Last weekend, I managed to escape the smells and sounds of the big smoke and found myself in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, for Tallinn Music Week. In it’s second year, Tallin Music Week sees 6000 music fans, 100 artists and 107 international delegates descend on the city for three nights of music.

Tallinn is a beautiful city. Souvenir shops and medieval-style restaurants sit happily next to art galleries and all-night jacket potato shops and there isn’t a dowdy corner or architectural eyesore anywhere in sight. Whilst I was there, the deep snow was starting to thaw and the cobbled streets were gleaming in the sunshine.

Although Estonia has become a bit of a stag-do hotspot of late, most of the bars and venues are lovely, open-planned, thick-walled spaces where there are often dedicated smoking rooms, instead of the usual rainy doorstep on offer. Tallinn is also home to two Depeche Mode bars, where every piece of music, video and wall-mounted memorabilia is Depeche Mode-related. The band visited one of these bars last year, the photos of which take pride of place.

The music programme was a mixed bag of acts with something for everyone; from metal to jazz and folk to electro, the organisers showed off the open minded nature of the Estonian scene. My personal highlights were the heartfelt guitar-led indie of an Estonian band called Honey Power, the intoxicating gothic electro of Opium Flirt & Andres Loo and the explosive fire folk of the Ukraine Vikings, Svjata Vatra.

All of the gigs were dotted around the various venues of Tallinn and were pinpointed on a largely unreliable map. Luckily, taxi- drivers, barmen and locals were all too happy to show us where to head, and where to head after that for a late night drink. One Estonian girl we met was even willing to take us up to the highest point of the town at 3am to admire the lights of Tallinn.

During the Second World War, Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union and didn’t regain its independence again until 1991. Since then, Estonia has been trying to re-establish it’s identity and liken itself to the flourishing alternative culture of it’s Nordic neighbours. Although there are barely any record shops or labels in the country, the Estonian music scene is bang up to date and in some cases, it’s even ahead of itself.

Tallinn Music Week is an ideal chance to sample a real slice of life in an amazing city that has quite rightly been chosen as the European Capital of Culture for 2011.




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