Kiriküüt

Rüüt is an Estonian quartet who recorded their first album in 2015, not to be confused with the more minimal Duo Ruut, also Estonian, who sing vocals over a shared zither. I first saw and was impressed by the quartet on the extraordinary all-night Folklandia cruise in 2019, although they’ve changed their line-up since then. The band includes accordion, kannel zither, guitar and violin with harmony vocals and they combine arrangements of Estonian traditional tunes with their own music. Kiriküüt (a playful word for nightingale) includes a rather catchy title-track presumably about the bird with harmony vocals over kannel and punchy accordion. The diatonic accordion of Juhan Uppin is a real asset adding a lot to a song like ‘Jännupoig’ with its rhythmic vocals. The rhythm of the words plus accordion is also what drives ‘Kukumama’. The opening ‘Toonetuuled’ (Winds from Toonela) refers to the mythical underworld known as Tuonela in the Finnish Kalevala. In Estonia, before bird migration was discovered, it was thought the birds went to Tuonela during the winter. Kiriküüt’s ten songs are a varied and enjoyable listen.