The German label Folk Galore, part of the CPL-Music group, has put together this year’s compilation of top tracks from the group’s 2024 folk music releases. Folk and World Music Galore Vol. 3 is, as usual, a good way to sample some of their excellent and exciting folk and world music releases. A fine way to introduce yourself to this varied music coming mostly out of central and northern Europe that doesn’t get much exposure in the Americas.
This 16-track offering covers the most recent releases from Nordic Notes CPL-Music, and Beste! Unterhaltung, plus a preview of some upcoming titles. It includes two albums I reviewed this year — Duo Emilia Lajunen & Suvi Oskala’s Toisjalkainen, and Vedan Kolod’s Birds — with a couple more that are in the queue. And some that I missed and now I’m sorry I did. Notably the jazzy offering from Sole, “Vi Ska Dansa Med Sara,” from their February 2024 release Elos. This is the debut of the Bratislava based Sole, part of the vanguard of Slovak jazz. Like my favorite jazz from elsewhere in Europe, they weave together jazz, world, and folk music into a beguiling brew. Multilingual lead vocalist Júlia Kozáková’s voice floats effortlessly over the Balkan-influenced melodic and rhythmic base of keyboards, bass, drums and percussion — special shout out to the supple bass lines of Ľubomír Gašparjazz.
Finland is strongly represented in Vol. 3, especialy in the selections from upcoming releases. Both the group Pauanne and fiddler Päivi Hirvonen (whose previous release Kallio I covered in 2022) turned in driving, rhythmic songs drenched in soaring multi-part harmonies and lots of fiddling. Here Pauanne releases a song from its upcoming second album. Check out the animated video for the song “Pelkkä persevä neitsyt” (Fat-arsed Virgin).
Czech-based singer and multi-instrumentalist Barbora Xu, on the other hand, plies her plaintive vocals over plucked kantele and bowed cello, from her forthcoming album in which she “explores the shared symbolism of Finnish and Chinese poetry.” Two women’s ensembles with releases coming in 2025, Estonians 6hunesseq (do not ask me how to pronounce that) and The Baltic Sisters, both make use of their native lands’ polyphonic styles; both 6hunesseq’s Küläkene väikokõnõ (A neighborhood small talk) and The Baltic Sisters’ “Soka saule rītiedama” feature lots of lovely Lithuanian harmonies and are among my favorites here.
Both the Russian klezmer band Dobranotch (now based in Germany) and the multi-national “underworld ballad” collective Orkestar Kriminal bring a cabaret atmosphere to their offerings. The German trio LIND, which bills its music as “symphonic trad ‘n’ roll,” serves up a bouncy, tuba-centric song titled “De Leit.” And the Norwegian, Swedish and Danish ensemble Víík blends Nordic folk, prog jaz and alt rock, fronted by vocalisst Elisabeth Vik. Their selection “Margit Hjukse” is a nice slice of Nordic folk rock.
The tracks from Wishamali and Aylin’s Soulgarden stand out by featuring music from the Middle East and Anatolia. I’ll be featuring their albums Al-Bahr and Bu Bir Demdir separately. The album also has tracks from the Finnish singer, songwriter and beatboxer Venla Ilona Blom and the Danish modern folk ensemble Sylfide, that lean more modern and “pop” than the rest — to my ear, anyway.
If you haven’t yet discovered the wonderful, varied world of modern European folk music, the Folk and World Music Galore collections are a great place to start. And if like me you’re already a fan, check out Vol. 3 and you’re bound to like a lot of it, and it could lead you to some new favorites.
(Folk Galore, 2024)
