Hark, traveler, and attend!

Fantasy-ready, danceable folk music, fit for a lively Middle Ages tavern!

We are Astalo, an international medieval folk band based in Helsinki, Finland. We play a mixture of early music and upbeat Irish, English, and Latgalian tunes, and our folk dance instructor can get any crowd into the medieval mood. Whether the occasion calls for hardcore Tudor or bardcore fantasy, we show up dressed to impress in our old-timey best and bring the party with us!

• Learn more
• Contact Us
• Sign Up

Hear the sound of timeless fun!

You can listen to some of our demos by pressing play on any of the following recordings! These were recorded with an ancient phone at our fourth rehearsal, so just imagine how much better we sound not through a tinny phone microphone and many rehearsals later.

Do we have any recordings out on Spotify or Youtube yet? NO! Will we eventually? YES! Sign up for our MAILING LIST⇡ or FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM⇡ (the brown text is clickable) to find out when that happens.You can also see below links to our various SOCIAL PLATFORMS! (So far it's just Instagram and Tumblr. The medieval folk musicians don't love modern social media... go figure!)

• Instagram
• BLOG

Et nunc!

WHO ARE THESE GUYS?

The core band consists of Heikki Kylkisalo (Finnish; uilleann pipes, guitar, whistles), Jadviga Mežniece (Latvian; kokle, whistles, vocals), Felix Hirsch (German/Swedish; bodhran, cello, flutes, whistles, banjo), Lauris Emīls Frēlihs (Latvian; percussion and dance instruction), and Adrian Montclaire (USA; vocals, mandolin, songwriting, admin work/writing up the nonsense you’re reading right now.) Many of the members are current or former students of Finland’s world-renowned Sibelus Academy, and they are all massive nerds.The band's name comes from a little-known Finnish word—an ‘astalo’ is a bludgeoning weapon, especially an improvised bludgeoning weapon that usually has some other purpose, such as a frying pan or a steel folding chair. Even though medieval music is not expressly designed for hitting, Astalo aims to smack you in the face with it all the same!

• Contact us!

Make your party more bard-y!

Need some of this at your party, corporate event, game shop, LARP session, or living room? Pop us a message! We have flexible rates, and we'd love to talk about what we can do to bring some middle-ages festivity to your event. Our manager can be contacted at [email protected].We also travel! We're even willing to travel FAR, especially in the summer--we are aiming to play the North American renaissance faire circuit in summer 2027. So wherever in the world you may be, party hard with our bards!

• Send us a booking inquiry!