What comes to mind when I consider Estonian music in 2025? Tommy Cash, choral singing, and Arvo Pärt.
Cash recorded Estonia’s most popular song of the year. Representing his country at Eurovision, he acknowledged that ‘Espresso Macchiato’ wasn’t his typical style, but that it was crafted deliberately for the show’s format – playfully funny and cringeworthy too, something that resonated with viewers. It’s not the first time Estonia has chosen an artist from the indie scene for the contest – last year it was the magnificent duo Puuluup, whose amazing concerts at MENT Ljubljana I remember to this day, collaborating with hip hop group 5miinust.
The second – choral singing – is something Estonia has been proud of for a long time, and is deeply tied to national identity. “Music and dancing are deeply ingrained in people’s hearts and minds here,” says Roma Vjazemski, a musician who produces music based on synths, drum machines, and effect boxes, and promotes outsiders on radio shows such as Funk Embassy. “Estonians are called a singing nation for a good reason. Every village, neighbourhood, school has its choir – it is an important part of our social fabric.”
Estonia’s Song Festival – a central part of the choral tradition – began in 1869 and has continued every five years, even during Soviet occupation. Today, it hosts over 30,000 singers and more than 100,000 spectators, making it one of the world’s most important choral events. Singing has served a crucial role in Estonia’s wider history, too. During the 1980s, mass singing emerged as a peaceful form of protest in what has become known as the Singing Revolution, which contributed to Estonia’s regaining of independence from the Soviet Union. This moment solidified the role of singing not just as an art form, but as a powerful political and cultural force. In July, UNESCO’s Baltic Song And Dance Celebrations were held, where a large chunk of the population came together to sing symbolic Estonian songs. It’s clear that singing is more than just tradition; it’s a living, collective expression of unity and resilience, embedded in daily life and national pride.
Estonia also enjoys international acclaim through ensembles like the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and composers like Arvo Pärt, whose spiritual choral works are performed worldwide. He is one of the most important figures in current Estonian culture, and the most performed living classical composer in the world (a title that has changed hands back and forth between him and John Williams in recent years). His signature minimalist style, known as tintinnabuli, seamlessly blends sacred stillness with emotional depth, creating works such as ‘Spiegel Im Spiegel’, ‘Fratres’, and ‘Tabula Rasa’ that are beloved worldwide.
For Estonia, Pärt represents far more than artistic excellence. His music also became a quiet form of resistance during Soviet rule – profoundly spiritual, introspective, and unconstrained by ideology. In a time when free expression was suppressed, his compositions carried a sense of inner freedom and dignity that resonated with the country’s people. In 2018, his legacy was preserved and celebrated with the opening of the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa, which serves as both a research hub and a national sanctuary of music and reflection. His works continue to be performed by leading orchestras, featured in films, and admired for their emotional clarity and spiritual depth.
There is also an additional element that comes up frequently when discussing Estonian music: the weather. I know precisely what Baltic people mean – in mid-July in my hometown, Gdańsk, it feels like the middle of autumn. “I feel that the constantly moody, shitty weather is programmed into my music somehow,” says Vjazemski. “Also, rough weather outside means I spend more time at home and in the studio. I believe that Estonian nature inspires me by offering ample opportunities to wander through its endless forests and bogs. I love doing that to clear my head, but it is also great for field recording.”
I also ask Misha Panfilov, a multi-instrumentalist who has founded various bands, about the ‘Estonian vibe’. “Because of the long autumns, winters, and dark hours of the day, there’s often a desire to escape reality, traveling and making music help with that a lot,” he says. “But sometimes the beauty of local summer or winter can also be a powerful source of inspiration.”
What about the Estonian scene itself? Vjazemski feels a part of it and says it’s relatively small, so “it often feels that everyone knows everyone”. But speaking about the wider Baltic scene, “the connections are rather loose and there is not much cross-pollination,” he adds. Panfilov admits he was raised in both Estonian and Russian cultures, which is something he carries with him. “But I’ve always stayed somewhat aside, not tying myself to a particular scene.”
At some point, Panfilov became fascinated with Eastern European music and started sharing it with the world on his YouTube channel Funked Up East. It serves as a vital platform for rediscovering and preserving the musical legacy of Eastern Europe during the Soviet era. Specializing in genres such as jazz, funk, disco, psychedelic, easy listening, surf, swing, big band, bossa nova, modern classical, and space-age electronica from the USSR and Eastern Bloc, it now has more than 75,000 subscribers.
When I ask about important Estonian records and musicians, Vjazemski and Panfilov also mention several oldies, records by the likes of Sven Grünberg, a new-age ambient artist, Apelsin, a post-ironic soft rock outfit, and Collage, a vocal harmony group blending pop and choral traditions. Listen to them one by one, and you will gain a fascinating insight into Estonian music heritage.
As for the present, Vjazemski admits that the past five years have been a struggle in the cultural sector. Many venues and festivals have closed. But those who have survived are doing a great job in a tight and constantly shifting situation. For a long time, SVETA was the go-to place for music and culture, and these days a key venue is Paavli Kultuurivabrik, which pushes boundaries with its event programming. Another highlight in Tallinn is IDA Radio, which started as a community station and has since expanded into a bar and venue. Müürileht is the go-to media outlet for music and culture, while labels such as Mida, Sad Fun, Porridge Bullet, Memme Vaev, and Glitch Please are well worth paying attention to.
Roma VjazemskiBerceuse Heroique
As co-founder of the Sad Fun label and one half of the duo Fruit Express, Roma Vjazemski, who has been churning out beats for over 20 years, provides a niche aesthetic of analogue warmth and imperfection. His work, often released on cassette or dubplate, is characterised by a deliberate dirtiness and rawness. Vjazemski is an intriguing figure on the contemporary experimental scene, combining dub, ambient, folk, and hypnagogic lo-fi into a coherent yet disturbing whole. His music resembles drunken loops spinning endlessly, particularly audible in Handlebar, where eight tracks merge into one organic narrative full of sonic mirages. He creates a loop that can be listened to endlessly without getting bored. His compositions are sparse, meandering lazily but rocking, sometimes in warm, accessible colours as in ‘Sauna Belt’ and sometimes in a sour, gradually unfolding manner as in the seven-minute’ Royal Brown’.
Penza PenzaHang Loose! I Got Dem Ol’ Surfer Bloos…Funk Night
Misha Panfilov is an Estonian composer and producer who works at the intersection of jazz, funk, psychedelia, and ambient music. His activities range from solo projects to leading numerous bands, collaborating with theatres, producing soundtracks, and original radio programs. He is the leader of several projects, including Misha Panfilov Septet who combine jazz-funk with ambient, Estrada Orchestra, and Center El Muusa, in which he explores psychedelic jazz and experimental lounge. Penza Penza, meanwhile, is a psychedelic garage band whose new album is bizarre, disturbing, and captivating all at once, full of reverbs, distorted guitars, and the unsettling atmosphere of a beach party gone very wrong. It’s a look at the golden era of the 1960s through an Estonian lens, with Panfilov’s characteristic twists of dirt, eclecticism, and bold production.
Volodja BrodskyWhispering Ln.Hidden Harmony
Volodja Brodsky is an Estonian composer and keyboardist, known primarily for his work (alongside the aforementioned Panfilov) with Estrada Orchestra, Centre El Muusa, and Misha Panfilov Septet. On his full-length solo debut, Whispering Ln., he reveals an entirely new side. The album contains six minimalist compositions recorded during Brodsky’s travels across the United States in 2018 and 2019, and is a subtle, meditative soundscape in which every sound and pause has been carefully considered, creating a delicate balance between simplicity and complexity. Brodsky shifts between space-age pop sonatas and hypnotic drones and overtones, achieving an ascetic yet nuanced sound. Comparable to ambient and minimalist legends such as Cluster, Klaus Schulze, and Laraaji, Brodsky creates a world that is steeped in nostalgia yet distinctly contemporary.
Arvo PärtSilentiumMississippi
This album focuses on a previously unreleased interpretation of Silentium, the second movement of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s most famous concerto, Tabula Rasa. Deeply rooted in the tintinnabuli style, it combines simplicity, spirituality, and mathematical precision, moving listeners regardless of their culture. Silentium is a meditative composition that develops slowly, bringing the listener peace and spiritual introspection, and is known for its therapeutic power, especially in palliative care. Silentium employs long notes and pauses to create a sense of suspension and timelessness – music that breathes and falls silent, rather than ending definitively. Although deeply rooted in the tradition of sacred music, Pärt’s work has a universal appeal.
Gregor KullaOld PianoMida
Gregor Kulla is an Estonian composer, performer, writer, and critic whose work focuses on issues of identity, queer culture, feminism, and Eastern philosophy. In 2024, Kulla composed the music for Old Piano, an experimental film by Johanna Ulfsak and Kris Lemsalu. It is a combination of documentary, performance, and visual essay that explores the sources of intuition and the creative act. The protagonist is Donatella Privada — Lemsalu’s alter ego, who travels through the surreal spaces of Tallinn, New York, and Mexico, balancing between everyday life and the poetics of dreams. Kulla’s music is characterised by minimalism, marked by sensual silence, subtle gestures, and profound attentiveness. Its sound connects worlds and meanings, creating a story of transience and transformation. The eponymous old piano, with a doily on the lid, symbolises nostalgia for a world before the digital din. Kulla gives this silence a voice.
Olev MuskaNew Estonian WaltzesGlitch Please
Olev Muska is a pioneer of Estonian folktronica. As early as 1979, with access to advanced technology largely unavailable under the Soviet regime thanks to his being based in Australia, he was reworking traditional Estonian songs, which led to the release of his debut album Old Estonian Waltzes. This year sees the release of New Estonian Waltzes – a collection of 16 tracks, written between 1980 and 2025, which combine archaic folk melodies with lo-fi electronics, home sampling, and melancholy synths. The material on the album is a kind of tribute to Estonian culture as seen from the perspective of the diaspora: fragments of traditional songs, children’s games, wedding songs, and ballads are interwoven with the sounds of Roland, Casio, sequencers, and reel-to-reel tape recorders. Balancing on synth pop, folk, and sound art. Muska is not afraid of irony or lyricism. He is like Silver Apples singing on the coast of the Baltic Sea.
The work of duo Ajukaja and Mart Avi is a journey through the deconstruction of pop, techno, and house music. Ajukaja has been a key figure on the Estonian alternative scene since the 1980s, active as a DJ, producer, and promoter. Mart Avi, on the other hand, is a chameleon who surprises with each new incarnation. The duo work here as a two-headed hybrid. Ajukaja delves into the nostalgic club underground, drawing on breakbeat sounds, house organs, and synths straight out of the 1990s. Mart Avi weaves his vocals like apparitions, at times poignant, at others provocatively theatrical. In one hour, we transition from something akin to Detroit techno to a drifting ambient melancholy, reminiscent of Saint Etienne, George Michael, or UNKLE’s psychedelia. The title is a perverse, ironic commentary on the state of contemporary music.
Röövel ÖöbikPopsubterraneaMemme Vaev
Ajukaja, also known as Raul Saaremets, was also one of the founders of Röövel Ööbik, a legendary band in the Estonian alternative scene. Their second album, Popsubterranea, is regarded as the first Estonian shoegaze album and one of the most significant releases of the 1990s in the region. Following their provocative debut, Ilu, the band had sought to create more immersive sounds, and created their own cool variant of the genre. Guitars float in reverb, the rhythm pulsates trance-like, and Tõnu Pedaru’s vocals balance between whisper and expression. Their music is a combination of surreal pop, noise, and minimalism, where melancholy meets anxiety. In 1993, the band became the first Eastern European act to be invited to perform a John Peel session. This new double vinyl reissue of the album by Memme Vaev brings attention back to this milestone, enriching it with four additional recordings from the session.
Karl FrogYes, MusicSpoilsport
After I Love Music and Why Music?, Karl Frog returns with the third chapter of his trilogy of low-budget pop – 11 short, melodic tracks that balance intimacy and irony, home production and conceptual grandeur. Frog effortlessly weaves his musical web – from synth pop and digital boogie, through jangle and new wave, to baroque ornamentation and theatrical absurdity. The sounds of analogue drum machines mix with lo-fi guitars, ephemeral vocals, and string fragments. You can hear echoes of Brian Eno and Holger Czukay. Tracks such as ‘Colonial Hearts’, ‘Dancing in a Tomb’, and ‘Emotional Technology’ combine melancholy with distance, everyday life with strangeness. Frog gives everyday observations an aura of slight absurdity – and that is what makes his music unique. Lyrically, the album resembles the intimate diary of an outsider who disarms pathos and doubt with self-irony.
Ruutu Poissi,iWake Dream
II is the second album by producer Jan Tomson, known as Ruutu Poiss. Following his 2021 debut Palav Aed, this new material was recorded during the dark winter months of 2022 and 2023. Tomson worked almost exclusively on a single synthesiser and a set of old drum machines, yet created a complete world of sounds. The album comprises 12 tracks that balance atmospheric downtempo, minimal wave, and a cosmic, left-field electronic pulse.There are echoes of Actress and Lukid at the intersection of nostalgia and futurism, dream and reality, light and shadow – a coherent project, but full of contrasts that come together in a hypnotic whole. Tomson proves once again that less is more, and with a limited setup, he develops his creativity and juggles ideas.
