Karelians appeared in Tver region in 17th century as migrants from Karelian Isthmus during Russian-Swedish wars. Currently they are numbered approximately 15000 and live mostly in 4 districts of Tver region: Likhoslavlsky, Spirovsky, Rameshkovsky and Maksatikhinsky.

Folk music of Tver Karelians has been to big extent re-imported from core Karelia in recent times. This also concerns kantele as such. They, however, usually play this music in local arrangments and translate the lyrics into their own dialect of Karelain. Some of the songs are translated from Russian.

On this album all lyrics are in Tver Karelian, except:
in Russian, partly in Karelian (39)
half in Karelian, half in Russian (14)
in Karelian, partly in Russian (18, 20, 35, 36)

Performers:

Valentina Zverkova (1)

Elena Krivchenkova (2)

Vihmane Ensemble (3-8):
Aleksandra Nekrasova (5 and 10 string kantele)
Elizaveta Belyakova (10 string kantele)
Polina Baryshkova (10 string kantele, vocal)
Tamila Tsaritsyna (10 string kantele, vocal, percussions)
Polina Glumina (5 string kantele, vocal)
Polina Belyakova (5 string kantele)

Aleksandra Nekrasova (9)

Anastasia Sapozhnikova and Vihmane Ensemble (10-12)

Anastasia Sapozhnikova (13-14)

Sofya Grigoryeva and Anastasia Silina (15-17)

Valentina Fadeeva (18-20)

Kegri (21-33)

Serpantin Ensemble (34-36):
Lydmila Prokhorova
Valentina Nalivayko
Lyubov Ivanova
Zoya Volkova
Tatyana Kosatkina

Viktor Kozlov (37)

Lyubov Ivanova (38-39)


Recorded in:
Klychevaya village, Maksatikha district, 20 February 2019 (1-2)
Likhoslavl, 17 March 2019 (3-14)
Tolmachi village, Likhoslavl district, 7 June 2019 (15-17) and 21 October 2020 (34-39)
Tver, 20 December 2019 (18-20) and 21 September 2020 (21-33)

On album cover photo:
Upper row from left to right: Valentina Zverkova, Vihmane Ensemble
Middle row from left to right: Kegri, Anastasia Sapozhnikova, Sofya Grigoryeva and Anastasia Silina
Lower row from left to right: Serpantin Ensemble, Viktor Kozlov