Mari Kalkun

Estonian folk goddess Mari Kalkun spend the lockdown in her orchard, with a piano she got from her grandmother.

After countless home-made videos, we’re starting to see a number of home-made albums as the result of worldwide lockdown. One of the finest examples of this pandemic wave yet is Mari Kalkun’s new collection of songs called “Õunaaia Album”, or “Apple Orchard Album”.

For Mari Kalkun, the stripped-down sound would never be an obstacle. Contrary, “Õunaaia Album” is even more intimate than Mari’s earlier releases, and the lyrics – in Estonian and Võro language – delve into “the relationship between humans and nature”.

Meanwhile the self-produced artwork, which includes flowers from Mari’s own garden, is here to forever remind us about that particular spring of 2020 when time was in abundance. Listening to this EP, we can be only grateful Mari did spend it so well.

For many people around the world, the lockdown has also had kind of a sentimental tinge. And it’s also true about Mari. That black piano we can hear on the album and see in the video below was a gift from her grandmother:

“A bit creaky and not in perfect tune, but how many memories and dreams this piano holds in it!”

Stream “Õunaaia Album” on Spotify and Bandcamp.

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Mari Kalkun on Facebook, Instagram, www.

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