Music Around the World: Åland Islands

Our next country to explore the musical culture of is the Åland Islands, a grouping of around 6,500 small islands and skerries off the coast of Finland. 90% of the population lives on Fasta Åland, one of the larger islands in the archipelago province. If you are currently as unfamiliar with this country as I was prior to starting research for this post, here's a little geography lesson for you:

-Capital City: Mariehamn

-Official Language: Swedish

-Government: Devolved parliamentary autonomous region (currently under the leadership of Governor Peter Lindbäck)

-Granted autonomy from Finland on May 7th, 1920

-Land Area: 610 square miles

-Population (as of 2018): 29,789

-Religion: 73.1% Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

Since they were a part of Finland until they were granted autonomy at the beginning of the 20th century, I wasn't able to find a whole lot about the specific musical culture of the Åland Islands. I was, however, introduced to a few very talented, very cool bands that hail from the Islands that I'm very excited to share with you this week.

Dünn wie Papier by Anna Järvinen (written by A. Järvinen)

Anna Järvinen (born April 16th, 1970) is a composer, singer, and musician originally from the Åland Islands who is currently based in Stockholm, Sweden. In addition to her solo career, Järvinen was a singer for the Swedish pop band Granada from the mid-'90's until they broke up in the early 2000's. She has been nominated for multiple Grammis (Sweden's version of the Grammy Awards) and has released 5 studio albums between 2007-2016. Currently, in addition to her music, she is an art and English language teacher at the Käppala school in Lidingö near Stockholm. Dünn wie Papier (which translates to Thin as Paper) is from Järvinen's 2016 album Anna. En Anna. It's definitely an interesting song with kind of an ethereal feel to it, layering a somewhat otherworldly singing style underneath her speaking in a hushed sort of tone. I was unable to find the lyrics for this song ANYWHERE AT ALL, but it's definitely worth a listen.

Slippin' Away by Book of Reflections (written by L. Mattsson)

Lars Eric Mattsson is a musician, singer, and producer from the Åland Islands, and Book of Reflections is one of his numerous musical projects he's created over a fairly long career. He's been playing in bands and solo since the '70's, starting out as a bassist and switching years later to guitar. Book of Reflections includes Mattsson on guitar, singer Andy Engberg, pianist Vitalij Kuprij, and several other musicians and is best described as a "hard rock/metal supergroup." Slippin' Away is from their 2004 album Book of Reflections, and I seriously dug this song a lot. It's got a bit of an operatic, theatrical feel to it, and all of the musicians work together seamlessly to put on an impressive production. The song is quite long, running around 7 1/2 minutes, but it never gets boring.

The sirens have faded/The smoke will slowly vanish/The sky is turning blue/And the sun scattered my anguish/I've lost a lot of friends/So many more I can't bear/Close my eyes and pray to God/That I won't see their empty stares/All I hear is a painful silence/All I see is decay/Left non my own, I'll die all alone/Slipping away/All I want is some sanctuary/I might die here today/Left on my own, I'll die all alone/Slipping away

Re-Wire by Iller (written by Iller)

If I sound unprepared for this paragraph, I'm sorry but I promise it's not totally my fault - I could find next to NOTHING about Iller anywhere on the Internet. What I've been able to scrape together is he's got a lot of music on Soundcloud, he's from the Åland Islands, and I actually really dig his electronic style of music. Re-Wire is from the 2015 album DT007: Iller/Virtual Flannel that is composed of 11 songs by Iller and 13 songs by Virtual Flannel. It's an instrumental track that's very meditative and calming and really put me at ease every time I listened to it.

Five Lanes by Lars Eric Mattsson (written by L. Mattsson)

Here is one of Mattsson's solo pieces from the 2005 rock compilation album Shawn Lane Remembered Vol. 1. I could very easily conjure up images of a very busy highway with multiple lanes of traffic while listening to this instrumental track. Mattsson shows off his extremely impressive guitar skills here, and I really enjoyed this one as well - it shifts seamlessly between hard rock, light almost jazzy, and a softer rock sound all within the span of close to 3 1/2 minutes.

Bomarsunds ruin by Stefan Nyback (written by S. Nyback)

Oy vey, I have literally misspelled the word Bomarsunds every time I've tried to write it this week. Nyback is another artist I had an extremely difficult time finding any information on, but I really enjoyed this track from his 2017 EP Flyende dar (which translates to Flying There). The title of the song refers to the actual fortress of Bomarsund, which was destroyed during the Crimean War in August 1854. The lyrics were unavailable anywhere, but it's a very poppy sounding song that's super easy to bob your head along to as you listen.

Ålänningens Sång by Suomen Laulu & Timo Nuoranne (written by J. Hagfors)

Our final stop is the national anthem of the Åland Islands, Ålänningens Sång (which translates to Song of the Ålander). With music composed by Johan Fridolf Hagfors and lyrics by John Grandall, this has been the national anthem of the Åland Islands since 1922. It is heard most often on the Islands on Midsummer's Eve (which this year will be June 24th) and on the National Day of Åland (their independence day) on June 9th. The English translation of the first verse is below.

The land of a thousand islands and skerries/Born from deep beneath the waves/Åland, our Åland, our home it is/Thee we long to meet/Ancient graves beneath the birches/Tells of our thousand year history/We will never forget the land of our Fathers/No matter where we will go/No matter where we will go

I hope you enjoyed our short trip through this beautiful nation and got to hear some good music along the way. See you next week!