Spend an hour with accordion-based music for this New Sounds. There’s Sámi yoik with Finnish accordion by VILDA, music by Kepa Junkera from Basque country, accordion and nyckelharpa by Frode Haltli and Emilia Amper from Scandinavia, and work by the late Pauline Oliveros.
Start in northeastern Brazil with a forro style accordion-based standard from an imagined Brazilian Western by Camarão. Then, hear music that combines yoik-the ancient singing form of the Sami- and the accordion, as a traditional Finnish instrument from the duo VILDÁ - Hildá Länsman (joik-singer/songwriter) and Viivi Maria Saarenkylä (accordion.)
Listen to accordion with guitar and fiddle in music by Lau, a folk band from both Scotland and England. It’s from their recent record Midnight and Closedown. There’s also music from Kepa Junkera, a trikitixa (a diatonic accordion) virtuoso and composer, of the Basque region. From a record called Maletak, where he is joined by the vocalists/percussionists of the all-female ensemble Sorginak (whose name translates as “witches”), hear a tune called, “Sandinderi.”
Then from Serbia, there's folk-jazz music (in gnarly nines) from Nenad Vasilic. Hear traditional Ottoman kanun and classical Persian setar from Turkish and Iranian members of the Montreal-based Constantinople in collaboration with the cello-accordion chamber music duo BELEM from their record Horizons lointains (Beyond the Horizon.) Hear just one polka – a subversive one from Fred Frith called “The Disinformation Polka,” featuring Guy Klucevsek.
Listen to avant Nordic folk from Norwegian composer and accordionist Frode Haltli together with Emilia Amper on nyckelharpa (Sweden’s national instrument, a centuries-old chordophone, or keyed fiddle.) Hear “Quietly the Language Dies,” where Haltli and Amper are accompanied by two percussionists, each playing six tuned wine glasses to produce an eerie, glass harmonica drone. Plus, music for just intonation accordion by the late Pauline Oliveros, recorded in a drinking water reservoir below the city of Cologne, Germany. And more. - Caryn Havlik
Program #4301: New Music for Accordions (First aired 11/22/2019)
ARTIST: Camarão
WORK: Ma Nah Ma Nah [2:16]
RECORDING: The Imaginary Soundtrack to a Brazilian Western Movie 1964 - 1974
SOURCE: Analog Africa AALP085
INFO: piccadillyrecords.com
ARTIST: VILDÁ
WORK: Vildaluodda [2:53]
RECORDING: Vildaluodda
SOURCE: Bafes Factory
INFO: bafesfactory.fi/vilda
ARTIST: Tau Ea Linare (Lesotho)
WORK: He O Oe Oe [3:03]
RECORDING: In The Blood
SOURCE: Rykodisc 20174
INFO: Available at Amazon.com
ARTIST: Lau
WORK: Itshardtoseemtobeokwhenyourenot [5:43]
RECORDING: Midnight and Closedown
SOURCE: Reveal Records
INFO: revealrecords.co.uk
ARTIST: Guy Klucevsek
WORK: Fred Frith: The Disinformation Polka [4:06]
RECORDING: Polka From the Fringe
SOURCE: Starkland
INFO: starkland.com
ARTIST: Kepa Junkera
WORK: Sandinderi [4:13]
RECORDING: Maletak
SOURCE: Boa/Fol Musica
INFO: kepajunkera.com | Available at Amazon.com
ARTIST: Erik Friedlander
WORK: Risky Business [3:23]
RECORDING: Rings
SOURCE/INFO: music.erikfriedlander.com/album/rings
ARTIST: Constantinople & BELEM
WORK: Tour de Babel [5:16]
RECORDING: Horizons lointains (Beyond the Horizon)
SOURCE: Constantinople, Koda Productions
INFO: Available digitally via Amazon.com, Spotify, & Apple Music
ARTIST: Nenad Vasilic
WORK: A Be da Be (Medley) [3:16]
RECORDING: Seven
SOURCE/INFO: vasilic.com
ARTIST: Frode Haltli
WORK: Quietly the Language Dies [6:26]
RECORDING: Border Woods
SOURCE: Hubro Music
INFO: https://hubromusic.com/4351-2
ARTIST: Pauline Oliveros
WORK: Watertank Software [3:28]
RECORDING: Vor Der Flut
SOURCE: Eigelstein ES 2025/26, 2LP import
INFO: Out of print. Try auction sites.
