Estonian artist Mari Kalkun – a voice that seems to speak to us from the heart of the Estonian forest. Her music is at once of a place and deeply personal, an intimacy—born of Baltic winter forests and icy landscapes— and yet there is renewal, hope and celebration to be heard.

Mari Kalkun’s music has a timeless quality and unhurried sense of time and space. Rooted in ancient Estonian and Võru traditions, and played on a variety of instruments including  vocals, kannel, piano, electronics, percussive instruments, her music resonates deep within us to touch our spirits, our souls, even when the language is strange to us.

Songs and musical arrangements that are sparse and stripped down allow emotions to surface, and the song breathes and reveals itself as something organic and real. Hers is an intimate music—born of Baltic winter forests and icy landscapes— and yet there is renewal, hope and celebration to be heard. Mari Kalkun’s music has a timeless quality and unhurried sense of time and space.

As of 2023, Mari Kalkun has released 8 albums in Estonia, Europe and Japan. She has worked as a soloist in projects with acclaimed orchestras and choirs and has toured through Europe and Japan.

In summer 2023, Mari released her new album Stories of Stonia (Real World Records), co-produced with Sam Lee. Mari has taken the album across the globe to 19 countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy and it reached number one in the Transglobal World Music Chart and was shortlisted for the Songlines Best New Albums list. Mari’s music has been supported by respected media including the Financial Times (★★★★★), BBC, Rootsworld and Lira Music Magazine.

Mari Kalkun takes old stories into a new, maybe even unexpected context. ‘The motivation for this album is my own curiosity to turn back to a very old layer of tradition and find out what my ancestors have thought and sang and how it will resonate in the era of skyscrapers, steel and metal,’ says Mari.

2019 – Annual Music Award of Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
2018 – Tallinn Music Week Artist Award.
2023 – Artist of the Year by Estonian Ethno Music Awards
2024 – Best Ethno/Folk Album of the Year Award by the Estonian Music Awards

2024 – Album “Stories of Stonia” got awarded as the Golden Record in Estonia

Kalkun’s singing is at the heart of things; joyous and lamenting by turns, but always poised and melodious, her poeticism apparent even without translation. A magical creation.

Neil Spencer • The Guardian ★★★★

Mari Kalkun plays material from her forthcoming album Stories of Stonia, which points at a transition from the pure genre of runo songs to psych-folk and krautrock. One of the most evocative songs, myth-inspired Golden Woman, builds up with a keyboard wash and thunderous sound of zither bringing to mind the intro to Ash Ra Tempel’s eponymous album.

Irina Shtreis • Louder than War

It is a new reading of folklore that has in a sense passed through Béla Bartók and John Cage. Mari Kalkun is not only impressive by her creative energy, but also by her voice, which ranges from maternal depth to elf-like heights.

Jan Brachmann • SWR2

This album absolutely deserves an award for the most charming cover of the year. The sleeve is greyish-pink, looks like it holds a perfume sample (apple blossom scent, of course), the infosheet on the other hand looks like the printed menu you may see at a wonderful dinner … all of this is a great joy even before we start to listen tot he music, and of course, the music is a great joy as well. Mari Kalkun, already known as a virtuoso on the kannel, the Estonian version of the kantele, here plays a piano inherited from her grandmother and a harmonium found in a recycling yard. She wrote most of the songs herself, she has a melodious style of singing, dreamlike, in a way, she makes Estonian sound like an incredibly romantic language. Titles like „Longing for home“ or „Prayer“ go perfectly along with Mari Kalkun’s slightly melancholical touch, and that her way of singing sometimes reminds of June Tabor is a very high praise indeed. Just one complaint: with only about 28 minutes the album is far too short!

Gabriele Haefs • folkworld.eu • 03. 2021

It is a new reading of folklore that has in a sense passed through Béla Bartók and John Cage. Mari Kalkun is not only impressive by her creative energy, but also by her voice, which ranges from maternal depth to elf-like heights.

Jan Brachmann • SWR2 • 09. 2020

One of the finest examples of this pandemic wave yet is Mari Kalkun’s new collection of songs called “Õunaaia Album”, or „Apple Orchard Album”. For Mari Kalkun, the stripped-down sound would never be an obstacle. Contrary, “Õunaaia Album” is even more intimate than Mari’s earlier releases, and the lyrics – in Estonian and Võro language – delve into “the relationship between humans and nature”.

Beehype • 07. 2020