Porta 26 | YARAKA & ANTTI PAALANEN

The Porta Festival invites you to a special summer concert evening at K. K. von Stricka Villa — a musical journey in three parts, where Baltic polyphony, the ritual intensity of Southern Italy, and the power of contemporary Finnish folk music come together.

The evening opens with The Baltic Sisters — an international traditional music project born from the meeting of three singers from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Initially united by their passion for sutartinės — archaic Lithuanian polyphonic songs — the trio now weaves together traditional music from all three Baltic countries, creating a unique and immersive Baltic soundscape. The Baltic Sisters have already performed internationally, including at the world music showcase WOMEX.

In the second part, the stage will be taken by Yarákä, a trio from Taranto in Southern Italy. Their music is rooted in ancient traditions, blending Mediterranean melodies with rhythms from Africa and the Amazon. Their sound is intense, ritualistic, and deeply connected to the primal forces of nature.

The evening concludes with Antti Paalanen, a leading innovator of contemporary Finnish folk music — a true force of nature and one of the most distinctive voices on the international scene. His unique sound merges the traditional diatonic accordion with dance music rhythms, metal energy, and Siberian throat singing, creating a hypnotic and physically powerful performance.

A graduate of the Sibelius Academy, Paalanen is not only an accordion virtuoso but also a composer who pushes his instrument to its limits, creating the effect of a one-man orchestra — combining bass, melody, percussion, and voice simultaneously. He has performed across Europe, as well as in the USA, Canada, China, and Japan, released four critically acclaimed solo albums, received the NPU Award in 2022, and was named Finnish Folk Music Composer of the Year in 2019.

Since 2015, Yarákä has been developing its distinctive ritual-based musical language. The group’s name, inspired by a Tupi–Guarani word referring to the four elements of nature, reflects their artistic vision — a dialogue with ancient traditions, nature, and the inner world of human beings. With their album Curannera (2023), the trio pays tribute to a shamanic healer figure, exploring themes of liberation, healing, and reconnection with ancestral knowledge and Mother Earth.

Special conditions: – free admission for children up to 11 years old – 50% discount for pupils / students / seniors