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New and old Finnish artists are increasingly often finding success without the old paradigms offered by the recording industry.

What is music with a social message? A project examining Finnish art music of the present millennium and addressing the ability of music to comment on society is revealing various aspects of human existence, from the individual to the community and from the environment to supragenerics.

Matthew Whittall has risen to the elite of Finnish composers. He is inspired by nature and his personal experiences and is not ashamed to admit it. Last winter, his orchestral work Solen was given an interpretation in dance in Ulm, Germany. Next spring, it will be performed in Toronto.

For many an outside observer, metal music seems to be an integral part of Finnishness, representing and reflecting national identity. But how did metal become so prominent in the Finnish music scene? And will the prominence last?

"I expected a lot from this record, because Ikonen’s style of composing and playing is so original, and he is one of the few Finnish jazz artists, whose gigs are impressive without exception. Ikonen’s style is jagged in a positive way. Even if the composition is founded on melodic thinking, rhythmic variations and surprising changes in the song’s direction are dominant.

"The genius is that Lajunen and Grundstrom interpret all this daringly and originally as a duo with their pelimanni instruments instead of the traditional way as solo with a kantele or jouhikko (aka bowed lyre)."

"I expected a lot from this record, because Ikonen’s style of composing and playing is so original, and he is one of the few Finnish jazz artists, whose gigs are impressive without exception. Ikonen’s style is jagged in a positive way. Even if the composition is founded on melodic thinking, rhythmic variations and surprising changes in the song’s direction are dominant.

Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät is an unlikely international cult hit. A punk band consisting of four adult men with learning disabilities, singing in Finnish, it is also the subject of an award-winning documentary, The Punk Syndrome.

"Four CDs full of a Modernist composer’s organ music is a heavy package indeed. In the hands of the organist Jan Lehtola et al. we manage to get a full picture of Heininen’s style viewed through a single instrument. And Heininen does not let us down...