
Maija Kauhanen
Maija Kauhanen combines a deep experience of traditional Finnish music with a variety of artistic practices. She collaborates on a regular basis with several bands, among others, bursting with feminine energy Rönsy or the electro-folk Okra Playground. She also pursues her own dreams, which boldly wander through the worlds of old Finnish epics, ambitious pop and electronic experimentation.
Maija takes us there, using an instrument belonging to the zither family - kantele, known in many forms in all the Baltic countries. For the Finns, it is undoubtedly a musical symbol and an important part of their identity that links its oldest elements with the present. In both these areas, Maija is very skilful and extremely creative. She uses several techniques in playing the kantele, she charming the listener with a plethora of sounds.
Complementing and, at the same time, an inseparable part of Maija's work is her singing. Thanks to the peculiarities of the Finnish language, which belongs to the Uralic family of languages, poetry transformed by the artist into musical form gives her songs an unusual rhythmic pattern, becoming the driving force of the performance.