Uusikuu celebrated their sweet sixteen in November 2022 with their fifth album "Karuselli" and lit 16 candles on their birthday cake. Since the conception of the world music ensemble in 2006, its founding members Laura Ryhänen, Mikko Kuisma and Norbert Bremes have been on a mission to breathe new life into the traditional Finnish tango. Today, the ensemble's line-up includes James Geier on guitar and Florian Dohrmann on double bass.
They have released five albums to critical acclaim. In 2016, their album Suomi-Neito was nominated for the quarterly prizes of the German music critics. In early 2020, their album Flamingo entered the top 20 of the Roots Music Report's World Album Charts. In 2022, the band was nominated for the German world music prize "Eiserner Eversteiner". In late 2022, Karuselli entered also the Top 30 of the World Music Charts Europe. And in 2023 Uusikuu was awarded with "Best World Music Album" for Karuselli at the Deutscher Rock & Pop Preis.
Karuselli reminds us that life goes around like a fairground carousel. Sadness follows joy, hopeless love dances with ecstasy and loneliness holds hands with intimate togetherness. Uusikuu makes you move between tango, waltz, foxtrot and swing, not to forget jenkka, which is a fun dance and rhythm so far rather unknown outside of Finland. So, instead of "tango nuevo", we ought to be talking about "jenkka nuevo"!
With their skillful mixture of fiery tangos, dreamy waltzes, cheeky jenkkas, funny humppas and light-footed swing sounds, Uusikuu once again invite their listeners to join them on the ride, to let all colours of life melt in to a melange of emotions. Hop on! Join the karuselli!