written by Glitch Please
After last year’s successful concert tour of Estonia and Latvia and, thereafter, becoming the recipient of a coveted recognition award and grant from the cultural funding body of Estonia’s Musical Arts Endowment fund—Kultuurkapital—and the Estonian Music Council for contribution to and outstanding activity in the field of Estonian music, Olev Muska has just returned to Australia following another trip to Europe; a five week visit embracing live audio-visual and vocal performances, academic engagements, and various media appearances.
Invited by the Fenno-Ugria Society to perform in Tallinn at the renowned Tallinn Music Week festival and Tartu’s Genialistide Klubi, independent label Glitch Please released an LP—My Mouth Sang, My Heart Sank. This album consists of Olev’s electronic reimaginings of Veljo Tormis’ arrangements of folk songs of Estonia’s kindred Balto-Finnic cultures, to coincide with the event. The vinyl issue comes in three colours: blue, black, white and blue-black-white, with a pressing run of 508, the number eight denoting 108 years since Estonia’ declaration of independence.
Glitch Please label boss Karl Korts again arranged a comprehensive itinerary. Other appearances included concerts in Võru, Palamuse, Kadrina, Rapla, and Pärnu and record listening evenings at Myra studios Viljandi and Terminal Records Tallinn. In addition, he performed a set both to and from Helsinki on the Tallink ferry. At the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (EMTA), as part of the Commute festival, Olev gave a talk on his approach to audio-visual composition and performance. He also contributed to the adjudication of multimedia students’ final works, together with a screening of one of his own audio-visual creations, “Woodland Whispers”, at the Sõpruse cinema. At the House of the Blackheads (Mustpeade Maja), as part of Estonian Music Days (Eesti Muusika Päevad), he played a one hour set of original material and joined a panel to discuss the topic “Children of the Diaspora – in search of an imagined homeland.”
Olev is fostering several new collaborations with artists in Estonia including folk flute duo Kuula Hetke with whom he performed, providing live video backdrops. Further projects are earmarked for November in Toronto and then back to Estonia in early 2027.
Olev Muska can be followed on Instagram at @olevmuska.
More info about Olev Muska’s record label can be found at glitchplease.ee.
