Jouhiorkestri bring the sound of the Finnish Jouhikko-lyre to this year’s Rainforest World Music Festival in Borneo and go down a storm.

“DARKNESS has descended over the tropical Sarawakian rainforest, and about 5,000 pair of eyes seek the tall wooden stage between the ancient trees, where four Scandinavian [sic] fi ddlers have taking up their positions, each holding an odd-looking wooden board with three strings.

All of a sudden the silence is broken by strange tones accompanied by four adamant voices, and rapidly ancient Finnish folksongs – played and yelled out at a tearing speed – fi ll the moist jungle air. At fi rst, the audience seems stricken, but it doesn’t take long before the muddy ground in front of the stage is packed with Malaysian youngsters jumping, dancing and singing along to the unfamiliar tones of the bowed lyre from the polar circle.

It is probably the fi rst time the sound of the jouhikko – a medieval type of bowed lyre created by the ancient Finns around the Baltic Sea – has gone so far east, but judg ing by the Malaysian reception, it most likely won’t be the last.

Astonishing reception

‘The Nordic music-tradition is very different from the Asian style, but we both share a long tradition of bowed instruments, so its going to be interesting to see what they think about the jouhikko,’ said Ilkka Heinonen, the double bass player in Jouhiorkesteri, before the band took the stage.” “‘We were a bit anxious about how people would react to the music, which is so far away from their own musical traditions, but the reaction was overwhelming,’ admits Pekko Käppi, the alto- jouhikko player of the band, after the concert…”

SCANDASIA.COM 27 July. CHARLOTTE LUND DIDERIKSEN