EVA VÄLJAOTS (ESTONIA/FINLANDIA)
EXTRAORDINARY ZITHER MUSIC AS AN EMOTIONAL REFUGE
EVA VÄLJAOTS BRINGS THE ZITHER KANNEL INTO THE 21ST CENTURY
Even the most ancient wooden plucked and, until recently, underrated instruments are now coming into their own. Young artists are no longer treating them as artefacts of a distant past and, with new and distinctive ways of playing them, are finding a place for them in modern folk, ambient and electronic music, regardless of what traditionalists think. In doing so, it is a welcome sonic diversification of genres that Estonian zither kannel player Eva Väljaots has entered with fresh creative input and an imagination without limits, even if her music is characterised 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 mood, we can clearly hear her connection to ancient legends and mythology, from which the story of the birth of the zither - the Estonian musical symbol - is based.
She conceived her debut album Hundinuiaõis/Bulrush Bloom in 2022 as an instrumental. She alternates several zither and drumming styles with percussion and occasionally uses strings, and although she draws on Ugrofin traditional music, she has grounded her original compositions in the 21st century. Alone or in a duo with British violinist Robbie Sherratt
Photo: Mikko Malmivaara, Ruudu Rahumaru
