Dear friends of the kantele in Japan

I will soon be visiting Japan for the fourth time, this time to present nine concerts during the cherry blossom season this spring. There will be four solo concerts and five concerts with the quartet, who will play music from the new album The Half-Finished Heaven. I have recently finished another recording featuring the story of the bear cub Kamui in the Aino culture, and my experiences in Japan are thus now also reflected in future releases. The sun is now returning to Finnskogen, and I have been doing a little skiing. Yesterday I saw a moose gnawing on a willow tree. The moose was very beautiful and its movements were graceful as it wandered further into the forest after a while. In recent years much of my life has revolved around being in Finnskogen and creating music. This past summer my work Mysticeti – Mass for the Blue Whale, for 11 musicians and singers, had its premiere. This is my biggest project to date. I have enjoyed a productive collaboration with photographer Dag Alveng, who is very interested in music, and through him I have also been able to realise some visual dreams. He created a photo installation for Mysticeti, and has also taken pictures of Finnskogen for the project The Half-Finished Heaven. These photos can also be seen on a YouTube video, accompanied by “The Blue Tit’s Song” on 15-string kantele with Lars Anders Tomter on viola, Trygve Seim on saxophone and Markku Ouanskari on drums.

I hope that each and every one of you is successful with your kantele playing. It is a unique instrument with many possibilities, and I hope you will also create your own music on it. We will see each other soon. I am very much looking forward to coming and playing for you.

Best regards,

Sinikka Langeland