Let’s kick this off with who is Tuulikki Bartosik? Tuulikki Bartosik is a Swedish-Estonian musician who is an accordionist, composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist. She has degrees in classical and traditional music and uses her knowledge to create some amazing music! Her music is very different and very layered and has even been compared to the neoclassical works of Eric Satie and work from 1970s stars such as Philip Glass and Terry Riley. Her talent is endless, with the skill of playing an accordion and has become one of Northern Europe’s greatest creative performers and composers.

Today we are looking at Tuulikki’s most recent album which has just dropped. All I can say is wow, what a way to start off the new year! “Playscapes” is a twelve-track long album, and each and every song is amazing in its own way! Something unique I noticed about this album is that majority of the track names are cities, for example, “London” and “Robertsfors”.

The first track I am going to talk about today is the second song on the list, “Hibiki”. “Hibiki” is a Japanese word which can be translated to echo. This song is fully instrumental and even has parts that feel like an echo in the music. I for one am not usually a fan of instrumentals, however, this track is incredibly interesting and engrossing. The sound it creates is quite mysterious and it has really been produced well.

Another great instrumental in this album is the song, “London”. This one is also just pure music, however as a Londoner, I can really see where Tuulikki got her inspiration from. This song almost makes you feel like you are in London, with the rushing around, a sound of a clock ticking (maybe Big Ben) and even with the faint siren-like sounds that are in the far distance.

However, not every song on this album is an instrumental, for example the first song of the album, “Robertsfors” has some amazing vocals in it! This song is so mystical, and honestly is so lovely to listen to.

This album is full of surprises and unique elements. I cannot give this album the credit it deserves, you must give it a listen to, and you will undoubtedly find it so engrossing, where you are stuck in a little world of your own whilst listening to it! “Playscapes” is available on Spotify now!

This review is purely the property of The Music Asylum