Estonian Chamber Choir Sireen, who gained international attention after the bold cross-genre collaboration with highly influential UK post punk band The Membranes, releases their first album ’Terra Incognita’ that includes two tracks featuring Estonian electronic music group Algorütmid. The choir is presenting their debut album in Tallinn on Sept 18th.

The album contains 19 tracks, among them original music from a new generation of talented Estonian composers Maria Kõrvits and Sander Pehk that have previously only been performed by the choir at Tallinn Music Week. The album also contains music from renowned Estonian and international composers, such as Tõnu Kõrvits, Eric Whitacre and more.

Both electro-choir tracks are a joint creation of composer Sander Pehk and Algorütmid. The lyrics of the more recent ’Сожаления’ (’Regrets’) are written by Vadim Ivanov, the frontman of the Estonian post punk band Junk Riot.

https://youtu.be/3joeMBYe4k8

Sireen is a relatively new phenomena in the Estonian music scene, that has gained much attention after distinctive performances within Tallinn Music Week’s Classical Music Rave in 2105 and presenting The Membranes’ Mercury Prize nominated album ’Dark Matter/Dark Energy’ with Mancunian post punk troopers at a very special Universe: Explained gig last autumn.

The Membranes and Sireen joint single ‘The Universe Explodes Into A Billion Photons Of Pure White Light’ / ‘(5776) The Breathing Song’  has already been remixed by an English composer Clint Mansell, who is known for the scores of such films as ’Requiem for a Dream’ and ’Black Swan’.

The choir is a group of 20 women, led by young conductors Tiiu Sinipalu and Ülle Tuisk, that takes special pride in working with young Estonian composers and with nontraditional partners and musicians across different genres. Sireen has also been succesful in choir competitions, winning the 1st prize at the Estonian Chamber Choir Festival (2016), 2nd prize at the International Choir Festival “Tallinn 2015” and “Tallinn 2013”.

Sireen at Tallinn Music Week 2015 Classical Music Rave. Photo: Rauno Salumets

The album will be on sale in record stores across Estonia starting from 19th September.

Sireen presents their debut album ’Terra Incognita’ on Sept 18th at 5pm in Tallinn Philharmonic Society (Pikk 26, Tallinn). Tickets for €10 and €12 euros are available through Estonian Piletilevi.
More information:
www.sireen.ee 
facebook.com/KammernaiskoorSireen

The artist application round for Tallinn Music Week 2017 is now open at the festival’s homepage. The ninth edition of the city festival Tallinn Music Week (TMW) will take place in Tallinn, Estonia from 27th March to 2nd April 2017.

Held each spring in Tallinn, Estonia since 2009, Tallinn Music Week is a weeklong celebration of talent, curiosity, creativity, freedom and equality. Already in its 9th year, TMW’s nucleus is the new music festival that offers a multi-genre mix of around 200 acts from the Baltics, across Europe and beyond. The line-up, spanning from outsider artists to chart-pop acts and from folk innovators to classical musicians, is put together on the basis of artist submissions by a broad team of Estonian music experts and event promoters. Applications from all regions and music genres are welcome until 1st November HERE

The festival’s role as a significant platform for emerging acts around the world has grown steadily. TMW 2016 received an all-time record number of nearly 1,300 applications from 47 countries with over 250 acts from 33 countries confirmed to perform at the festival, among them Russian beatmaster Pixelord, Mancunian post-punk troupers The Membranes, Danish-Finnish indie-supergroup Liima, and an Estonian-born world class conductor Kristjan Järvi with DJ World Champion Mr Switch from UK. Besides showcases presented by local promoters TMW has featured festival stages by Finland’s biggest metal festival Tuska and city culture festival Flow, as well as a joint night by UK’s FatCat Records imprint 130701 and Estonian Üle Heli festival.

Among the notable acts that have performed at the festival throughout the years are British folk legend Vashti Bunyan and pseudonymous duo Public Service Broadcasting, Swedish electro-pop sensation Kate Boy, and Finnish synth-pop troubadour Jaakko-Eino Kalevi, to mention just a few. Among the acts who have successfully tested their international breakthrough potential at TMW and moved on to bigger stages are Danish dark rockers Get Your Gun, Belorussian cold-wave group Super Besse, Russian postpunk flag-bearer Motorama, and Estonian very own folk innovators Maarja Nuut and Trad.Attack!.

The full line-up of around 200 acts is announced in February 2017.

• TMW 2017 delegate passes are available for a special “early bird” rate €100 at TMW web store until 30th September. TMW delegate pass grants access to the conference seminars and priority access to the music festival. TMW 2017 conference schedule will be gradually released from December 2016
• TMW 2017 festival passes are available for €40 at TMW web store until 30th November. Festival pass grants access to all concerts and offers discounts at the TMW Tastes’ restaurant festival. Buy your festival pass at http://tmw.ee/store/festival-pass

For the second time TMW will fill the entire week. In addition to the music festival line-up and two-day industry conference, TMW offers a series of free City Stage concerts, a selection of eateries within TMW Tastes; TMW Arts programme, curated by the Estonian Contemporary Arts Development Centre, Design Market showcasing the most exciting Baltic and Scandinavian brands and designs, TMW Talks series with topics from music to science and societal issues, and City Space activities in cooperation with the interior designers of Estonian Academy of Arts.

TMW 2017 dates:

27th March – 2nd April: TMW Tastes, TMW Talks, TMW Cityspace
28th March – 2nd April: TMW Arts
30th March – 1st April: music festival (the evening showcase programme)
30th March – 1st April: City Stage (the daytime live programme)
31st March – 1st April: TMW conference
1st – 2nd April: Design Market

Tallinn Music Week 2016 in numbers:

250 artists from 30 countries
34 676 festival visitors
1036 delegates
624 international delegates
132 international journalists
70 festival venues
113 755 unique visits to the website from 144 countries
More info: www.tmw.ee

Comments by festival delegates:

Anthony Semaan, Beirut Jam Sessions:
“TMW is probably the most interesting, well-organized, diverse and important festival in this new era of music around the world. The fact that so many people from around the world flew in to be a part of it and showed genuine interest in collaborating with others proved to me that it was more than just a musical event. The city itself is gorgeous despite the cold weather (hey, I’m from the Middle East, it’s boiling there), everyone and everything was just so friendly all the time. In the long run one day we’re going to look back at TMW as one of festivals that had a huge impact on societies across numerous regions.“

Kate Connolly, The Guardian:
“A flurry of fantastic music, discussion and most importantly the chance to dance – in some incredible venues around Tallinn. Punk rockers and folk singers, scientists and start up gurus all met to share ideas and music. Fantastic food and fashion was also added to the amazing mix. It was a very inspiring few days, at what is certainly one of Europe’s best music festivals.”

John Robb, Louder Than War:
“TMW is now the key cutting edge music event in Europe. I can’t believe the diversity of music I saw this weekend and I only scratched the surface. One minute it was an orchestra, the next stunning original take on folk from Maarja Nuut. One minute I had intense chats with orchestra conductors learning about classical music and the next watched Angolan hip hop and then hung out with the brilliant Sireenid choir – there was not one boring second in the whole event.
I loved the Creativity for Change part of the festival – an interesting flux of people tried to find solutions with music as the glue, optimism instead of grinding pessimism. Music with a purpose. Every gig should have a reason and every song should have a soul.“

Brian Reich, Littlemedia.com:
“It was an honour to participate in Tallinn Music Week and the Creativity for Change forum.  There were so many people sharing smart ideas, showing their passion and committing themselves to efforts that improve the world and tackle the biggest issues of our time.  Tallinn is a hub for people who are doing ambitious and important work to address serious issues, and is a wonderfully creative, passionate stage for music, arts, food and more. We will all benefit from being part of what is happening in Tallinn.”

Ramin Sadighi, Hermes Records:
„Coming to the content, what impressed me the most was the sensitively handpicked and designed conferences and talks. Most of them were quite distant from the formal and predictable talks and panels, which we all may experience dozens of times throughout the year without getting inspired. But the topics and panellists on TMW were straight-forward, authentic, challenging, honest, demanding and hesitant of falling in the trap to become posturing.“

Damien McGuinness, BBC:
“This festival is a stimulating mash-up between innovative music, ancient folk songs, international politics and human rights — a Baltic speciality that is a natural fit in this fascinating region. That’s because music in Estonia is about more than simply listening to something funky. Throughout Estonia’s history song has been political. During centuries of foreign oppression music safeguarded a unique national identity. And in the dying days of the Soviet Union, song galvanised the opposition movement that led to national independence. Today Tallinn shows that artists can still help save the world.”

Estonian electro pop act NOЁP, whose latest single Golden has been featured on several Spotify playlists, most notably on Daily Beats, is confirmed as the first ever Estonian live act to perform at Helsinki’s celebrated city culture festival Flow this Saturday 13 August.

Golden is a soothing summer track with laid back beats that reel you in with his husky voice. It will surely put you in a vacation mood even when summer’s gone.
NOЁP aka singer-producer Andres Kõpper has already created quite a buzz around him. Also known from the band Tenfold Rabbit, his self-released debut track Move was the one that caught the music influencers’ attention big time and got picked up by SonyMusic Sweden. Besides his distinctive, dreamy singing voice, NOЁP’s pop tunes are sounding cool, subtle and multi-dimensional with a modern aspect.

His Flow Festival appearance is scheduled for Saturday 13 August at 20:45 in Zallando Factory. NOЁP has been playing all around Estonia this summer at the popular festivals like Intsikurmu and Weekend Festival as well as at Positivus Festival in Latvia.

Flow Festival, taking place from 12-14 August in Helsinki, brings together notable names from the worlds of pop, indie, urban and electronic music, incl Iggy Pop, Morrissey, New Order, Jamie xx, Sleaford Mods, Sia, M83, Lil B, Massive Attack & Young Fathers, Kamasi Washington, and Holly Herndon.

All-star lineups add real substance to the weekend, packing Flow Festival’s stages with international glamour and up-and-coming talent, alongside a showcase of innovative art and global cuisine.

In 2016 Flow Festival added its own spice to the week-long celebration of Tallinn Music Week with its own Off Flow event  in the Tallinn Culture Hub, a newly and eccentrically renovated old power plant.

The anthology album “Teenage Wasteland – Favourites 1963-1978” compiled by President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves was released on vinyl in the beginning of July. The vinyl compilation will be available in Tallinn Music Week (TMW) summer house at Positivus Festival in Salacgriva, Latvia from 15th to 17th July. President Ilves will also hold a signing session in TMW summer house on Sunday, July 17th at 7:30 PM.

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves is known to be a passionate music fan with a wikipediac knowledge of pop culture whom the delegates of TMW conference have heard quoting PJ Harvey and Jello Biafra and reminiscing about his days at CBGBs in New York. As a seasoned festival-goer in constant search of new sounds, he has visited Positivus also in 2013 to check out British indie rockers Palma Violets and will look forward to their fellow countrymen Wolf Alice’s performance this year. A signing session in TMW summer house on the main street of Positivus will take place right after the latters’ live on July 17th at 7:30 PM

According to President Ilves, the songs in the “Teenage Wasteland” compilation have all shaped his later tastes in music, from new wave to punk, grunge down to today’s brit-rockers and the ruler of Estonian indie, Vaiko Eplik. “These were the songs I listened to at night with a small 12 transistor radio when I was growing up, which provided much needed redemption for life in what The Who called a Teenage Wasteland. Funny to say now, turning 62, but back then my life was saved by rock ‘n’ roll,” he admitted. “All the pieces present in my collection were first released on vinyl and were a part of my teenage record collection. Now I can proudly place my very own vinyl next to theirs,” added President Ilves.

The compilation includes 16 songs that influenced the President when he was growing up in the United States of America. There are gems from Motown’s prime and 60s teenage symphonies, trippy blues and quirky artrock, proto-punk and glamrock, observational tales and rabble-rousing anthems.

Teenage Wasteland – Favourites 1963-1978 vinyl. Cover design by AKU
Both the vinyl edition and the original CD version of the collection were released by Universal Music Baltics. The vinyl record was produced at the Estonian Vinyl Plant enterprise. The two-man company was only launched this year and is the first Estonia-based vinyl plant that relies on committed amateurs.

A donation of 3,200 euros was collected for the My Dream Day charity* from the sales of the album’s CD version, released last December. Apart from Tallinn the CD compilation was also unveiled in Riga and Helsinki, the funds collected for the charity from foreign sales will be known later in July.

The vinyl compilation of the “Teenage Wasteland” will be available in Tallinn Music Week summer house on the main street of Positivus Festival in Salacgriva, Latvia this weekend from 15th to 17th July. President Ilves will also hold a signing session on July 17th at 7:30 PM in TMW summer house.

Tallinn Music Week, one of Europe’s leading city festival will introduce the best new Estonian music at Positivus Festival. Besides presenting the hottest Estonian acts from the TMW2016 artist prize Telliskivi Creative City Award laureates I Wear* Experiment to the adventurous indie mavericks Ouu on Palladium stage, TMW will also host acoustic appearances and DJ sets in TMW summer house.

Positivus, the biggest and most significant summer festival in the Baltics, will be celebrating its 10th birthday this year.  From July 15th to 17th, music lovers from Latvia and abroad will enjoy one of the most versatile line-ups in Positivus history on six stages. The anniversary festival will feature not only such world-renown names as Iggy Pop, Mark Ronson, M83, Air, Hot Chip, Grimes and Richard Hawley, but also many rising stars, as well as a vast array of local acts. More info: www.positivusfestival.com

President Ilves DJing with his former security advisor Andres Vosman aka DJ Drummie. TMW2016. 
Photo by Kristjan Indus

Teenage Wasteland – Favourites 1963-1978 tracklist:

• Four Tops – I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)
• The Temptations – My Girl
• The Shangri-Las – Leader of the Pack
• The Beach Boys – Help Me, Rhonda
• Cream – Tales of Brave Ulysses
• The Band – The Weight
• The Velvet Underground – Rock & Roll
• Roxy Music – Virginia Plain
• The Who – Baba O’Riley
• Lesley Gore – It’s My Party
• New York Dolls – Trash
• The Troggs – Wild Thing
• David Bowie – Panic in Detroit
• Ramones – I Wanna Be Sedated
• Peter Sarstedt – Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?
• MC5 – High School

* Minu Unistuste Päev (My Dream Day) is an organisation that was established in 2011 based on voluntary activities and funding from supporters. Its aim is to make dreams come true for seriously and chronically ill children in treatment at Estonian hospitals and it tries to bring joy to the lives of the children and their next of kin.

Denmark-based Estonian saxophone player and composer Maria Faust has been awarded with the prestigious Danish culture prize the Niels Matthiasens Mindelegat on 25^th April.

The award has been named after Niels Matthiasen, the long-term minister of culture of Denmark who served from 1971 to 1973 and from 1975 to 1980.

The award has been previously given to Danish musicians Michala Petri (1982), Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Palle Mikkelborg (1987), actress Ghita Nørby (known from the cult series “Matador” and “The Kingdom” by Lars Von Trier), writer Benny Andersen (1995) and a few others.
The Niels Matthiasen memorial foundation comments: “The board wishes to acknowledge the unique talent of Maria Faust as a composer, arranger and saxophonist. Maria is in constant musical movement and development of her artistic expression, improvisation and brave alternative approach. Her compositions are simultaneously complicated as well as easy and poetic with precise nuances topped by a simple and beautiful melody. We see a strong will and talent in Maria Faust. She is a unique artist in her genre.”

Maria Faust. Photo: Kaupo Kikkas

Maria Faust is best known in the fields of third stream jazz, modern big band music, improvised music, as well as other other alternative music styles. She is a member of the musical collective and record label Barefoot Records and leads several of her own bands, including the Maria Faust Jazz Catastrophe, Maria Faust Group, Pistol Nr. 9, Shitney, and Sacrum Facere.

Henning Bolte from London Jazz News praised the performance of Maria Faust Sacrum Facere at this years Talllinn Music Week:  “It is a bold undertaking. The music is pure and powerful, spiritual and joyful, exuberant and subtle. The tone colours, the mutual fine-tuning of the instruments and the dynamics are all extra-ordinary and it continues to fascinate… Faust’s Sacrum Facere belongs to the premier league in its category.”

Shitney at TMW2016. Photo: Tanel Tero

Maria’s Estonian-Danish-Swedish electroacoustic all-gal trio Shitney will take no prisoners tomorrow at Jazzkaar festival. Facebook event

Sunday, 1^st of May will see the rebellious sax player finishing this year’s Jazzkaar with the fresh multimedia-meets-bodily-arts cycle ‘Velocipede’, transcending boundaries set on jazz on spinning bikes. Facebook event

Maria Faust Velocipede. Photo: Kaupo Kikkas