Sinikka Langeland

Sinikka Langeland: Sauna Cathedral

German premiere

One of the most beguiling characteristics of contemporary creative music from Norway has been its innovative marriage of centuries-old folk traditions and the harmonic elasticity of jazz, and few figures illustrate this hybrid more beautifully and rigorously as Finnish-Norwegian singer and composer Sinikka Langeland. She emerged from the country’s vibrant folk scene, playing the kantele, a plucked zither-like instrument, but her music changed dramatically when she began writing her own compositions and collaborated with some of her homeland’s most original jazz players, notably, on a series of stunning albums for ECM. Her gossamer arrangements transplant and re-imagine traditional Finnish folk runes in thoroughly contemporary fashion, with a limber rhythmic propulsion and meticulously plotted trumpet and reed commentary underlining her haunting, measured singing. For her Jazzfest Berlin premiere, she presents a new work with a fantastic ensemble within the appropriately solemn, moving atmosphere of the Kaiser Wilhem Memorial Church, a setting perfect for her gorgeously meditative sounds.

Sinikka Langeland Sauna Cathedral on YouTube