About Vallilan Tango

Vallilan Tango is a dance orchestra based in Vallila, an old workers' district in eastern Helsinki. The band's repertoire includes traditional dance hall styles like tango, waltz, foxtrot and beguine, as well as classic Finnish dance styles such as jenkka and humppa.

Most of the band's material comes from the 1930's and 1940's, the Golden Age of Finnish popular music when the bands were big and varied, songs meticulously composed and arranged, and musicians the top of their game. With an acoustic lineup of violin, clarinet, trumpet, accordion, contrabass and drums, Vallilan Tango revives the scratchy sound of those decades.

A touch of exoticism is added by the band's vocalist, Hans Wessels, who has left his native Netherlands behind and moved to Finland to sing its melancholic tangos...