The Runaway Kantele

The Kantele is the Finnish National instrument, but The Runaway Kantele runs away from strictly traditional music. The Runaway Kantele has performed at Folk and Jazz (!?) festivals in Finland and on Åland and did a tour of the Faeroe Islands in september/october 2008 (Pictures at: http://www.myspace.com/steinbockstani). The Runaway Kantele uses the oldest form of Kantele, with 5 strings plus guitar, guitar-banjo, woodwinds, sometimes even strings.

The Runaway Kantele was founded in 1993 featuring (except founding member Stäni Steinbock on kantele) Jonte Knif on Woodwinds and Sampler, Minna Väätäinen on Cello, Jenny Wilhelms (later of Gjallarhorn fame) on violin and flute and Thomas Bergman on Double-bass. In 1993 the band consisted of Stäni Steinbock on kantele, Jonte Knif, Minna Väätänen and guitarist Paul Wilkinson. In 2001 the Runaway Kantele made a comeback with Lita Gustafsson (flute and keyboards), Bertil Andersson (guitar) and Stäni Steinbock. In 2008 The Runaway Kantele made yet another comeback with Kim Hansson on guitar and Kamilla Ravnsfjall on flute and organ (for the Faeroe tour). In 2009 Kim and Stani were lucky to get Kjell Frisk on woodwinds and sampler.

Yes, we play live. We like it. Special moments? Well, every concert is a special moment!

The Incredible String Band, Alan Stivell, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Bunny Wailer, Béla Bartok

Stäni uses kanteles built by Thomas Bergman and Kari Mäki plus a couple of factory-made kanteles. He tunes them differently for different songs in different scales so as not to need to retune in front of the audience. Kim has a Martin Guitar and also plays a DDR-made guitar-banjo. Kjell plays bassoons, recorders etc and an Ensoniq EPS 16+ sampler through a Pignose amplifier.

Please also check out Stäni's Reverbnation page with some of his theatre music: http://www.reverbnation.com/stanisteinbock and his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/steinbockstani for more music and pictures.