Haitari music

Summer is inevitably also coming to Finland and with it comes music festivals all over the country. The Finnish music scene is very diverse. Haitari, the accordion or rather the Russian bayan-type version of it, is found regularly in Finnish Folk music. Here are five different musicians with very different performances. I like them all.…

What is Jopo?

Jopo is a Finnish bicycle brand that was launched in 1965 and is going strong still today. The name is the abbreviation for “jokainen polkupyörä”, basically saying “a bicycle for everybody”. Eero Helkamalla had the dream of designing a bike that everybody could drive, irrespective of age, size, sex or dimension of wallet. And irrespective…

Itsenäisyyspäivä

Okay, this is too late. Unfortunately I was travelling on 6.12. when Finland celebrates independence day. But as independence doesn’t end on that day, I’ll post this music piece today. Composer is, of course, Jean Sibelius, it’s called, of course, Finlandia. During the last years of Finland being a part of Russia, this music was…

Double or half?

I just realized with full force that I do have now double citizenship.   Something I never intended nor expected to happen in my life. Or am I half German and half Finn now? At least I don’t feel anymore like a real German, but I am not a Finn, either, and never will be. Although,…