Making Tracks 2024 - Grand Junction, Paddington, London

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 203, December 2024.



Making Tracks 2024
Grand Junction, Paddington, London
3rd October 2024

Now on its fifth edition, Making Tracks is one of those not-to-be-missed occasions once autumn rolls around. Eight young artists, each from a different musical world, get together for two weeks of concerted collaboration, which continues to evolve across a two-week tour. This year featured participants from the UK, Syria/Germany, Denmark, Kenya, East Turkestan and Finland (see makingtracksmusic.org/fellows for the full list; they deserve more recognition than space allows here!).

For this tour’s penultimate concert at London’s Grand Junction, we were treated to two-and-a-half hours of unique collaborations interspersed with solo showcases from each musician. All eight remained on stage throughout, and it was always exciting to see who would stir to join in the next piece – will it be a medley of Newfoundland, Uyghur and Swedish songs? A composition for Arabic violin and tama (talking drum)? Hurdy-gurdy and Kenyan drums? It’s impressive just how accomplished these musical relationships were after such a short – albeit intense – gestation. Interspecies connections were also emphasised this year, with nature embraced as an equal participant, from transcriptions of whalesong to electronically-wrangled biosignals of sea-kale. The high, intricately decorated Victorian church ceilings of Grand Junction afforded interesting reverberations, highlighting acoustic elements that would have been lost in a less cavernous venue – a lovely marriage of sound and space.

Making Tracks has hit upon a winning formula, for the creation of both beautiful music, and lasting artistic partnerships. In his opening speech, director Merlyn Driver referred to the concert as “nourishing music” – this really is the sort of project that can achieve meaningful new musical directions.


Photo: Making Tracks 2024 at Grand Junction, by Andrea Terzuoli. L-R: Nina Harries, Anna McLuckie, Shohret Nur, Christian Mohr Levisen, Kasiva Mutua, Ossi Raippalinna, Ayman Hlal (Helen Anahita Wilson is obscured behind Hlal).

Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble - Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 170, August/September 2021.

Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble
Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble
Flowfish Records (39 min)

It took the Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble until their fifth album and tenth year to go eponymous. It takes time to know thyself, after all, and the Ensemble pretty much have that worked out. In that way, this new album (referred to by those in the know as HCE5) is largely more of the same from them: West African-angled soul-jazz, albeit this time with occasional hip-hop courtesy of guest rapper Synik from Zimbabwe.

Made remotely in Finland and Benin, with band members working out how to use recording software on-the-fly, HCE5 nevertheless sounds as cohesive and polished as if the group were all together in the studio. The resulting Afrosoul is smooth and uplifting – real easy morning Radio 2 vibes – that does slip into cheesiness fairly often. It’s best when they give the sound a bit of an edge, such as on ‘Djogbé Ana Zon’, which nods to modern Afropop alongside xylophones and some shrieking jazz solos; it’s a slightly more challenging listen, and all the more rewarding for it.

Appropriately for a self-titled album, the Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble have solidified the sound that they have been working on for the past decade. They stick to what they know, and they do it well.

My Instrument: Pekko Käppi and his Jouhikko

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 161, October 2020.



Lyres are found in various shapes and sizes all over the world, but they are usually plucked with fingers or strummed with a plectrum. The bowed lyre is a much rarer beast. There are only three varieties that still exist today, including the Welsh crwth and the Estonian hiiu kannel. The third is the jouhikko from Finland, a fantastic instrument that came very close to extinction during the 20th century. Pekko Käppi has been at the forefront of its revival for the past 20 years.

The word jouhikko comes from jouhi – horsehair – which makes up both the instrument’s strings and bow. Traditionally with two strings and now as many as four, it is held between the knees and played by stopping one string with the finger knuckles while the bow also vibrates a second string as a drone. The player’s four fingers, held in a fixed position, mean that each string can only play five notes. The jouhikko’s scratchy, hair-on-hair timbre, constant drone and restricted range give it a guttural, throaty and naturalistic sound. It conjures in the mind smells of earth and woodsmoke, helped along by an evocative Nordic repertoire. It’s a sound that entranced Käppi from the start. He enthuses, “the first jouhikko I found, I plucked it, and it still gives me goosebumps to remember it. I hadn’t heard anything like that before. It sounded so old and otherworldly. It still sounds like that.”

No-one really knows how old the jouhikko is. It’s probably one of Europe’s oldest bowed instruments and there are theories that it evolved from Viking instruments, but, as Käppi laments, “there are lots of empty spots in the story of the jouhikko.” What is known is that by the turn of the 20th century, folk musicians had abandoned the instrument in favour of the more versatile fiddle and accordion. “There was only one family in Finland that kept playing,” he explains. “The fathers taught their children. The lineage was still going, but it wasn’t used in weddings or folk music any more. It had no functional use. It was practically dead.” It clung on, though, and a revival began in the 1980s amid renewed interest in the old Finnish music. It was pulled from the brink, but only just. By the time Käppi picked it up, there were still only a small handful of players, but that’s changing: “When I started to play jouhikko in 1997, there were maybe ten active players. I knew them all. But nowadays I don’t know all of them by name! It’s like the golden age of the bowed lyre, it starts to be again.”

A lot of that is down to Käppi and his contemporaries proving the range that the humble instrument can reach. Käppi himself, while also a scholar of the jouhikko’s folk repertoire, also turns it in the direction of heavy metal and punk – he even has a personalised instrument in the shape of a skull with flashing eyes. There is also Ilkka Heinonen, who finds space for the instrument among Baroque, jazz and avant-garde electronics, and Rauno Neimenen, now the premiere jouhikko maker in Finland. Together with Marianne Maans, they make up the Jouhiorkesteri, the first-ever all-jouhikko group.

The story of the past 20 years is encouraging, and Käppi has certainly played his part. He’s under no illusions, however, that the jouhikko is completely saved. For the instrument to be truly secure, it needs a next generation. Most players nowadays start in their 20s, and Käppi is searching for solutions. “There are not young kids playing jouhikko, because the jouhikkos are all too big! But a couple of years ago, we designed with Rauno a children’s jouhikko. It works really well, and my daughters have started to play. If it’s possible to start earlier, that’s a good thing for the future. That’s what makes the tradition living again, if there are younger people carrying it on. But we’ll see.”


Photo: Pekko Käppi live at WOMEX 19, by Jacob Crawfurd.

Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble - The Road is Long: Live at Savoy Theatre

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 126, April 2017.

Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble
The Road is Long: Live at Savoy Theatre
No Problem! Music (37 mins)

When you have four attempts at recording a live album in Cotonou, Benin, and each of them fail, what do you do? Well, when your name is the Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble, the next step is rather obvious. That’s how the voodoo funk group ended up recording their third album on New Year’s Eve 2015 at the Savoy Theatre in Helsinki, Finland.

With this sort of band – their music made for heavy all-night dance parties – the popular opinion is that ‘you have to see them live’, so it’s a pleasure to hear the ensemble in their natural setting.

Of the five tracks on this album, it’s the two pieces from the group’s debut, ‘Agamafa Hèdé’ and ‘Adande’, that feel the tightest. That’s no doubt due to them having longer to stew and develop on the setlist, and consequently allow the band to let go and jump more: there is some seriously wigged-out Afrofunk sax solos on these tracks.

As enjoyable as this live album is, it serves as more of a teaser for their shows: the music is fun but it can’t recreate the atmosphere, and the length (only five tracks) will no doubt leave you angling for more.

Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble - Fire, Sweat and Pastis

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 110, August/September 2015.

Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble
Fire, Sweat and Pastis
No Problem! Music (47 mins)

In a world where collaborations bring together performers from all over the world, a project between Finnish and Beninese musicians still seems an unlikely one. In their second album, though, Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble have created a sound that feels, for the most part, unforced and free-flowing.

There’s not much in the music that screams ‘Finnish’, but the Nordic musicians do a great job in mixing the styles and rhythms brought by Beninese drummer and singer Noël Saïzonou with funk, soul and jazz.

The album is at its strongest when its sound is most African. The second track, ‘Djigbo’, is a driving Afro-funk featuring a West African horn section, and is probably the best of the set. There are a couple of pieces (including the opener) where the group go oddly indie-rock, creating a blandness that is at odds with the rest of the album. There are also a few places where the music takes a turn into full-on spacy jazz-rock, which is less bland, but still seems to lack the creative energy that is achieved in some of the best tracks here.

In general, Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble have made a fun record that contains some deep and danceable grooves.