááá".
"I myself play the way I think it used to be played and in an effort to preserve the tradition so we don't lose it. I am inspired by it, but because times have moved on, I play in my own way and naturally move the tradition into the realm of personal self-expression. I'm interested in how the music was created before, what technique the players used, but I don't let myself be bound by it. That's why we will all try to go in a creative direction that blends tradition with modern elements. We'll agree on what we like, and to create a new sound

"I myself play the way I think it used to be played and in an effort to preserve the tradition so we don't lose it. I am inspired by it, but because times have moved on, I play in my own way and naturally move the tradition into the realm of personal self-expression. I'm interested in how the music was created before, what technique the players used, but I don't let myself be bound by it. That's why we will all try to go in a creative direction that blends tradition with modern elements. We'll agree on what we like and use all the possibilities of our instruments to create a new soundscape," Barbara Xu outlines how she envisions a week of rehearsing, exploring, playing, recording ideas and composing, so that in the end everyone is in harmony.

Barbora Xu (Czech Republic)

A singer, composer and zither player, she builds a bridge between the cultures of Asia and Europe with her music outside the usual categories. The Liberec native has been shuttling between Taiwan and Finland for ten years, where she currently lives and graduated as an expert on Chinese culture at the Centre for East Asian Studies at the University of Turku. She also studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and became a virtuoso on traditional zither - Finnish kantele and Chinese guzheng. She sets ancient Chinese and Finnish rune poetry to music and sings nature-related texts in the respective languages. With her debut album Olin Ennen (I Was), she has attracted well-deserved attention not only among experts, but also ordinary listeners, captivated by her ethereal voice and the intimate sound of her original songs, have appreciated her profound art.

Eva Väljaots (Estonia/Finland)

A masterful and innovative player of the ancient zither kannel, she brings fresh creative input and imagination without limits into the 21st century. Her music on her debut album Hundinuiaõis/Bulrush Bloom is characterized by a suggestive intimacy and introspective perception of the sounds of the surrounding world. Even in the moments when she is not singing and succumbs to an improvisational state of mind, we can clearly hear her connection to ancient legends and mythology, from which the story of the birth of the zither - an Estonian musical symbol - is based.

Jausmė (Lithuania)

Post-folk, soft electronics, a beautiful voice and an ancient zither from a modern-minded singer-songwriter trying to shatter the stereotypical thinking of the cymbal as an old instrument, associated exclusively with folk music and folk music circles. Her long-time residence in Bristol, UK, contacts with the electronic scene and work on soundtracks for the BBC on the album Namolio (Homeward) allow her to look innovatively at Lithuanian zither traditions, authorial poetry and find new sonic potential for the instrument with her specific style of playing.

Michal Müller (Czech Republic)

A zither player with a diploma from the Vienna Conservatory taking the instrument as an opportunity for unusual music. He has enjoyed his status as a pioneer of the zither from the very beginning. While elsewhere in Europe the zither tradition was preserved and players had to adhere to strict rules, in our country it practically disappeared and according to Michal Müller it was a blank slate, so he could do whatever he wanted with the instrument, which he took advantage of perfectly. Although his repertoire includes medieval compositions, everyone remembers him most when he sings Jimi Hendrix or Led Zeppelin and plays like Eric Clapton. He was clearly ahead of his time, and twenty years ago he actually started to pave the way for today's young, experimental generation.

 

Photos: 

Beni Köhler, Jussi Vierimaa (Barbora Xu), Ruudu Rahumaru (Eva Väljaots), Chelsey Cliff (Jausmė), from Archive of festival Blues Alive (Michal Müller)