Sinikka Langeland

Sinikka Langeland is an award-winning vocalist, kantele player, and arranger from Norway. Her many solo and collaborative recordings have explored the roots of the rune songs of the Finnskogen, a region of Norway named for the immigration of Finnish people to the area in the 17th century. Utilizing the kantele ("harpu" in the indigenous Sami) -- a traditional plucked string instrument from the dulcimer and zither families in Finland and other Northern European countries -- Langeland is adept at recording alone or in groups of (sometimes seemingly disparate) musicians from musical genres as diverse as folk, vanguard classical music, and jazz. Active since the mid-'90s, she later found a home on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22ECM%22">ECM</a> roster where she recorded highlights like Starflowers (2007), The Half-Finished Heaven (2015), and Wind and Sun (2023).

Langeland was born in Norway and studied piano, guitar, and contemporary folk song throughout her childhood and teenage years. She discovered the kantele in 1981, and it became her primary instrument. After studying in Paris in the mid-'80s, she returned to Norway and received a degree in musicology from the University of Oslo in 1992. Upon graduation, she embarked upon a massive research project in Finnskogen songs and music involving several musicians, singers, and producers, among them <a href="spotify:artist:4xQqR9VPW1ZVvsB4DLxaqY">Ove Berg</a>.

Her debut recording, 1994's Langt Innpå Skoga, marked the beginning of a ten-year collaborative partnership with the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Grappa+Musikkforlag%22">Grappa Musikkforlag</a> label. During her tenure there she released nine albums. Among them were Tirun lirun and Runoja, recordings that dove deeply into the poetry of the rune songs, as well as Strengen Var Af Røde Guld and Lille Rosa, both of which featured Langeland singing medieval songs. During this decade she also released a book on the rune songs titled Karhun Emuu and won the Edvard and Norwegian-Finnish Cultural Prizes.

Langeland signed with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22ECM+Records%22">ECM Records</a> in 2005. Starflowers, her debut for the label, was released in 2007 and featured <a href="spotify:artist:32pN1An13076I4PTMzn2g7">Arve Henriksen</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4puHZxpgNVKxk6ydFviSM8">Trygve Seim</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4GyvHXnvKDjmMjMQJmsOTy">Anders Jormin</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:6Ao6O9up2QLhOoYnKIOhTa">Markku Ounaskari</a>. It was followed in 2009 by Maria's Song, which set traditional Finnish hymns and <a href="spotify:artist:5aIqB5nVVvmFsvSdExz408">Bach</a> religious songs to accompaniment by kantele and viola. She re-teamed with the band from Starflowers for 2011's The Land That Is Not, setting the poetry of Edith Södergran and Olav H. Hauge to music. After a suggestion from producer <a href="spotify:artist:4NXTfrH5HwadrU4S5QvwZN">Manfred Eicher</a>, Langeland shifted her focus for 2015's The Half-Finished Heaven. All but three of the album's tracks were instrumentals, with the kantele in the foreground supported by tenor saxophone, viola, and percussion. The album's vocal songs, including the title track, relied on the poems of Sweden's Tomas Tranströmer.

After working exclusively with her Starflowers quintet for a decade, Langeland embarked on a new project that combined that band with the singers of the <a href="spotify:artist:4FdQQ2c3CdaOqUhak3CqFC">Trio Mediӕval</a>. She composed new works and interpreted traditional rune songs based on fragments of the axis mundi ("world tree") myths found at the center of much Finnskogen lore. The Magical Forest was released in August of 2016.

Following five years of research, writing, and performing across Northern Europe, Langeland released the entirely solo Wolf Rune on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22ECM%22">ECM</a> in April 2021. Her next project again saw her adapting poems to music, this time using the texts of acclaimed Norwegian author and poet <a href="spotify:artist:5F2CdzgBlzP1L34vDv3xTz">Jon Fosse</a>. Assembling an impressive band from stalwarts of the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22ECM%22">ECM</a> roster, Langeland recorded 2023's Wind and Sun with trumpeter <a href="spotify:artist:6emZIO62oAXpIGiplDApwJ">Mathias Eick</a>, saxophonist <a href="spotify:artist:3adFks4dLlG13e5UvS0ZJG">Bendik Hofseth</a>, bassist <a href="spotify:artist:66tv0Nc5AOVkeyMGS25rJh">Mats Eilertsen</a>, and drummer <a href="spotify:artist:6DeUn0VfASGtKU3XmeotoY">Thomas Strønen</a>. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi