Indiako Drom
Roma music in Kumpula, Helsinki, Finland
17.99

While the Gypsies in Finland only number about 10,000 in the entire country, they are an integral part of life in many of the cities. About 1000 Roma make their home in Helsinki. The concerts recorded here were performed by these soloists: Maritza, Paivi Arling, Raineri Nyman and Hilja Fronfors.

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Listen!
Miritza
Hilja Gronfors
Raineri Nyman
Paivi Arling

Indiako Drom - Roma music in Kumpula The Global Music Center in Helsinki Global Music Centre, Nevo Roma Association and The Helsinki Polytechnic/Department of Culture & Services produced together a series of concerts of Finnish Roma music for Helsinki 2000. The primus motor behind the whole project was Raila Halmetoja, a radio journalist and a well known and highly respected cultural activist of the Roma society in Finland. She was the artistic director of the series and chose all the Finnish Roma musicians and singers that performed in the concerts. She knows them all! Global Music Centre took care of the practical matters and Päivi Takala and her students from Helsinki Polytechnic took care of the light and sound. The name of the project, Indiako Drom, the road of India in Roma language, was some funny (?) playing with words actually. The venue, where most of the concerts took place, is on a street called Intiankatu, India Street. Since the word drom seems to be always there when ever Roma culture is represented, so we thought why not Indiako Drom. India is, after all, the starting point of the mythical Gypsy Road, isn't it? The venue was a tiny and cozy cultural house of the townships of Kumpula and Toukola in Helsinki. Kumpula and Toukola used to be places where the Roma in Helsinki lived. Nowadays this part of the city is too hip and expensive for most of the Roma - or any other people with normal income! - to live, but for historical reasons the place was perfect for the concerts. Five concerts took place at the Kumpula-Toukola cultural house. They represented wide variety of Finnish Roma music from disco dancing to classical music and from religious Roma music to new Roma folk music. The most memorable of the concerts, however, was without a doubt the night of traditional Finnish Roma songs. These 'Kaale' songs are basically typical Finnish folk songs, but the lyrics and the style of singing are so distinctive, that you can easily recognise them as Roma music. This music is the blues of Finnish Roma. It is often rejected by religious Roma, since there is too much about earthly love, hard drinking and fighting with knives in the lyrics. Professional Roma musicians and singers in Finland seem also prefer Tango and the Roma styles of Russia and Balkan to their own traditional songs. So, these songs are seldom heard in public, but they touch the souls of Finnish Roma much deeper than any newer imported styles. You could certainly feel that at the Kaale songs concert of Indiako Drom series. Visit the Global Music Center in Finland

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