Finnish harmonica player Markku Lepistö came in second on the high-level music list

Finnish the year of music started with happy news. Accordion cross Markku Lepistön Duos– album (Rapusaari Records) reached second place on the World Music Charts Europe.

WMCE is a list of the European Broadcasting Union, for which world music radio journalists and DJs from 24 different countries vote for records. So it doesn’t measure sales, but artistic quality. At the moment, out of 45 members, the only Finn is a reporter for Yleisradio Tuuli Saksala.

Behind Lepistö on the January list were such stars as Mari Boine, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Mulatu Astatke and Seun Kuti.

Markku Lepistö (b, 1963) started playing the accordion at the age of five. He is one of the first graduates of the folk music department of the Sibelius Academy, founded in 1983. He completed his doctorate at the Sibelius Academy in 2016.

Lepistö has played accordion in recent years in many duo formations, and previously in Värttinä (1998–2008) and Doina Klezmer.

“After I’ve been doing this job for quite a long time, I’m realistic about the ranking. It’s a very nice thing, but hardly more. Nowadays, records are mostly sold in connection with concerts and based on this, they are not easy to come by when the musicians live all over Europe”, Lepistö thinks.

Even though masses of people don’t rush to the market or record stores, Lepistö emphasizes that realism does not dim his joy.

Duos– album, Lepistö composed two songs for each partner. There are accordion players Riccardo Tesi from Italy, Leija Lautamaja from Finland, Xabi Aburruzaga from the Basque Country and Eva Parmenter From Portugal.

They are familiar with Lepistö from various musical connections. Only Parmenter was previously known only from the Internet. Lepistö became interested in his playing on Youtube. The interest in cooperation that arose in the exchange of messages was realized in the record project.

Lepistö composed and arranged the songs in 2020. He didn’t want to work one-way, but sent messages and asked when it would be suitable to come to the village to work on the songs together.

“We first practiced for a couple of days and then we recorded. As I guessed, when throwing ideas together, everyone brought their own cultural and musical influences. It was a way of working that everyone liked.”

”

Medal places are rare.

Lepistö’s Finnish partner Leija Lautamaja also graduated from the Sibelius Academy. He released his first LP last year The heart came from hiding. In the spring, Lautamaja and the well-known 22-Pistepirko are planned PK Keränen Moontwins band’s debut album.

“I have followed Leija’s career for a long time and we are familiar,” says Lepistö.

“I have known Riccardo Tesi for the longest time, since the 1990s. Since 2010, we have also had the Samurai Accordion band. It still hasn’t stopped, but after the corona, it just hasn’t been started.”

in Finland folk and world music is doing well, which can also be seen in the WMCE list. Finns flash there almost every month, but medal places are few and far between.

The list has been published monthly since 1991. Already in 1993 Värttinän Seleniko was third in the entire year’s list. Kimmo Pohjonen and the Kronos Quartet You are was in the same place in 2011.

At least Piirpauken has been number one in Finnish monthly lists Koli (October 2010), Värttinän Price (May 2012), Kimmo Pohjonen Sensitive Skin (January and February 2016) and Maria Kalaniemi and Eero Grundström The swallow (July 2017).

Along with Lepistö, Pohjonen and Kalaniemi are accordion players. So we really have that kind of strength.