With their roots in Nordic traditional music the Swedish duo Blankan creates a unique soundscape of archaic sounds and modern technology. Lyrical melodies and meditative drones meet blues riffs and trance grooves. The sound machinery is made up of hurdy-gurdy, folk flutes and Nordic mandola – all extended with live-looping and electronics.

Johannes Geworkian Hellman: hurdy-gurdy, swedish bagpipe & looping

Kim Persson: folk flutes, mandola & contrabass recorder

Francesca Ter-Berg is a cellist, composer and sound experimentalist and producer based between Margate & London. 

She specialises in Klezmer music and has studied with internationally renowned teachers including Ahmed Mukhtar, Tcha Limberger, Dr. Alan Bern and Dr Jyotsna Srikanth. She has collaborated with many of the UK’s top artists including Imogen Heap, Portuci Quartet, Sam Lee, The Unthanks, Talvin Singh and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Francesca has recently completed her Masters Degree in Popular Music at Goldsmiths where she started developing her interests in film composition, phonography and electroacoustic composition, resulting in her developing a live performance approach that encompasses some of these elements with playing the cello. 

Through her compositional explorations Francesca is searching for a way of bringing her musical passions together. 

Francesca is currently working on releasing her first solo EP and in 2019 released the debut album 'Unfurl' with duo project Fran & Flora to critical acclaim.

An album of "beguiling beauty" - Clive Bell, The Wire
"A string duo bound for glory" - Max Reinhardt - BBC 3 Late Junction

As you can imagine we are under huge pressure at the moment and are working flat out to ensure Cafe OTO survives this. The impact of this situation is extremely acute for small venues like ours and we need all the support we can get to pull through. Please donate what you can, if you can. Thank you. 

Cafe OTO opened in April 2008 with the aim of providing a home for creative new music that exists outside of the mainstream. It comprises one large cafe/performance space open during the day serving food and drink with an evening programme of live music almost seven nights a week. 

OTOROKU is part of OTOProjects - a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) that has been set up to manage the programme at Café Oto. Any profits from OTOROKU are put back into supporting what we do and will help us to continue programming the best musicians and performers from all over the world.

www.cafeoto.co.uk

Farandi /fa’ræn.di/
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Fornnordiskt ord - farande
Musiker från fem olika länder
Vi är på väg
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Old Norse word - travelling
Musicians from five countries
We are on our way

ESTONIAN FOLK ORCHESTRA
Estonian Folk Orchestra is a wild and unexpected musical dream which was initiated by Tuulikki Bartosik as a joint project between 33 Estonian musicians and Swedish saxophonist and composer Jonas Knutsson in 2011. Now the orchestra is performing in a chamber orchestra setting which is still astonishing in their sound nuances and musical stories. 
Estonian Folk Orchestra  is a dynamic mixture of different and unthinkable instruments and personalities. All musicians share their interest in traditional music playing and singing, melting the old melodies into modern versatile music. You can hear all kind of stories in EFOs music: some of the tunes are written down in traditional sheet arrangements, some are created from scratch in rehearsals and some are getting their final form during live performances. EFO makes music happen right in front of listeners eyes and ears and takes you to the musical wonderland you never knew existed. 

EFOs CD Imemaa/Wonderland was released on the 25th of February 2014.

Members:
Sänni Noormets - fiddle
Lee Taul - fiddle
Martin Müller - Estonian diatonic accordion
Juhan Uppin - Estonian diatonic accordion
Kadri Lepasson - Estonian zithers
Karoliina Kreintaal - fiddle
Merike Paberits - flute/Estonian bagpipe, jews harp
Martin Aulis - percussion
Cathy Sommer - fiddle
Mati Tubli - bass guitar
Leanne Barbo - Estonian bagpipe
Säde Tatar - flute, jews harp
Mihkel Roolaid - voice
Tuulikki Bartosik - free-bass accordion, leader
Jonas Knutsson - saxophones, leader

Nordic folk/experimental music with kantle, fiddle and vocals. 

Anna Rubinsztein, fiddle 
Maija Kauhanen, kantele
Anna Wikenius, vocal 

www.folkavant.com

Finnish folk orchestra of 40 musicians with fiddles, kanteles, accordeons, harmoniums, guitars, percussions, winds and vocals.

The strength of the Sibelius Academy Folk Big Band rises from the collective creativity of close to fifty folk musicians. Each member is a player, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, soloist and ensemble musician – as well as a skilled improviser! The orchestra performs without using a conductor or sheet music, with all the members communicating together in each given situation in a dynamic, rhythmic and expressive way, through improvisation and focus. 

Despite our careful research of historical singing and playing styles, we see folk music as something that lives strongly in the present. It doesn’t belong in museums; we live with it every single day. The Folk Big Band is a part of a 10,000-year continuum, and the only way to continue is to keep creating new folk music. The end result is something unprecedented, powerful and contagious – it glows with pride for our own musical traditions! Sometimes more is more! 

ARTO JÄRVELÄ - BIOGRAPHY
In the lexicon of Finnish Folk music, Arto Järvelä is one of the most important fiddlers of our time with body of work lasting over three decades. Beginning in the mid seventies in family band Isät ja Pojat (Fathers & sons) and during studies at music college in Kaustinen he formed finlands top fiddle band JPP in 1982. Thereafter Arto have been playing in most of the finnish folk groups like Niekku, Tallari, Salamakannel, Ampron Prunni, Koinurit, Pinnin Pojat, Maria Kalaniemi & Aldargaz, The Helsinki mandoliners, Erik Hokkanen & Lumisudet, you name it!
Arto Järvelä was born 1964 in Hattula, southern Finland. In his family fiddling goes behind 8 generations of famous Kaustinen fiddlers. 1982 Arto started studies at Sibelius Academy Folk Music department and graduated 1994 as Master of Music. During his studies he adapted new instruments like nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle), mandolin, octave mandolin, kantele and has been seen jamming even with jouhikko (ancient finnish bowed lyre), double bass and brushes!
As one of the Finlands most talented folk musicians Arto have been representing finnish culture in more than 40 countries. Concert appearances have taken him as far afield as Cuba, Peru, Australia, Pakistan, Thailand, USA, Canada, India, Taiwan and most of Europe.
1980 Arto wrote his first composition Tango a-mollissa (in a minor). Thereafter he has composed over 80 tunes and most of them appears on domestic albums, some of them recorded Internationally like Alice au pays d'Arto, which one Quebecuoise band LaBottine Souriante recorded in their album X-ieme 1998.
Arto has been active in the studio and recordings too. Over the years he has recorded over 50 albums with his bands. He has been wanted to side kicking other albums too, both domestic and internationally, and appearances goes over 70 albums and 300 tracks.
1994 Arto was ready to do his first solo Polska Differente (OArtCD1). There Arto shows his fingernails as fiddler, nyckelharper, mandoliner, composer, arranger and writer. With more than 20 of his musical friends he creates moods from lowest grawe to highest sky. Arto Järvelä plays fiddle (OArtCD2) is a cap lift to all his old- time heroes. Including 21 tracks of all tradional finnish fiddle tunes of highest class. Available also an accompanying book of transcriptions of the tunes. Arto Järvelä Far In! (OArtCD3) is his newest solo. This one is mixing old modes and modern musical thinking, not to mention all 20 or so instruments Arto is playing by himself!
2011 Arto released his 4th solo CD 'Plays fiddle Vol. 2 cross-tuned'(OArtCD5).
It includes traditional and original finnish music with 9 different scordatura + 2 vocal tracks. 2012 the serie of Arto CD's grows with two albums: Arto Järvelä Plays fiddle Vol. 3 - on the coast (OArtCD6) (including traditional music from Finland's swedish speaking areas on the coast) and collaborating with American Finnish duo Kaivama; Arto Järvelä & kaivama (OArtCD7). New duo with cousin Antti is reality, new CD 'Os fera liluli' by Arto & Antti Järvelä is released in September 2013.
Teaching in Sibelius Academy's Folk Music dept has been one of his major dutys since 1988. Bands JPP, Ampron Prunni, Pinnin Pojat, Nordik Tree, Erik Hokkanen & Lumisudet, Trio Nor, Maria Kalaniemi & Vilda Rosor and The Helsinki Mandoliners are alive and kicking. And of course Arto is working with new and interesting solo projects and swimming in ice hole.
www.artojarvela.net 
www.myspace.com/artojarvela
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Tommie Black-Roff is a musician and composer from Cornwall. Currently based in the Nordic Countries, he creates music that spans European folk traditions. Projects include London-based trio TEYR, pan-Nordic 6 piece Farandi, duo Ville & Tommie and Cornish summer school Crean Folk Camp.

Farandi is following