Reet, Estonian Folksongs by Reet Hendrikson.

Estonia is a small country nestling on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It only has a population of about 1.3 million people, but those people seem to have music in their soul. You may recall I wrote a piece called Little Bells a couple of years ago which was about the Estonian composer Arvo Part who is arguably the greatest living composer in the world today. Well, today I thought I would tell you about another musician from Estonia who I recently discovered called Reet Hendrikson. However, unlike Arvo who is famous throughout the world, little is known about Reet, even in her native land. These days Estonia is a very prosperous country, but that hasn’t always been the case.

The country suffered terribly during long periods of the 20^th century, especially during WW2 when it was invaded firstly by the Soviets in 1940 and then by the Nazis. Estonia in that dark time lost 25% of its population. In 1944 faced with the twin evils of living under Stalin or Hitler tens of thousands of people fled westwards. This became known as ‘The Great Escape’. Many of the refugees perished in the icy waters of the Baltic, but many others reached Sweden and safety. From there a lot of people went to countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK and established an Estonian diaspora worldwide. One of the families that stayed in Sweden was that of Reet Hendrikson who was only a few months old when her parents made the decision to risk that perilous journey. So, Reet was brought up and educated in Sweden where there were many good schools for the ex-patriate community of her homeland. She must have been a bright kid because in the mid-1960s she was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship which allowed her to study in the USA.

When her college course ended in 1968 Reet arrived in Canada where she found a thriving Estonian community. At a summer seminar for ex-pats she was spotted singing by Andres Raudsepp of a tiny label called Reindeer Records who took her into the studio to record Reet, Estonian Folksongs. It was to be the only album she ever recorded. I doubt if more than a couple of hundred copies were ever sold. After Canada Reet lived in Boston for a while and mixed with other musicians on the local folk scene. In the 1980s she returned to live in Sweden and worked for the Swedish Radio archive. On visits to Estonia she helped other musicians as much as she could, providing them with sheet music and much needed repertoire. Finally in 1988/89 came what was known as the peaceful ‘Singing Revolution’ where Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania finally won back their independence from Russian domination. Reet sadly died in Stockholm in 2000 at the early age of 56 virtually unknown. In recent years however, thanks to the internet and places like youtube word began to spread, and people began to listen to her one and only album. In November 2023 an English label called Moved By Sound gave the album a limited re-release of 500 copies on vinyl and 1,000 copies on CD. Reet's mentor Andres Raudsepp also passed away in November 2023 at the age of 86 after writing the sleeve notes for the re-release, so I'm sure he was happy to know that his prodigy Reet was finally getting the attention she deserved.

Andres Raudsepp.

The CD popped through my letterbox last Saturday. The first track is called Meil Aiaaarne Tanavas which I think means We Have A Garden. When I heard the first few notes on her acoustic guitar, I was reminded of the melancholy sound of I Want To Be Alone by Jackson C. Frank, and when her crystal-clear voice began to sing, the haunting sound of The Garden Of Jane Delawney by The Trees came to mind. I have shared this song below which you might like to listen to, so you can decide for yourself what you think. I don’t think Reet wrote any of the songs, they are all traditional folk songs as far as I know. I don’t know what the songs are about either, although I did translate a couple of the song titles on a translation website. That doesn’t matter, because as the great Tony Benn once famously said on the Leftfield stage at Glastonbury, “Music is the international language, you don’t have to understand the words to appreciate the music”. 

I love her voice. Listening in my kitchen to my little CD player, her voice and simple but effective guitar playing sounds so intimate that you could almost think she was in the same room. I think the last time I thought that on first hearing a female singer was when I first played Colour Green by Sibylle Baier. I’m not saying Reet is the greatest singer ever, by any means, but I’m very glad somebody mentioned this album on a Facebook folk music page which led me to searching her out. I don’t think she is very well known, even in her own country, but I’m pleased she is finally getting some recognition for her small but significant contribution to the rich cultural heritage of Estonia.