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“Läksin minä kesäyönä käymään – I went out on a summer’s night”. From the set by SANS at WOMAD UK on 26th July 2014

Sanna Kurki-Suonio: vocal
Andrew Cronshaw: electric zither
Tigran Aleksanyan: duduk
Ian Blake: bass clarinet, soprano sax

In SANS’s performances, the ancient Karelian songs that became Finland’s Kalevala, Finnish ballads, the sweeping melodies of Armenia, English folk-song airs and new compositions combine to make a genuinely new music of extraordinary beauty and fluidity.

SANS’s CD “SANS Live” (Cloud Valley CV2014) was released in April 2014. It’s available direct from http://cloudvalley.com and through the usual retail and online sources.

The WOMAD programme said: “Beguiling and unnerving soundscapes -

Andrew Cronshaw is a celebrated multi-instrumentalist and composer, a man always willing to boldly explore largely uncharted musical territory. Over the past couple of decades, he's been particularly fascinated by the music of Finland, an attraction that's fed heavily into his own work, including this latest project SANS, which finds him in the company of Armenian duduk player Tigran Aleksanyan, reeds player Ian Blake and Finnish singer Sanna Kurki-Suonio.

The quartet play timeless, gravity-free pieces that hang mysteriously on the air, rich in both melody and atmosphere. Of Sanna's voice, the Canberra Times was particularly taken, hearing it as ‘elemental, summoning mythological beings in a way that has you looking over your shoulder long after the song has ceased’. That's no bad description of the overall sound, an otherworldly, ethereal whole that beguiles and unnerves in equal portions.”

From reviews of the CD “SANS Live”: “A subtle, at times gently unsettling album in which ancient laments from around the Baltic are fused with themes from England, Scotland and Armenia. Exquisite.” – Robin Denselow, The Guardian,

“An entrancing and majestic weave of influences” – World Music Charts Europe.

“Beautiful, spacious, haunting, visceral” – Rachel Nelken, Arts Council England

More information, including touring schedules, at
http://cloudvalley.com/SANS.htm
SANS’s Facebook page,
http://facebook.com/SANSmusik