MARKKU LEPISTÖ is one of the best-known proponents of new Finnish and Nordic folk accordion music. On September 2016, he released his fourth solo album New Voices, dedicated to contemporary new folk music written by Lepistö for the cutting-edge trio he founded in 2013 with Petri Hakala and Milla Viljamaa.
Petri and Milla have played with various Finnish and foreign ensembles, such as Eric Bibb & North Country Far, Lauri Tähkä, Erik Hokkanen & Lumisudet, Tango-orkesteri Unto, Saaga Ensemble, and so on. They bring their own powerful and original performances to the table on this album, where Lepistö casts a new light on the single-row accordion, giving a strong and lyrical role to what is commonly regarded as a simple and humble instrument:
“With this disc, I wanted to take the oldest type of accordion to a new level. The single-row accordion has been regarded in Finland as the poor man’s organ, but I like to show that it has a wholly different side to it. My great personal inspiration with this instrument came from the music of Francophone Canadians, which I discovered in the 1990s.”