Music diary, April 27, 2026
…so here I am, trying to recover from some superflu, or perhaps Covid, that’s been grinding me down for over two weeks now. It’s actually going away but when you’re getting older and something like that hits you, you’re flat on your back for a while.
And that’s why it’s taken me those two weeks to finally write a few words on this album. I listened to Johanna’s and Lena’s duo release three weeks ago already, in peace and quiet and concentration but had to postpone writing about it for a few days – and then I was too sick to write. But, as you may notice, I’m writing now, dammit.
Whew… Now that that’s out of the way – sorry about that – it’s on to this fine example of contemporary Nordic folk music.
So. Start with Johanna Juhola. She is Finland’s gift to the accordion: wild, experimental, funny as hell, explosively colorful in looks and music, brilliant on her recordings, stunning when on stage. I recall her Celtic Connections solo gig a few years ago, when she dazzled the audience with her instrumental skills, her quirky and yet lyrical compositions and her groundbreaking way of using hi-tech and digital effects seamlessly integrated into her performance. Folk music, perhaps, but for the 21st century.
Lena Jonsson, then. A brilliant fiddler and violinist, fluent in both languages of the instrument. Equally at home with her Swedish traditional music as with hybrids of folk, jazz and contemporary classical; witness, for example, The Snake, her ambitious and successful 2024 collaboration with Brittany Haas.
One is Finnish and a bit… eccentric, the other is Swedish and defines a few notches more sane. Both are absolutely tops as musicians. And now they’re together for this project. The result is fabulous.
a few notches more sane. Both are absolutely tops as musicians. And now they’re together for this project. The result is fabulous.
But I knew what to expect, as I had witnessed them live last year, playing much of the material that now appears on The Power of the Polska. It was a great gig, so this “studio version” of the set comes as no surprise to me. Of course it’s fantastic, how could it not be?
Even if there’s only two people and their respective instruments here, the music will fill your living room. Johanna uses the entire spectrum of her big magic box, sometimes enhanced with electronics, and Lena’s fiddle can play any part in a tune, from quiet accompaniment to ferocious leads. Together, they make a sound richer than most bands.
The tunes are original, with some lightly inspired by an older piece. The difference in their respective styles is pretty evident. Johanna’s tunes take the bigger piece of the album’s playing time and tend to be more “modern”, however you define that: the busy opening Itis (name of a huge shopping mall in Helsinki); the 80’s tv shows inspired fun Childhood Hero, with its open nod to the McGyver theme (!); the trance-inducing yawning waves of Power Nap.
Lena’s tunes are more traditional in style but still very much of our time; often romantic and with dramatic flair. Contrast is evident at the album’s beginning as her absolutely lovely Höstvals (Autumn Waltz) comes right after the restless Itis; her mastery of the dreamlike waltz is repeated in the more dramatic Röda valsen (The Red Waltz). For me, Lena’s big moment on the album is Ispolskan (The Ice Polska), a fiery piece “composed in northern Sweden on an exceptionally cold January day” – maybe she had to write something this energetic to warm herself!
In short, this is music you have to love: it’s inventive, as colorful as the album art, ranging from dazzling virtuosity to peaceful visions. As a Finn myself, I cannot be happier to witness one of our own and one of our western neighbor’s brightest get together to create music that’s brilliant and decidedly Nordic all the way. Simply super 🇫🇮🇸🇪🪗🎻❤️
https://nordicnotes.bandcamp.com/album/lena-jonsson-johanna-juhola-the-power-of-polska
FolkNotes 