NordicSounds

NordicSounds, the joint ethno jazz project, is a trademark that Veski and Kalluste have taken to more than 30 countries. It has been inspired by the meditative and introverted character, the atmospherics and spaciousness of the music of the North. Their compositions, which embrace an ever-expanding spectrum of world-music influences, have been warmly welcomed in different corners of the globe. Veski’s and Kalluste’s first love in music, however, was American jazz. The later change in their aesthetic perspective, and a substantial one at that, was triggered by the twosome’s first journey to the Faroe Islands in 1997.

The inspiration of the natural surroundings and musical sounds seen and heard on the Faroes proved so fresh and invigorating that it led to subsequent recording sessions of Veski and Kalluste. Inspired by the Faroe Islands’ crisp and scarce nature, NordicSounds has released 3 albums. Their first album, released in 1998, turned out to be extremely successful, in Estonia and beyond. In the cover letter to their first album the President of the Republic of Estonia Mr. Lennart Meri wrote: “The Baltic Sea, with the indeterminable coastline of its lands and islands, is our Mediterranean of the North…Here you have two Estonian men, who have plucked notes from the Nordic islands, and have transformed them for us into today’s world. Here is one way to capture the tunes of the Nordic Mediterranean”.

The album was considered by audience in Estonia as the second best after Arvo Pärt.

The duo’s NordicSounds’ programme of folksongs and compositions, “Sounds of the Nordic
Islands” displays the elegiac beauty of Scandinavian folk music in a combination of up-to date and ancient styles. The musicians: “It’s like a musical travel report from the Nordic Islands, inspired by nature, folk music, legends and myths.”

Last summer, the musicians traveled and gave concerts in the Sámi areas of Norway, Givaer Island, the Fleinvaer Archipelago, and the Faroe Islands with musicians from Norway and the Faroe Islands.

The Veski-Kalluste-Remmel saxophone-accordion-double bass trio has shared their music and traveled far from home with this program: Concerts at the Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Hall, the Varna Summer Jazz Festival in Bulgaria, the Vienna Town Hall, the Porgy & Bess Jazz Club, a concert recording for the Bratislava Radio EBU, a concert tour to Mexico, Finland, Germany, and the Baltic States are just a few examples of the musicians’ more than 30 years of collaboration and stage experience. The trio will be giving a concert for the first time in the beautiful hall of the Arvo Pärt Center.