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“The world's best bass player”. Pekka Pohjola had this dinned into him all through the seventies: he was the Jaco Pastorius of the North, a man who was, if he felt like it, capable of performing miracles with his bass. Most of the time he simply didn’t feel like it, glossing over the tricky prestissimo bass solos because he felt the work as a whole was most important.

Transnationality has been a big thing in international cultural studies for the past decade. At the moment, there are several major research projects in the pipeline in Finnish music studies addressing issues across national borders.

“Nowadays, a great variety of music is played on the kantele. Its repertoire includes neoclassical, minimalist, and modern music. The kantele is also a more international instrument than ever before”, writes Pekka Jalkanen in his article about contemporary music for kantele (FMQ 3/2008).

"I wish I could write a short analysis of each song on this ambitious debut album. But, due to the lack of space, let’s just say that the Moloko-like single What is Left? tells us absolutely nothing about the band. "

The composer Selim Palmgren walked a tightrope between national and international trends in music. He was part of the Finnish national music movement but tried to combine this with a more international outlook.

In her article Paying the piper (FMQ 3-4/2015) Merja Hottinen writes about incomes of musicians and composers in Finland today. What is the current state of musicians' earnings and employment in the UK and Italy? Read Andrew Mellor's and Federico Ermirio's reports.

"The chamber choir Key Ensemble from Turku proved its excellent standard by winning the adult category in the BBC’s competition ‘Let the people sing’ last year. The latest CD delivers some fine moments, and keeps the focus on Nordic contemporary composers."

"When a decision is reached to title a release this prophetically, you’d better deliver the goods in a novel way. Luckily, this proves to be the case here. For their sixth album, Von Hertzen Brothers find the fifth gear and pummel ahead with fresh vigour and stamina."

America had Bing Crosby, Britain Al Bowlly, France Maurice Chevalier. In the pre-war years, every country had a charming gentleman singer who entertained us on records, radio and the screen. But lucky Finland had everything twofold. We had the Malmstén brothers, Georg and Eugen, the bright singing stars of the thirties.