"Throughout, I’m struck by her huge range of textures and dynamics: Bartosik works like a sculptor, taking her materials back to the studio and listening to and crafting the music" Fiona Talkington, Songlines

"The fascinating sonic experience that Tuulikki Bartosik takes you through on this experimental folk pop journey is nothing short of bewitching, a strange mixture and interlude of sounds both traditional and dystopian all at once. It oscillates from robotic to barebones, a confluence that has you perplexed as much as it does grounded and intrigued for more." - Find no enemy

PLAYSCAPES

Digital Release

Limited edition exclusive vinyl

Album By Tuulikki Bartosik

Released on limited exclusive vinyl and digitally worldwide on the 21st of January 2023 by Tuulikkis own label Efni Records. Distributed physically worldwide by Clone Distribution.

A musician’s life becomes a patchwork of places, of fleeting connections. Home becomes a series of doors. Yet those doors open on new ideas and cultures. New inspirations. That sense of cities, regions all layered one on the other, is one of the inspirations behind Playscapes, the third solo album from musician and composer Tuulikki Bartosik.

“There’s definitely the geographical element,” she agrees. “But it’s also about playing around with my thoughts and identity. People label me as Estonian, but I’ve actually spent over half my life in Sweden. From being young, I’ve travelled internationally. I think of myself as Baltoscandic. The whole world is my playscape.”

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It’s an album that travels from Estonia to Sweden, from Finland to England and Japan. Shifting landscapes, turning the pictures that fill her head into something she can feel with her fingertips. It also marks a huge sonic change for Bartosik, exploring the use of pedals with her accordion.

“They offer potential,” she explains. “As it was, the accordion didn’t satisfy my need for sounds, so I decided to try pedals. I studied for a year, learning how to use them and what they could do. I have a fascination for beats and death metal low bass, and I realised I could only do that with an accordion with help. It’s not so much about changing to something electronic as getting the full richness of the sound.”

It's an album, Bartosik observes, of “surrendering to my fears.” Above all else, it’s her own journey, beginning in Estonia and rippling outwards to find her own musical voice.

“I spent my first few years in the south of the country, living with my grandmother. After that, my parents took me to the capital, Tallinn. But it never felt like home. Then I moved to Finland and later to Sweden in my late teenage years; I have a degree in classical music from Estonia, and I was the first accordion student in their traditional music degree programme in The Royal College of Music in Stockholm and I also graduated with distinction as Master in Music from the Sibelius Academy. I feel that my roots are in Estonia, but I also have a home in Sweden.”

Bartosik worked as an academic before deciding to follow her heart and make music her living. An early liberation came with making an album with two other musicians, children’s songs in the Estonian Võru language, which she’d heard when living with her grandmother

“It’s easy to sing, but I’d never spoken it.” It was a spur. From there, she learned never to be “afraid to do things the way I want. Nobody can own me.”

That led to Storied Sounds, her acclaimed solo debut, and Bartosik built on that with the even more adventurous Tempest In A Teapot. Yet even after pushing at boundaries and expanding the idea of what both accordion and Baltoscandic music could be, Playscapes has still been a big step.

“It’s my assertion of independence,’ she says. ‘I wasn’t sure if I could do it.”

What she’s created is a record of delicately layered and textured music, with Bartosik playing accordion, Estonian zither – an instrument very similar to the Finnish Kantele – piano and harmonium, as well as singing, and adding sounds she’s recorded around the globe to add to the local feel of the tracks. True impressionistic music. “London,” for instance, has her recording what was happening as she rode the Underground at four am, even with the station announcements. They all help to ground the melodies, to add to their sense of identity.

Remarkably for something so detailed, the music wasn’t all elaborately arranged beforehand.

“Only the first tune, “Robertsfors,” was arranged when I started it in my own studio,” she says. “it was the first lyrics I’d written and sung in Swedish, a realisation that Sweden and its culture has become part of who I am”.

From that beginning in February last year, Bartosik moved to the Estonian Radio studios in July, creating everything as she went, a long, exacting process. She believed she’d completed the recording of Playscapes in time for Christmas.

“I just had time to get the last tree from the shop, the one nobody wants,” she recalls.

After that came the mixing, working with Siim Mäesalu, and a few small overdubs. From start to finish, the entire process took about a year.

“I didn’t want the album to sound like a live concert in the studio,” Bartosik explains. “In traditional music, you mostly don’t produce an album; you just mix and master it nicely. I wanted to think about how to mix this one, so it had real power to it.”

In addition to Mäesalu, she found a kindred spirit in Sander Mölder, another world-class professional. He co-produced and co-wrote Playscapes and added several instruments. Most importantly, he became a collaborator, working closely with Bartosik on every aspect of the music.

“It was like a team. We both have libraries of sounds we’ve recorded! We redid sections of the pieces a few times, especially “London,” because I wasn’t satisfied with the kick sound. We often worked graphically, so we could see pictures of the sound. I learned a lot from him and Siim. It’s funny, really; when I was 10, I dreamed about being a sound engineer, and back then no women were doing that.”

Playscapes stakes out new territory for the accordion as an instrument. It’s groundbreaking in that and redefines Bartosik as both innovative composer and instrumentalist.

“I’ve always felt like I’m a musician, not only an accordion player,” she notes. “That just puts me in a tiny box. I’m trying to find ways to bring all my musical interests together.”

That accumulation of interests range from the dance band her father led when she was a girl, her classical training, all the way to metal and the electronica adept she’s become. What she’s created on Playscapes has moved beyond definition. But, she acknowledges, “all this has its roots in traditional music. My roots are there and I’m proud of it. But this is much more than traditional. I don’t know where this will take me.”

The journey has just begun.

PLAYSCAPES

Tuulikki Bartosik

Limited exclusive vinyl and digital album worldwide

Released on 21st of January 2023

Tuulikkis own label Efni Records

Robertsfors
響き Hibiki
Reval: Pettäsaamislugu
Põhjarannik
繋がりTsunagari
Norrland
London
Helsinki
Helsinki: Aatos
Sundbyberg
Stockholm
Livland: Suusilm

All music is performed by Tuulikki Bartosik (if not mentioned otherwise)

Tuulikki Bartosik - free-bass accordion from Pigini Accordions, Estonian zithers made by Mihkel Soon, piano by Nylund & Son Uppsala, harmonium by K.A Andersson Stockholm and vocals

Sander Mölder - Omnichord, Yamaha PS-20 automatic bass chord system, Casio SK-1, cello and vocals (3, 5, 11, 12)

Sampled recording - John Grzinich in Mooste forest South Estonia (6)

Recorded in Estonian Radio studio, Tuulikkis home studio & Rävala 8 studio

Produced and written by Sander Mölder and Tuulikki Bartosik

Mixed and mastered by Siim Mäesalu

Cover paintings by Kristi Kongi

Painting photos by Stanislav Stepashko

Graphical design by Carl-Robert Kagge

Sleeve photo by AnnaReet Gillblad