While the world was beginning to worry more regularly about the emerging coronavirus in Asia, we were already in Japan. It seemed only a matter of time before things would get worse there, so we expedited our travel plans and booked tickets to Finland. For a moment, the EU seemed a relatively safe bet, but that didn't last for long. By the time of our departure, major travel restrictions and border lockdowns were taking effect. We left Tokyo mid-march, passed through Doha, Qatar, and arrived to Helsinki—just a day and a half before Finland closed its borders. We would spend the next two months living in a cabin in Kaustinen, a town revered for its fiddling tradition.
(Please feel free to forward this blog to any family/friends you think would enjoy a music & travel adventure. Thanks!)
COLLABORATIONS
With a lockdown of the Helsinki region, recommendations of restricted movement, and a healthy caution towards coronavirus for the sake of families and friends, collaborations were a bit different. While there were fewer than originally planned, the silver lining was that I could dive deeper into the music and musicians available locally. We had time to meet on multiple occasions, to jam and arrange, and I could practice the music in our cabin more before the sessions.
#23 • The Finnish Cabin & Fiddle House • with Esko Järvelä [Read the blog]
#24 • Love Song From Kauhava • with Maija Pokela & Antti Järvelä [Read the blog]
#25 • Covid Mashup • with Antti Järvelä, Esko Järvela, & Maija Pokela [Read the blog]
BONUS • Big Yellow Taxi • with Aili Järvelä & Esko Järvelä
TRAVELOGUE
After 24 hours of travel, with the final five driving through snow at night, we arrived to a lovely little cabin for three in Kaustinen, ready for rest. The idea was to be here one week, but life was changing fast. Over the next few days, plans to visit Estonia, Norway, and Sweden evaporated—and even a visit to Helsinki was out of the question. Having just traveled, we needed to quarantine for 2 weeks...so considering all this, we decided to just stay in Kaustinen for the foreseeable future, which turned into 2 months.
MONTH #1
Our cozy cabin was perfect for us—small kitchen, dining table that tripled as a game and office table, living room with fireplace to heat the whole cabin, wood burning sauna off of the bathroom, and a loft with two beds and a desk for my daughter's artwork. One day I can see myself building one just like it. Out the back was a river still partially frozen, and out the front was a woodshed surrounded by farmer's tilled fields. The friends I was hoping to see had all been traveling recently, so a 2 week self-quarantine for everyone was easier to endure once accepting we were to stay put for a while.
Final Snows of the Year
The first of two months of lockdown in Finland. (click photo for more)
Our area was fairly rural and thankfully there weren't many covid cases nearby. Essential services were open and we made a couple careful trips to our nearly empty grocery store. It seemed like Finland had things under control. Hand sanitizer was everywhere, 2 meter social distance marks were on the floors, and plexiglass barriers were installed. We cooked every meal, got settled into homeschool, and not having seen a winter in many years, we spent lots of time outside playing in the snow and hiking, often not seeing anyone but ourselves.
I chopped wood and built fires. I sauna-ed and saw a hint of the northern lights. I started editing all my collected materials from Japan and mixed a song for my new friend Arko Mukhaerjee from India. I gave my first Zoom workshop to a group of local fiddlers and my second to a college improv class back in the states. I had time to practice again and started learning Finnish polskas. I played my first streamed solo concert in years and took it as a chance to work up solo versions of material learned on this trip. I caught up with other locked down friends and completed five sizable puzzles. Nothing was going on, but we had plenty to keep busy.
Once our respective self-quarantines were through, fellow 5-string fiddler Esko Järvelä and I finally got together, full of pent-up fiddle energy. He loaned me Finnish tune books and taught me a few of his current favorites. A week later, we were recording them at Pelimannitalo, the local fiddle/music house.
MONTH #2
As you may imagine, the second month of our lockdown was similar to the first—but with less snow and more musical and social meetups.
We had already received some great hiking tips from my other friends in the area, Maija Pokela and Antti Järvelä (cousin to Esko), and were eventually able to join them for a lunch in the woods. We hatched a plan to make some music at their home, about 1hr away near Härmä. It was a great afternoon of rental car fishtails on soggy logging roads, home cooked food, comparing interpretations of polska rhythms, learning about questionable local folklore characters, and music, of course.
Springtime
The second of two months of lockdown. (click image for more)
Just outside of Kaustinen in Järvelä Village, we were invited to Esko's parents home for some outdoor holiday hangs, along with an introduction to the smoke sauna and an Easter dessert pudding called Mämmi. They also very sweetly loaned us bicycles, more puzzles to pass the cabin time, and helped keep our woodpile stocked.
Aili Järvelä, Esko's sister, had escaped Helsinki before it closed and happened to be back home in Kaustinen. She instigated a trio collaboration featuring her fabulous vocals, with Esko and me flanking on 5-string fiddles. It was a laughter-filled afternoon, from which we got a fun cover of Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi, recorded and mixed by their cousin Antti.
Music runs deep in the Järvelä veins, and I also met with expert fiddling cousin Arto Järvelä, in town for a rehearsal. Sitting under the watchful eyes of newlyweds and a dance fiddler on an ornate three-dimensional wedding tapestry, he gave me some insight to Kaustinen wedding tunes and bowing style. And just as memorable, he gifted my family with delicious, locally sourced moose.
My time in Finland, and this whole Otherlands international adventure, was perfectly capped off with a gig. It was a quartet of Antti, Esko, Maija, and myself, playing tunes we had shared with each other and jammed on for the past weeks. Being covid-times, the gig was "unattended" but streamed, and admittedly a strange new normal for us to get acclimated to. Learning how to adjust to dead air between songs was awkward, but making music with this quartet made me forget about the challenges. We knew each other in passing from years past, but in these world-history-making couple of months, I feel we really formed a lasting bond…call it our Kaustinen Pod. The night before leaving Finland, we had a lovely family cookout and marshmallow roast in Esko's yard, just down the river from our place. I'm already looking forward to the day when I can host all these fine peoples at my home. Thank you friends, and you're always welcome.
LISTEN [SPOTIFY PLAYLIST]
Here’s a small selection of traditional-based music from Finland that I explored while on my Otherlands travels. I am by no means an scholar in this area, but I like what I hear. I hope these artists and traditions take you down some new directions, as they did for me. Recommended to listen on shuffle. Enjoy!
Looking back on the first half of the 2020, it seems we were following a coronavirus path. It began in Asia—we went to Japan. We try to avoid it by going to Finland—then the EU shuts down. Supposing it's finally time to go home to the US, we returned to live in a country with the highest infection and death count in the world. Maybe it's better for everyone if we just stay put for a bit. I'm eternally grateful for what we accomplished in our 10 months away and hopeful for the days when these sorts of adventures resume. We're not done here...
Stay healthy friends!
Casey
