Biography

Antti Paalanen’s fate as a wild-spirited accordionist was sealed by a happy accident: as a young boy he walked into a music shop in Alavus with dreams of an electric guitar, but instead fell under the spell of a beautiful, mysterious accordion. There was no turning back.

Now based in Kokkola, Paalanen mesmerizes audiences around the world with his singular blend of accordion, techno and throat singing. His surprising cover videos on social media have reached millions of viewers.

Paalanen’s musical brew has evolved naturally. As a child he was equally drawn to the local accordion courses and to the hard-hitting sounds of Kiss, W.A.S.P. and AC/DC blasting from MTV. Next he immersed himself in folk music at the Sibelius Academy. During his doctoral studies he composed new music for the diatonic accordion.

Along the way he also adopted Mongolian-influenced throat-singing techniques, which he channels into his deep, growling vocals. This unique recipe has produced four solo albums so far, most recently Rujo (2019), as well as numerous releases in different ensembles.

On tour, Paalanen and his sound engineer Samuli Volanto have traveled across Europe, Northern America, China, Russia and Japan. On stage Paalanen creates a one-man band, simultaneously producing bass, harmony, melody, vocals and percussion. The result is a massive, pulsating wall of sound.

More often than not, his concerts end with audiences left in a trance, still singing Paalanen’s hypnotic songs long after the instruments have fallen silent.