Õunaaia Album (Apple Orchard Album)

Mari Kalkun gave a memorable video stream of this album last spring in the blossoming orchard beside her house in Võrumaa, south Estonia. She was playing an upright piano on a wooden platform under the fruit trees with her sheet music clipped against the wind with clothes pegs. It was an idyllic lockdown concert.

Kalkun is one of Estonia's most versatile folk musicians. On her last album, Ilmamõtsan, she sang and played kannel, the Estonian zither. Here she plays piano (and harmonium on the final track), with some vocal overdubs plus a few instrumental additions. Local birdsong adds to the effect on several songs like the multi-textured ‘Kolm Ubinat’ with contrasting voices and instrumental sounds. What's clear is that Kalkun has a real identity as a songwriter and a naturally-textured alto voice to deliver her music.

The album, mostly of original music, is clearly intended to be a tribute to Kalkun's home and her ancestors who planted the apple trees around her. Most of the songs relate to the orchard in some way, including ‘Ma Tahaksin Kodus Olla’, a well-known song by two women that says ‘I wish I was at home when apple trees are in bloom…’This is a soft, beautiful album, but it feels like an apple-blossom preparation (there's probably a Võru word for that) for something more ambitious next when the world is open again.