Finnish Spirit

Nuspirit Helsinki are a collective of DJs, producers and live musicians, based, not surprisingly, in the Finnish capital city. Since the release of their debut album in 2003, they have been fairly quiet on the recording front, but they are the force behind an annual summer music festival in Helsinki. And the musicians (such as the very fine trumpeter Jukka Eskola) and the DJ crew seem to pop up in clubs all over the world.

The collective's musical influences range across virtually every kind of black music (jazz/soul/funk) as well as Latin and African musics. What impresses me most about this group is how they mix frankly DJ-oriented production/composition methods with some very intelligent live instrumental arrangements.

Nuspirit Helsinki - Afro-Cuban Sunshine
From Mundial Muzique (Various Artists): Guidance Recordings [Buy]

Nuspirit Helsinki featuring Nicole Willis - Honest
From Nuspirit Helsinki: Guidance Recordings [Buy]

Holy Crap It's etnobofin's First Birthday
I've just realised that I've been doing this for a year now. OK, it didn't really start out as a music blog, but as etnobofin moved through its 6 month adolescent crisis, this blog's destiny became clear... here's to a second year of free parking! Thank you to everyone who continnue to visit and have faith in this little corner of Internetworld. And happy birthday to Benn loxo du taccu, the best blog on African music on the web.

And for all of us who stepped out of the spaceship at a young age to travel the world alone, Nick's post on exchange students is great. It is all so true. It's not the places you go, or how much you drink. It is always the people that make the journey memorable.

Nuspirit Helsinki