During the Summer of 1988, I was en route from Stockholm to Sysmää, in the central lakes region of Finland, for a visit with friends. I took the Silja Line boat from Stockholm to Helsinki, and then took the bus from the Helsinki bus station to Sysmää, with the residues of a sabbatical, plus my Hagström accordion in tow. On the boat I had acquired one of the (then relatively novel) Sony Walkthings, and while in the bus station, I picked up these two tapes so I'd have something to while away the time on the ride. My life was changed! This was just exactly the music I had become imprinted on during my very first trip to Finland, in 1977, while sitting sleepy in the kahvila of the Rovaniemi railway station after a long night on the train, having coffee and kermavohvelit, listening to the music old guys were playing on the jukebox as they sipped their morning Lapin Kulta. I was waiting then for a bus further north, to Kevo (where I arrived at 3AM, at a temperature of -6C, owing to a misreading of the bus schedule). These were dance tunes, waltzes and humppas, but with a haunting minor key and echoes of the East. Lots of accordion. Lots of nature imagery. Something to make you think of the North, of summer, of lakes, of moonlight over the tanssilava.