Puuluup

Ramo Teder and Marko Veisson formed Puuluup in 2014 around a shared obsession: the talharpa, an ancient Nordic bowed lyre once played almost exclusively on Estonia's Swedish-speaking Vormsi Island, and all but extinct by the twentieth century. They call their own sound "zombie folk" — routing the instrument's horsehair strings through loopers and effects pedals until the resurrected instrument sounds like nothing else in folk music. One critic put it well: if Wes Anderson invented an Estonian folk duo, it would be Puuluup. Their songs — sung in Estonian, in invented languages, in whatever the moment calls for — pair absurd storytelling with deadpan, gloriously awkward choreography, turning tradition into something closer to performance art. That combination has carried them to festival stages in over 40 countries, from WOMAD to Sziget to Colours of Ostrava, and even into the Eurovision Song Contest finals.