I would like to thank this thread for giving me a lot of new bands to listen to. I enjoy folk rock and folk metal immensely but never seem to manage to find enough to satisfy my appetite.
Oort - Suur Tamm (The Great Oak)
This is a modernized folk-rock version of a regilaul (similar to finnish runo-songs).
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On a similar note we have another folk-rock band, Metsatöll
This one's called "Only bravery" and the official video contains clips of a cartoon called "Suur Tõll", with most of the art being made by syrrealist Jüri Arrak (Metsatöll and Arrak seem to have an understanding - all of their album covers are designed by him as well). I can't remember it personally but apparently that cartoon had made me cry when I'd seen it as a little kid.
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I'll also leave you this Metsatöll - Veelind (Water Fowl), probably one of my favorite of their songs if only for the bit at the start.
And finally...
Another, more "modern", flavor of folk song is the choir songs and the Song Festival. It's pretty much the symbol of this country's re-independance, as well as a way to keep the culture alive, so it would only be fair to show a video of that as well.
This is "Tuljak", a 20th century melody which has become quite popular on song- and dance festivals. It is not my favorite, but it is so full of life and has very uplifting words, as well as a video that shows off the staggering amount of people on this event. It's about a happy wedding between two people named Tõnn and Mari.
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EditAs for music that can not be translated to english without losing a lot of it's meaning - pretty much anything by Dagö. I do not know their genre, but I enjoy listening to them. Their songs are often very calming, full of wordplay and poetry.
/>This is one of the easier ones to translate. It makes me feel quite serene and catches, in my opinion, very well the kind of early-morning-forest-lake atmosphere.
TranslationHere's another song by Dagö that I like. Less serene, more rock-like and tragic:
Dagö - Näitleja. About an actor who has grown too old to land any more jobs at the theater.