Regisong Podcast

Regisong Podcast is a new project for traditional music fans, something to revive the memories of past Viljandi Folk Music festivals and to await the future ones. Regisong Podcast is a unique possibility to get to know the Estonian folk song´s tradition with comments in English by writer and translator Indrek Koff.

The Regisong Podcast Series aims to offer an opportunity to listen to songs from ancient Estonian singers who share a deep and profound relationship with the songs, presented now by contemporary Estonians: singers, actors, folklorists. The podcast series presents ten Regisongs belonging to different ages. Further narrated with eloquence and grace by writer and translator Indrek Koff, his words add meaning, introduce the themes in the songs, background stories related to them and relevance today.

What is Regisong? Regisong, Regilaul, Runic song, Runo song, and Folk songs in runic verse are synonyms to Estonian folk songs’ oral tradition. Therefore, regisong has always had a special place in the Viljandi Folk Music Festival programme and it has been a natural way of bringing the festival visitors together in spontaneous singing.

“These folk songs carry the wisdom and knowledge of thousands of years about the Estonian’s culture and survival strategies,” explains Tarmo Noormaa, the head of Estonian Traditional Music Center NGO and programme of the VFMF. “These songs weaved together with people and nature give us a unique artistic vision and understanding of life’s ways.” A tremendous amount of work has been done in Estonia to preserve and revive them, to systematize and analyze its lyrics in depth. Due to all these efforts, The Estonian Folklore Archive holds almost a million Regisongs today, some of which have now become the input for the Regisong Podcasts.

The podcast series introduces ten songs from different ages in unique voice accompaniment by: Peeter Volkonski, Liisi Koikson, Celia Roose, Meelika Hainsoo, Priit Pedajas, Kaido Kama, Mari Kalkun, Timu Kalmu, Ando Kiviberg and Lauri Õunapuu.