Bear Awakener
Tuomas Rounakari’s 2nd solo album
Out Now
Tuomas Rounakari
Tuomas Rounakari (violin: solo performer, Yasuharu Takanashi’s Far East Groove, Korpiklaani 2012–2022) is an internationally renowned violinist, composer, and ethnomusicologist from Finland. As a one-man band he blends violin, vocals, stomping, and ankle bells into a distinctive performance style. Additionally, Tuomas plays the traditional Khanty bowed instrument, the Ning-juh.
In his solo performances, Tuomas often enters trance states, a practice central to his research and artistry. His 2024 doctorate dissertation explores altered states of consciousness through music, a phenomenon linked to sacred song traditions across diverse cultures.
Tuomas draws inspiration from different forms of dialogue, such as dialogue between man and nature, the seen and unseen worlds, the ancient and future. His 2009 debut solo album, Shamanviolin, emerged from his ethnomusicological study of early 20th-century phonograph recordings from Siberia. His subsequent journeys to Siberia allowed him to perform his interpretations of these ancient songs alongside the indigenous communities from which they originated. These journeys sparked further collaborations with artists from Khanty, Mansi, Sámi, and Greenlandic cultures.
Tuomas Rounakari’s discography spans over 30 albums, including two solo records and four albums with Korpiklaani (over 34 million Spotify streams annually). His music touches on a vast range of genres, from folk and metal to rock, blues, free jazz, and avant-garde electroacoustic explorations.
Outside of the career as a performer, Tuomas Rounakari has been a key figure in the revival of the near extinct lament tradition in Finland. He learned the essence of these ceremonial crying-songs from the Karelian elder Martta Kuikka, who was the first to bridge Karelian lament tradition and modern day Finland. During the past 20 years of workshops, grief-circles and ceremonies, Tuomas has been birthing and witnessing over a thousand individual laments across continents.
“Most remarkable”
Simon Broughton – Songlines 2014, issue 107
“Surprisingly spellbinding and ferociously intense. Tuomas’s violin reflects the spiritual mysticism of shamanic traditions with hypnotically atmospheric fare”
John Colligne – Progression Magazine 2010, vol. 60
“The festival was treated to iridescent performance from Finland, in the metaphysical form of Shamanviolin. This fully acoustic performance saw solo artist Tuomas Rounakari evoking his inner self and uniting it with the world through the use of a traditional violin modified through tuning and playing techniques.”
Serena Ho – The AU Review 2017, Oct 26th
Bear Awakener
Bear Awakener (released April 14th, 2022), is an invocation of ancient forces and a stirring call to awaken the wild energy within. Each track stirs the ancient memory within us, summoning the slumbering forces of nature, myth, and spirit.
The album centers on bear-related ceremonial songs from Khanty, Mansi, Karelian, and Finnish traditions. These songs carry the resonance of our ancestors who lived in deep, reciprocal relationship with the land—cultures grounded in sustainability, self-sufficiency, and sacred balance. For Tuomas, they are living teachings, not just songs.
Bear Awakening songs were originally sang at the dawn of each day of the Bear Feast Ceremony among the Khanty and Mansi. Through these songs the bear was awakened to witness all other performances of the ceremony. It was also a call for dialogue – evoking a special presence of the bear’s soul.
Rooted in ancestral songlines and shaped by trance states, Bear Awakener guides listeners into a deeper dialogue with the unseen, the more-than-human, and the mythical. It’s a reawakening of spirit, a reconnection to something older than memory, yet urgently needed today.