NOVEMBER | FEATURE
Tallinn Music Week returns
Few events are opened by a country ’ s president or have such a wide-ranging musical offering , but then Tallinn Music Week thrives on being a uniquely enjoyable blend of the musically unexpected and a platform for the open exchange of industry views and ideas .
Words : Christopher Barrett
A Place To Bury Strangers
The team behind Tallinn Music Week ( TMW ) has bravely forged ahead throughout the pandemic and , despite delays , uncertainty , and much red tape , it has successfully staged the annual event twice , as in-person editions , since Covid-19 struck .
Access was fortunate to attend the most recent edition on 29 September – 3 October , which saw 177 acts from 21 countries perform shows across 60 venues in the Estonian capital . Meanwhile , TMW ’ s Creative Impact Conference involved 129 speakers from 18 countries .
Bringing together such a broad mix of international music and industry talent was a remarkable achievement considering the intimidating amount of procedural paperwork and costly testing requirements involved in attending overseas events .
As well as a refreshingly varied range of musically adventurous Estonian artists , from Bjork-meets-folk trio Etnosfäär to the artful soul-pop of Mart Avi , the numerous oversees acts to play the event included US heavy rockers A Place To Bury Strangers and Icelandic techno BDSM act Hitari .
For a country with a population of only 1.3 million , the exposure that TMW brings homegrown talent is vitally important . TMW head of PR & communications , Ingrid Kohtla , says there has been no end of success stories resulting from the event , not least the duo Maarja Nuut & Ruum , who went on to sign a contract with the UK ’ s
FatCat Records and perform at festivals including WOMAD .
It was not just TMW ’ s music line-up that proved extraordinarily diverse . The event involved venues of all shapes , sizes and purposes . Situated largely in the city ’ s remarkably preserved medieval Old Town , and achingly hip creative quarter Telliskivi , they included everything from the city ’ s former power station , a club where shoes are banned , a photography museum , and Uus Laine – a renovated shack behind Tallinn station decorated with a gold elephant head .
During the daytime , the Creative Impact Conference saw industry delegates descend on the Nordic Hotel Forum and techno club HALL to hear from a fittingly diverse programme of speakers . They ranged from singersongwriter Billy Bragg to Estonian president Kersti Kaljulaid .
“ That was nothing compared to last year ’ s experience when we had to change the whole thing ”
As if the appearance of the president didn ’ t sufficiently illustrate the level of government endorsement for TMW , the conference also saw former president Toomas Hendrik deliver a talk about the country ’ s history and the importance of singing as a way of Estonians sustaining a sense of identity in difficult times . He said that for a country that had been invaded on average twice per century , singing enabled Estonians to
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