Värttinä is Finland's most successful contemporary folk music group, now celebrating their twenty-third year and the release of their eleventh album "Miero". Värttinä's roots are in the Karelia region of Finland, specifically women's vocal traditions and ancient poems known as runos. Fronted by three female singers and supported by six acoustic musicians, Värttinä composes most of their music and lyrics, based on traditional Karelian and other Finno-Ugric styles but with modern and thoroughly distinctive and original arrangements.
Since 1990, Värttinä has toured internationally and built a solid reputation as one the most inventive and uncompromising ensembles in the contemporary world music arena.
Fiona Talkington, BBC 3 Late Junction, said of the group; "Värttinä has seemingly unstoppable creative energy. They thrill, surprise and amaze audiences all over the world." New York's Newsday described their music as "a gale-force musical attack...beautifully poignant tunes...exotic but accessible, complex but exciting" and from Billboard magazine; "exquisite beauty...groundbreaking yet steeped in tradition, definitely Finnish, yet worldly."
Songlines Magazine (UK) voted their tenth album "iki" one of the "Top 50 World Music Albums You Should Own" and Utne Magazine (USA) voted Värttinä one of the "World's Most Soulful and Exciting Artists of 2003". The new album MIERO is the first of a two album deal with Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records. Värttinä’s latest achievement is the role of co-composer for the stage adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, with Toronto World Premiere in March 2006 and the London West End premiere in spring 2007.
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