Estonian and Finnish artists will perform in Japan from 22nd to 27th May as part of the export project Finest Sounds that also includes music industry seminars, a trade day and a songwriters’ camp.
The Estonian-Finnish delegation will meet the Japanese music industry professionals on 22nd May at a joint reception of Finest Sounds and Estonia 100 in Tokyo’s Happo-en park. The seminar programme in the head office of the entertainment giant Avex Group will offer workshops about Japanese music industry and networking with the local music community on 23rd and 24th May. The agenda also includes a visit to Spotify Japan.
Tokyo venues will host showcase gigs by Estonian and Finnish world music, jazz and metal performers on three nights. The world music event at the Shibuya WWW on 23rd May will present Mari Kalkun, the latest winner of Tallinn Music Week artist award, and Curly Strings, who mixes Estonian folk with American bluegrass. Finland will be represented by versatile multi-instrumentalist Maija Kauhanen, experimental accordionist Antti Paalanen and folk hop group Tuuletar.
Nordic metal will shake the Space Odd Shibuya club on 25th May with performances by the Finnish thrash metal group Mokoma and Estonian doom-metal duo Talbot. On 26th May the jazz ensembles Peedu Kass Momentum and Weekend Guitar Trio from Estonia along Finnish guitarist Olli Hirvonen and avant-garde-fusion group Utopianisti will perform at the Pit Inn Shinjuku club.
From 23rd to 24th May Sony Music Tokyo studios will host a songwriters’ camp that brings together producers and songwriters from Estonia, Finland and Japan. Among the participants are Stig Rästa and Bert Prikenfeld from Estonia and Alex Mattson and Eva Louhivuori from Finland.
On 26th and 27th May Estonian and Finnish brands will be present at the Greenroom festival in Yokohama. Members of Utopianist will guide a test of the interactive music app Yousician. Estonian design is represented by the jewellery of Tanel Veenre and textiles of Mare Kelpman. Finnish companies are represented among others by design brand Lovi, Nokian Technologies and Muumin Museum.
Finest Sounds is a Finnish-Estonian cross-border cooperation initiative in the music and creative sector, aiming to boost the export of Estonian and Finnish artists, brands and creative businesses to the world’s second largest music market Japan.
Partners of the project are Tallinn Music Week, Music Estonia, Baltic Film and Media School from Estonia, Music Finland, Music & Media, Tampere University of Applied Sciences and HUMAK University of Applied Siences from Finland.
The project is funded by INTERREG from Europa Regional Development Fund.
Finest Sounds showcase concerts in Tokyo:
23.05 Finest World Sounds, Shibuya WWW
Mari Kalkun, Curly Strings, Tuuletar, Maija Kauhanen, Antti Paalanen
25.05 Finest Heavy Music Night, SPACE ODD Shibuya
Talbot, Mokoma
26.05 Finest Jazz Music Night, Pit Inn Shinjuku
Weekend Guitar Trio, Olli Hirvonen “New Helsinki“, Peedu Kass Momentum, Utopianisti
More info: finestsounds.eu