Beth Orton, Elia Lombardini

The Brit Award-winning English singer-songwriter Beth Orton comes to Finland for the very first time, taking to the Huvila stage on Tuesday, 22 August. Orton began her career in the early 1990s and rose to prominence as a pioneer of the folktronica sound, combining folk music and electronica and collaborating with such electronic music masters as The Chemical Brother, William Orbit and Andrew Weatherall.

Her eighth album Weather Alive, released last year, was Orton’s return to the limelight for the first time in six years. The deeply personal and stripped down record was one of the most highly-praised albums of the year, with the esteemed music publication Pitchfork calling it the best work of her career.

The first performer of the night is a Finnish-Italian composer, producer and violinist on the rise, Elia Lombardini. Lombardini is a familiar name for her collaborations with several top Finnish acts, including Ruusut, Vesta, The Holy and Karina. As a composer and solo artist, Lombardini places herself in the continuum of Finnish composers, with influences also from post-classical music artists, like Max Richter and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Lombardini’s debut album “In Death and the Hunger for a Thousand Lives” was released in May of last year.