“Trepanation” is the second album by the group Trepaanit. It’s music is a combination of masculine emotion and power.

These four young musicians have experienced folk music to the full, they have truly found the power and might of playing. As in the lyrics of an innocent roundelay, they “make little birches sway like the mighty spruces of the deep woods”. They turn a trifling strophe into a life-size expression.

The ensemble consists of the Tuvan string instrument igil, the heart-breaking lament of the Karelian bowed lyre, the Irish bouzouki, the tow-row accordion from southern Ostrobothnia and a completely new instrument called vantele, developed because the existing instruments could not interpret what the musicians had in mind. The timbre of the strings is hypnotic and the sound of the ensemble unique. From time to time, this soundscape is completed by primeval overtone singing or a growling throat tone. Yet, what touches you the most in this music is its lengthy, archaic aesthetics: its hasteless lingering full of underlying, explosive might and its undisguised masculine sensitivity.

Trepanation
1. Rauta Mies (Paalanen) 5:06

2. Retrorakkaudesta (Turkka- lyrics trad.) 5:20

3. Jussi-poika (trad.) 5:25

4. Herran Sabbathin päiwänä (Kettunen/ trad. – lyrics trad.) 10:24

5. Kettunainen (Trepaanit) 3:09

6. Pataan (Vihtori Grönroos – lyrics trad.) 7:58

7. Tyttönen (trad.) 4:59

All arrangements by Trepaanit

The members of the Trepaanit are:

Riku Kettunen, mandolin, vantele, harmonium
Antti Paalanen, 1-, 2- and 3- row accordion
Eero Turkka, vocals, jouhikko (bowed lyre), igil
Olli Varis, bouzouki, piano

Featuring Taito Hoffrén background vocals (1), tuba (4,7)

Recorded by Taito Hoffrén
Mixed by Olli Varis and Taito Hoffrén
Mastered by Taito Hoffrén and Olli Varis

Recorded at Ouni Farm, Längelmäki in august 2008 and Ääniä http://ka.fi/ka/studio, Kantele in february 2009.
Mixed at STUDIO Solgläntan, Helsinki and Ääniä STUDIO in april 2009.
Mastered at Ääniä STUDIO in may 2009.

Graphic design and cover art by Johan Björklund and Tom Björklund

c & p KANTELEEN ÄÄNIÄ 2009
ISRC FI7KA0900024—30
EAN: 64 3002409 0154