Maija Kauhanen is a composer and a versatile multi-instrumentalist inspired by rural music traditions of Finland and Karelia. She specializes in Finnish Saarijärvi kantele as well as the old and rare technique of playing kantele using a tiny wooden stick as a plectrum. Her debut solo album Raivopyörä ("Whirl of Rage") came out in 2017 on the Nordic Notes label, which was followed by her second full-length "Menneet" ("Gone") in 2022.

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One of the most internationally successful acts to emerge from the contemporary Finland music scene, Värttinä revitalized the nation's folk traditions with an aggressive and modern style that eschewed not only the costumes of their ancestors but also the long-accepted cultural notion that women should sing unaccompanied. Värttinä makes a grand comeback in 2025, celebrating 40 years since the band's first performance at Kaustinen Folk Music Festival.

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VIMMA is an art-pop ensemble from Helsinki combining Nordic folk with indie sounds and progressive rock. As a nine-piece mini-orchestra VIMMA can create a massive sound with specific arrangements while also leaving space for artistic interpretation and improvisation. Their lyrics (in Finnish) concentrate strongly on ecological issues.

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Gulf Stream Riders is a folk/country rock duo with one foot in New York and the other in Turku. The band is an American-Finnish-Swedish collaboration that, in addition to Ahlstedt, consists of the American singer Chris Anderson. Anderson and Ahlstedt have played together since the early 90s, when they had a band called Wighthouse Wanderland. Still these days, the band's multi-instrumentalist and producer Nalle Ahlstedt can be associated with many different music projects.

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Wimme & Rinne is the collaboration between Sámi joik singer Wimme Saari and multi-instrumentalist Tapani Rinne. The duo's signature sound is a fascinating mixture of ancient joik traditions and modern soundscapes, which range from abstract ambient and field recordings to playful techno beats. The duo returned in 2025 after a 8-year recording break.

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Slack Bird is a punk folk band as well as the solo vehicle for singer-songwriter Dave Klas. During their existence, Slack Bird has toured abroad with various lineups, the most active of which has been the duo version with accordionist Susanna Leppänen and Klas. Thus far, Slack Bird has released three albums: "Let's Start Wearing Capes" (2016), "Aleta Au" (2018) and "Hämärään" (2021).

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Maija Pokela is a kantele player, singer and folk musician who has toured around the world with her bands. Pokela has an extensive discography with different groups (e.g. Kardemimmit and Enkel) along with other studio work as a guest musician. She has also composed music for the Star Stable Online game. Pokela's debut solo album "Lohdun sanoja" ("Words of Comfort") will be released in April 2025.

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Ida Elina has demonstrated the versatility of the Finnish national instrument, the kantele, in the 2010s. She is a skilled singer and pop kantele performer, gaining attention on YouTube with her covers of popular songs by artists like Michael Jackson, Adele, and Toto, which have accumulated hundreds of thousands of views. In addition to her cover songs, she has developed her own style as a songwriter, incorporating gospel influences alongside pop elements. Trained in classical music, Ida Elina developed her distinctive playing technique after observing slap guitar players on YouTube.

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Junna is a duo that infuses Finnish folk music with electronic music. Comprised of vocalist, violinist, and traditionalist Anna Haaraoja and beatmaker-producer Juha Seppänen, Junna originally set out to find out what happens when the organic sound of folk is turned up to the max and beyond. The duo found out that the result was a hard-hitting blend of traditional melodies and "synthtastic blasting".

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Päivi Hirvonen is a Helsinki based musician and composer – violin, voice and bowed lyre as her instruments. During her career as professional musician she has played music from folk and popular to classical and performed both solo and with different ensembles and bands touring in Finland and abroad. Päivi’s debut solo album “Alku – The Beginning” was released in 2018 by Nordic Notes. It was followed by "Kallio" (2022), which pushed Hirvonen's international and domestic career further.

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Juha Kujanpää is a Finnish composer and musician who operates masterfully in the no-man’s land between folk music, jazz, and rock. His most recent works include the solo albums “To Where My Wings Will Take Me” (Niin kauas kuin siivet kantaa), 2017, “Goldwing” (Kultasiipi), 2015, and Tales and Travels” (Kivenpyörittäjä), 2013. “Tales and Travels” was selected as one of the best albums of 2013 by the leading Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat. The band, Juha Kujanpää Ensemble, was also nominated as the Band of the Year of Kaustinen Folk Music Festival 2014.

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Teija Niku is a Finnish accordionist, known for her expertise in Nordic and Balkan folk music. She has been described as a composer with an excellent sense of melody, and an inventive arranger. Niku has released three solo albums: Finsko Pajdusko (2011), Memento (2017), and Hetkessä (2019). Niku is also known for the bands Polka Chicks, Karuna, Aallotar, and Teija Niku & Grupa Balkan. Niku's newest ensemble is a duo with pianist-composer Juha Kujanpää. ​Niku has performed all over Europe with her various ensembles and toured 12 times in the USA.

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HUIPPU is a new six-piece band that composes and performs contemporary folk music. Influenced by Nordic and Irish folk traditions, the band creates a sound that combines melody and rhythm in a modern approach.

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Award-winning singer-songwriter Johanna Iivanainen and guitar virtuoso Mikko Iivanainen released their first duo album, the folky "Surutuuli" after almost 30 years of performing together. Perviously Johanna Iivanainen has made mainly Americana, jazz and folk styled music, and also performed as one half of the duo Altamullan Road.

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Ilkka Arola Sound Tangine is a six-piece ensemble consisting of the top musicians of the Finnish rhythmic music scene. Their music combines a variety of genres into a blend of folk, jazz, modern beats, and cinematic soundscapes, offering danceable, funky grooves and melodies reminiscing Arabic maqams and other microtonal sounds.

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Hildá Länsman is a joik singer and songwriter hailing from Ohcejohka, now based in Guovdageaidnu. Immersed in the ancient traditions of reindeer husbandry, artistic handicraft (duodji), and joik (luohti) from a young age, Hildá seamlessly blends her rich cultural heritage with contemporary music and visual arts. In 2025, Hildá released "Dajan", her pioneering debut album, a collaboration with Tuomas Norvio that fused artistic electronic joik and dance music, resulting in an unforgettable sound.

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South-Karelian-Helsinki music collective Dänkki Briha – self proclaimed "synergistic connection of nostalgic longing and modern expression" – is inspired by Finnish-Ingerian-Karelian folklore, myths and cityscapes. Passionate about art and folk poetry. The "anti-folk" band fuses together theatrical expression, Baltic Finnish cultural heritage and an ultra-modern soundscape. The end result of Juho Liira's vocals, Matias Kontula's electric violin and Manu Penttilä's production is a "unique ethno-futuristic banger machine" that works on stage as it does on record. Their music is sung in Finnish, Karelian and Inger, with some original lyrics and some directly from folk poetry archives.

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The singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Vilma Jää mixes hundreds of years old stories with today’s electronic music. She combines the ancient instruments such as kantele and harmonium with synthetic beats. She is also known from her breakthrough role in Innocence, an international success opera by Kaija Saariaho.

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Ulla Pirttijärvi & Áššu base their music on traditional Sami Joik. Ulla Pirttijärvi joiks about her relatives and her home villages Utsjoki and Angeli. Olav Torget and Harald Skullerud complement the ensemble with string instruments and percussions. The ensemble draw further inspiration from West African grooves and tradition. They vary their expression from wide atmospheres and quiet moods all the way to more uptempo grooves.

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Frigg has been conquering the world with their fusion of western folk music styles leaning strongly towards Nordic folk music. To describe Frigg's music, the world music media has coined the term nordgrass – referring to the bluegrass influences of the group. So far, Frigg's over 20-year career has taken the band touring around the world, and their discography is already 11 albums deep (including one live album), with 2023's "Perintö" being the latest addition.

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Uusikuu is a Finnish-German band founded in 2006, playing old Finnish dance music. They are one of the most interesting and original interpreters of the rare and rather special genre, the Finnish tango, and also perform and record fast humppas, waltzes, slow foxtrots and swing numbers. Uusikuu's lead vocalist Laura Ryhänen and violinist Mikko Kuisma are Finnish, while the other band members are German.

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Kallomäki combines dark folk elements to a modern rock/metal sound, using an electric bowed lyre, which gives a special sound to their songs. Kallomäki was founded in 2018 and has since released three albums, “Roka Ukri (2018)”, “Uuden kuun aika I & II (2020, double album)”, and “Huunpurema” (2023). So far, the band has performed live in their native Finland, Germany, Ireland, Estonia, and Lithuania.

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Kukka Lehto (violin, keyboards), Karoliina Kantelinen (vocals), Tero Pennanen (Hammond B3, keyboards), and Abdissa Assefa (drums, percussion) form Pauanne, whose music combines compositions with archived tapes. The trio draws influences from old beliefs and traditions. Their self-titled debut album was released by Nordic Notes in 2019, which was followed by the collaborative album "Barely Ann-Mari" with singer-songwriter Irina Björklund in 2020, and finally the 3rd album "Joku raja rakkaudessakin" in 2025.

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Ánnámáret is Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman, Sámi musician who lives and whose work is based in Nuorgam, northernmost Finland. Her music is inspired by the life and the nature in Sápmi. Ánnámáret’s strength as an artist springs from having grown up between two cultures and, thus, in understanding these cultures and their collisions and similarities. Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman's new band Ánnámáret Luohteilbmi performs traditional Northern Sámi joiks or luohts with fresh global electro arrangements.

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Maria Kalaniemi, a master of free-bass button accordion, is also a doctor of music and a long term instrument pedagogue, who has performed with numerous bands, released nearly twenty records and played on many more. Kalaniemi has also collaborated with the best folk musicians in the North.

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Anne-Mari Kivimäki is a musician, composer and lyricist, with the accordion at the core of her creativity. She is the founder of several bands including the boundary pushing duo Puhti, experimental electronic group Suistamon Sähkö, and Anne-Mari Kivimäki & Palomylly​.​ ​S​he has created multi-disciplinary artworks featuring the accordion and developed a new style of playing: a contemporary Karelian accordion trance.

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Accordion experimentalist Antti Paalanen has created his own sound with his diatonic instrument, which he uses to weave hypnotic and minimalistic tunes that tell stories about the world of today. On his songs Paalanen screams at his accordion, kicks the floor and hits the bellows. Alongside his solo career, Antti Paalanen is a member of several folk music line-ups such as Hehkumo, Hyperborea, Laitakaupungin- orkesteri, Kiharakolmio, Trepaanit and Turkka ja Paalanen.

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Anna Murtola, born in 1983 in Oulu, North of Finland is the world’s northernmost flamenco singer. Considered as one of the pioneers of Finnish flamenco singing, the singer has found her own strong voice as an interpreter of this passionate Spanish tradition. She is also known as a versatile and charismatic performer who is constantly reaching out across genre and culture borders. In 2018 Murtola’s debut album "Fuego Por Dentro" was released by Alba Records as the first album by a Finnish flamenco singer. Her 2nd album "La Tierra Blanca" is released by the award-winning German record label Nordic Notes in 2023.

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That band from Finland builds its sound on three-part harmonies, catchy and melodic songwriting and an unashamedly retro production style. Founded in 2023, the band combines pop, country and folk influences, drawing its inspiration primarily from the hit music of the 1970s to 1990s. The band from Finland comprises three singer-musicians of diverse ages and backgrounds: young up-and-coming singer Milana Maria, Estonian vocalist Dagmar Ōunap, and Finnish-American Tom Coldwater , who also serves as the band's producer and principal songwriter.

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AT’s Roots & Ramblin’ is a young and energetic band, who describe their music as "swinging rock’n’roll". Combining influences from traditional rock’n’roll, swing, jazz, roots, country, rhythm'n'blues and big band music, the trio has gained interest in rockabilly circles around the world, including placements in global main playlists of the genre.

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