Anna Heikkinen & Längtans Kapell

Through her interpretations of the Finnish tango, Anna Heikkinen & Längtans Kapell searches for history and roots.

Said about the debut album Omenatango:

"Swept away by incredibly passionate attitude"

"From an originally designed phrase, unimagined dimensions, a spectrum of emotions are extracted. The instruments marry each other and the open-damper vocals in a wonderful way.”

"Relevant to relate to the soulful experience of black artists that makes me weak in the knees, while realizing that others shy away from energetic expressions of ecstasy and pain. Sees a corresponding parallel in Omenatango whose emotional levels are not infrequently at the boiling point. The consistently unwavering stance deserves as much credit as it gets, goes right in.”

"Another extremely important plus factor concerns the arrangements for which they are jointly responsible. Smart ideas are masterfully applied. These sweet sounding scars take possession of me. On the nicely designed CD, contagious intoxication of life is interspersed with tons of melancholy.”

"The women's dedication, artistic skill and integrity (doing their thing to perfection) impresses to the point that the highest rating is warranted."

Mats Hallberg/Kulturbloggen

 

"Sensitive power and immediate presence"

 "Anna Heikkinen has done a great and significant research work, her supporting vocals enrich the album"

"She also feels a great desire to understand the Finnish language and Finnish culture, especially Finnish tango music. It is the one that dominates the four's debut album, as a whole a great longing to explore and to interpret texts and pieces of music is expressed. The music breathes a hopeful future and a dream of confidence in the continued life.”

"On the twelve tracks, there are influences from Argentine tango, klezmer and Nordic folk music. It is music that feels easy to absorb, often you participate in the music's immediate presence and it has a sensitive power, especially when Leonor Palazzo's cello takes part."

Bo Bjelvehammar / Opulence

With Finnish and Swedish lyrics, an accordion, a saxophone and a cello, we seek our own Satumaa, our own Fairytale Land and weave a fabric of melodies and words from our yearning.

"we search
we seek
we long for where the grandmother's language dances on the sandy beach and the voices dive, in the billowing blue
to where the grandfather trees bloom and the notes play awkwardly between apples and branches
Satumaa is what we long for longs for longs for home ”

Satumaa-Sagolandet

Satumaa - is the title of Finland's most famous tango. In Swedish, it means fairyland.

The texts and narration are based on Anna Heikkinen's personal memories, interviews with relatives, saved letters and diary entries from the Second World War - a troubled time after which Anna's father, Pekka Heikkinen, came to Sweden as an unaccompanied child from Finland. As a story told by a child to an unaccompanied minor, the performance also reflects part of our burning present and future.

Satumaa-Sagolandet has been played to sold-out houses at Göteborgs Dramatiska teater, Gothenburg Stadsteater's Lunch Theater (two seasons), Borås Stadsteater and on tours.

"In hypnotically beautiful arrangements, dark experiences are transformed into something sublime and beautiful."
Borås Newspaper

"The Chapel of Longing is energetically present in its playing and Heikkinen's song is balanced emotionally"
Goteborgs-posten

2025:

24 February at 19.00 Satumaa-Sagolandet, Landvetter's Culture House, LANDVETTER

February 25 at 19:XNUMX PM Concert, Högsbo Library, GOTHENBURG

March 1 at 14.00:XNUMX PM Concert with room for dancing, Blå Stället, ANGERED

25 April concert, Trad Session, St. Croix House, FREDRIKSTAD, NORWAY

April 26-27 concert, TBA NORWAY

28 April concert, Colombi Egg, BERGEN, NORWAY

4 May Satumaa-Sagolandet, Stadsmissionen, GOTHENBURG

18 September Satumaa-Sagolandet, Malmö Museum, MALMÖ

 

Group members:
Anna Heikkinen: singing and storytelling
Larisa Ljungkrona-Mönttinen: accordion and song
Ida Gillner: soprano saxophone and vocals
Leonor Palazzo/Jonas Franke-Blom: cello and vocals