
CELLARS OF OLD TOWN
1990. The 1990s were difficult for Estonia. The country was freed from the Soviet Union, the economy had to be rebuilt, there was a lot of poverty, unemployment and crime. However, this decade also brought the expansion of geographical boundaries and the opportunity to experiment with musical ones.
Alongside the triumph of disco music, many small subcultures emerged here too, looking for their place in the newly liberated music scene. And the cellars of Old Town became the spaces that gave room to this new music.
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Bel Air
Vana-Viru 14Vana-Viru 14
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxThe mid-nineties were a time of big changes. Much of what happened could be considered a first. In the autumn of 1994, in the basement of the once well-known former Pritsumaja discotheque at 14 Vana-Viru Street, the small night club Bel Air appeared all of a sudden in a seemingly empty space and would become the first regular venue focused on alternative club music. Before that, parties would take place randomly in various locations, and had been held regularly at Club Piraat in Pirita since the winter of 1994, but only on Wednesdays as a side experiment. But now there was a place you could go to every weekend (at best, three nights a week, from Thursday to Saturday) to enjoy music you would otherwise only hear at a few parties. In a way, this routine meant less excitement and anticipation for the former party crowd. Instead of partying for weeks, sometimes months, they now had to wait until the next weekend.
The club was named Bel Air after a 1957 red Chevrolet car. On the club’s wall was a framed photo of that car in addition to a photo of Marilyn Monroe, but they in no way defined the venue’s mood. The club owners wanted to establish a disco club that played music that was a little different from the mainstream and was visited by more affluent people. As the audience of the new club had yet to be formed, it was taken over by a diverse group of people from various alternative club music subcultures who had been without a home until then but were united by an interest in music different from the mainstream. Back then, this crowd was still cohesive and tight-knit. At the same event, you could meet people from indie lovers to drum and bass admirers. But the genre played most at Bel Air was house music. Alongside DJ music, band concerts were also experimented with but by then, interest in live band music had decreased due to the rise of the new DJ culture. So, the club of a capacity up to 150 people, did not even have a proper stage for bands. Instead, they had a console with DJ equipment and a stationary sound system that made throwing parties much easier than before.
The general opinion in the club scene was that Bel Air was a place for weirdos. It was actually visited by an audience more informed than average , who was more in touch with what was happening in the field of music elsewhere in the world and differed from quite a few mainstream venues’ audiences with its friendliness and peacefulness.
In the time of Bel Air, party series for various styles and groups started to slowly form. The amounts of both the performers and audience members increased. The big raves that occasionally took place in other parts of the city also played a part in this process, as they introduced new music to a bigger audience. This, in turn, set the stage for the emergence of after party culture that came from a desire to calm down after the raves with big crowds of people in a smaller venue amongst friends, and Bel Air was perfect for this. There they also managed to experiment with starting the party as early as five o’clock on a Monday morning, not so much for those who had been partying the whole weekend but to give club music fans a boost for the new work week.
By 1997, Tallinn’s club music scene had become even more diverse. Many of the larger clubs like the Von Krahl theatre-bar and Hollywood had discovered the potential of underground club music in various ways, thus creating more options for people. This made it difficult for Bel Air to do the same and the club closed with the initial but unfulfilled wish to continue its operations in new rooms. Club Zone 14 operated in the same rooms under new ownership for a short time but were not able to maintain the success of Bel Air. -
Enke’s basement
Müürivahe 33Müürivahe 33
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxThe basement of the Dominican Monastery at 33 Müürivahe Street is a good example of historical events being shaped by rooms. The basement of one of the oldest buildings in Tallinn still standing has recently lived through its most turbulent times against the backdrop of the otherwise timeless rhythm of monastic life.
Has being caught in this whirlwind been good or bad? Depends on your point of view. From the point of view of the room’s original function, it has been tragic. The opportunities offered by this room gave the local music life an irreplaceable push in the nineties when subculture crowds were looking for places to bring their ideas to life. However, hardly any of the party guests paid attention to the honourable past of the rooms and to the fact that the name of Enke’s Basement, spread through word of mouth, was related to the activities of Adolf Enke (1906-1973), a locksmith from Terase Factory. This self-taught handyman made lanterns there using various metalworking techniques and gave them to the city to enrich the Old Town and leave his mark. The man’s residence at 33 Müürivahe Street was called Enke’s yard and the underground part was called Enke’s basement, both named after him. The former monastery’s basement had become a museum of forged and minted metalwork where you could feel the Old Town’s spirit.
The significance of Adolf Enke’s legacy in Estonia’s cultural history has been captured by Olav Neuland in his film “A Ringing In My Chest” with music by Arvo Pärt. From the film, we learn that Enke’s heart also beat to the rhythm of music. When he was young, he wanted to become a violinist, but nothing became of his studies because he had to get a job. Despite focusing on the creation of beauty and loving classical music, Enke did not appreciate silence. “Silence, that is my death,” he said. In addition, he valued communication with young people, saying, “When I’m with the youth, I feel young, and their thoughts become my thoughts. They have many dreams, but how many of them will come true, I don’t know.”
In the nineties, this room with the mysterious medieval atmosphere developed into a place full of young people and loud music. By this time, Enke’s Basement had become a party room available to be rented for events for all sorts of crowds, from private birthday parties to concerts and DJ parties of various genres. Generally, the events were representative of subcultures that did not have a specific place to spend time together. Examples of people throwing their events in Enke’s Basement include the indie electronic crowd, who used to also frequent Kodulinna House and Restko Bar, and later, representatives of more specific club music genres (house, techno, hiphop, trance, ambient, etc.). In addition, the Depeche Mode fan club and the Estonian Lesbian Union have thrown parties there. There have been several cassette and CD premieres: Modern Ethnic I, Enaune – “Cycle du Petit Prince de Saint-Exupéry”, Hüpnosaurus – “Class X 1992–1995”, etc.
In the beginning of the century, when there were no active events in Enke’s Basement, it hosted the significant “Mystery in Tallinn”. The events of the “Mystery” series usually took place outside of Tallinn, to explore new exciting places and to break free from the expectations of urban clubs. This time, an exception was made for the premiere of the so-called secret version of the collection “Tallinn: Psychedelic City”. The collection’s aim was to give an overview of the moods and ideas of Tallinn’s alternative music scene. The eclectic mix of music from electronic, jazz and psychedelic rock to all sorts of genre-defying tunes also included music that developed with influence from the previous events in the basements of Old Town. Out of a desire to show Tallinn as a city bubbling with musical ideas, unfathomable and secretive, two different versions of the album were published with the same name and design, and Enke’s Basement hosted the presentation of this so-called hidden album that was not distributed in the traditional distribution network. And so, this brief musical period in the long history of the Dominican Monastery reminds people of the period when Estonian music was still looking for itself, in which many secrets are hidden in the darkness of time. -
The basement of the House of the Blackheads
Pühavaimu 9Pühavaimu 9
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxWhile many of the basements in Tallinn’s Old Town can be referred to in the past tense in the context of music life, the basement hall of the House of the Blackheads has a bright future ahead of it in addition to its honourable past.
The basement obtained its current look in the years 1419–1422, when the hall corpus of the House of the Blackheads’ Brotherhood was vaulted. The exceptionally thick square pillars in the basement hall are from that period. At first, the walls were covered with dark wood panels, and there were billiard and card tables in the room. Before World War II, there was a stylish restaurant in the basement hall.
During the Soviet period of 1946 to 1991, the House of the Blackheads housed the Jaan Kreuks’ Youth Cultural Palace for students of vocational schools and other young citizens.
What happens in the basement hall will continue to be influenced by what happens in the building in general. At the same time, what goes on in the basement hall has been more colourful. If the house as a whole is guided more by classical music and an academic programme, the basement hall’s programme has involved more experimentation. These have been mostly related to a festival or concert organiser in search for a suitable room, for example TUJA Jazz Festival, NYYD Festival, Jazzkaar, Estonian Music Days, Hea Uus Heli, Tallinn Music Week, Odessa Pop and many others. In addition, it is a place where the distant past meets the newest cultural phenomena, for example the media art festival Interstanding’s after party and concert organised by Ando Keskküla in the late nineties.
The basement hall of the House of the Blackheads has had many permanent residents, for example Stereotunnel from 2007 to 2011, who hosted the hiphop-oriented concert series Basement with Maailma Äärel Jalgu Kõlgutades (“Swinging Our Legs at the Edge of the World”). Artists like Chalice, Sentimentaalne and Külalised have been on the stage. The Stereo Tunnel’s goal was to offer young musicians not only a concert venue but also a place where they could do a studio recording, sell albums and management services.
Once the complicated ownership issues had been solved, the House of the Blackheads started being managed by the city’s music representative organisation Tallinn Philharmonic from 2011. Music gets a fresh breath of air in these rooms. Initiated by Raivo Tafenau, the basement rooms became home to jazz club Taff Club that had to move some of its events to a bigger white hall due to a lack of space following a rise in popularity.
Though at times it may seem the calendar of the House of the Blackheads is not as busy as some of the more popular venues of the city, it has been host to many important concerts. For example, many album presentations that have a special place in the Estonian music scene have taken place here: the progressive rock Luarvik Luarvik’s “Enigma variatsioonid”, the Indian-influenced Kirtana Rasa “Põhjataeva tuled”, the frail and husky Eva Mitreikina’s self-titled album or the Nordic-sounding electronic duo Tehnoloogiline Päike’s debut album “Abstraktsioonide maal”, etc.
A memorable moment is the performance of the trio Eeter, new in the spotlight, at Tallinn Music Week 2017. The performance where every small nuance of sound stood out was well received by the public and international delegates. The trio’s hopes for the future have been overshadowed by the members’ lack of time, especially now that one of them, Anna Hints, is travelling across the world thanks to the unexpected success of her movie Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.
After the recent crises in society, the basement hall of the House of the Blackheads has freshened up thanks to the Estonian Centre of Contemporary Music starting its activities in the rooms with the goal to develop contemporary music in Estonia. The centre helps to liven up the professional contemporary music atmosphere with public lectures, concerts, workshops and public discussions. The centre, managed by Taavi Kerikmäe, brings together key organisations and collectives of contemporary composers and performers such as the Estonian Composers Union, Ansambel U:, Ensemble for New Music Tallinn, YXUS, Estonian Electronic Music Society, Improtest, Estonian Arnold Schönberg Society. In the short time it has been running, it has already hosted a conference dedicated to John Cage and Ansambel U:’s residency series. As part of the improvisational music series Improtest, the basement room here has been visited by the Japanese improv legend Otomo Yoshihide and evenings with the Estonian Electronic Music Society or EMA are becoming a tradition. -
Levist Väljas bar
Olevimägi 12Olevimägi 12
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPx“If you can’t remember quite everything / then remember half it, that’s still something” or “I’ve got vomit on my pants and shirt / but at Levikas I’m as good as new”, is what the poet fs has to say about the legendary basement bar Levist Väljas in Tallinn’s Old Town. Sounds like a drinking hole and it is, but somehow that is a positive thing when it comes to Levikas. And for some reason, respectable people take their foreign guests there and introduce the place as if it is a treasure hidden from the public, as something truly local. And for some reason, international stars like Jimi Tenor, Franz Ferdinand and the members of Rammstein have ended up spending time in this hole.
It is a place where the all-inclusive motivational package for employees has promised not only a messy work environment but also blood, sweat, tears, the vomit of drunks and unavoidable encounters with interesting people. And there are plenty of them here, from local legends to wanderers yearning for extreme adventures. During the busier periods, the party has moved from indoors to outdoors where at peak times several hundred people have been seen partying to the early hours of summer mornings.
“Levikas is our last refuge / a glimmer of light in the midst of a world of darkness / a treasure trove of good company and drinks / where every fight is finally solved by drinking”, fs also wrote. It is a place where people come not only to meet up with old friends but to also meet new ones, even if it is for just one night because they know that the social barriers disappear in this free-minded and creative environment where everybody can feel equal.
Levist Väljas is one of the few places founded in the nineties that is still active today. Granted, it has become more modest but you can still feel the post-crisis breath of fresh air. During the Soviet era, there were closed party rooms with saunas for the Society for the Development of Cultural Ties with Estonians Abroad. Levist Väljas started operating here in 1996 and from the start, events with a social undertone stood out, such as Oil Fest where bartenders offered the most absurd combinations of drinks or crazy parties with themes from transvestite night to a tropical party involving a truckload of sand.
Music has never been directly in the foreground at Levikas but it has been important indirectly. In the musical sense, this venue has had a very free-spirited aura throughout the decades and the DJ selection has also been unpretentious. Often, the console is manned by hobby DJs and the music can range from tasteful to absolutely, sometimes probably intentionally, bizarre, and that is totally fine here. From the point of view of the music scene, Levikas’ peak can be considered the period around the turn-of-the-century, where the bar still operated only in the basement and a few good, usually improvisational concerts took place in the evenings. For example, the progressive jazz-rock-influenced Beggars Farm has published a concert CD Levist Väljas they recorded in 2002 (sound example). In the same period, the psychedelic electronic improv band Kismabande gave their longest concert to date (sound example). Sometimes, a foreign band on tour has also ended up performing in Levikas. For example, the Dutch band Palinckx and DJ Donotask, who combine a high level of funk and rock with free improvisation and electronic, have not hesitated to perform in these tight conditions for free. Perhaps the venue’s aura and the performing experience to be gained outweigh some of its drawbacks. In any case, they seemed to really enjoy Levika’s untraditional concert environment and atmosphere. (sound example) A similar example is also Rainer Jancis’ performance in the Windows series, who could not stop his all-night guitar improvisation to DJ music even when the party was over.
When the second floor of Levikas was built in 2008, the buzzing crowds that fit in the building were much bigger, but the upstairs hall was more for DJ-based parties. Fortunately, the overall picture is diverse, both in terms of music and the people at the console. Although there has been a lot of talk about the generational change at Levikas, next to the many new faces you can sometimes see at least one of the main visitors from the beginning, the legendary rock and roll life style icon Raul Velbaum, spinning records just like he used to. -
Juuksur bar
Vaimu 1Vaimu 1
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxWhat to do if you don’t want to work at Levikas any more? Start your own bar. That’s exactly what Liina and Saša were thinking in 2006 when they opened their bar Juuksur in a basement on Vaimu Street. It became a venue that offered a place for a wide variety of music events and audiences. You could always come to Juuksur to chill by your own and listen to good music, because the playlists compiled by Liina and Saša were a treasure in their own right.
As remembered by Janno Žõbin who was responsible for the events, one could listen to garage rock and punk in Juuksur in addition to experimental sound, Japanese art rock and local music. And Juuksur was obviously loved by festivals – not only by the already solid Tallinn Music Week, but also the young and underground feminist culture festival Ladyfest Tallinn or the festival Hea Uus Heli. Another time, Allan Vainola played his Dreamcatchers’ album in Juuksur or the eight-membered reggae band Kunn and The Magic Muffins brought some Caribbean vibes from Luxembourg.
How did such a wide variety of artists and people end up in that one small basement? Especially considering the boundaries between different scenes were still quite strict in Tallinn in 2006? I guess the founders themselves grew more and more as they managed the bar and added more salon-style and quieter stuff to the punk music. And so it happened that Juuksur hosted events from jazz to stoner and from reggae to folk.
This diversity guaranteed an audience in Juuksur with vast differences. Of course, alcohol sales were important as a bar’s life span does depend on them, as those working there remember. But even more important was the motto – we’re creating this atmosphere for the music and concerts. And so, the hall could be stocked full of people, even 150 on the better days.
Juuksur might be considered the last high-flying bar in Old Town – an active place with a crowd almost every night, with performers from all over the world and food and drinks affordable even for a student. Sure, more venues have sprung up in Old Town later but not all of them have filled all the criteria needed to attract young and old, poor and rich and more or less demanding music lovers.
Juuksur stopped operating in 2011, when the recession hit. The general wave of changes in Tallinn’s bars and service culture was also knocking on the door. “More and more places popped up where old furniture was suddenly called vintage, a cup of coffee a latte, and the Aleksander beer flowing freely at Juuksur was replaced with craft beer and you had to serve with a smile on your face,” reminisces Maarin Mürk, an art researcher who also worked in Juuksur. “This type of refinery was not the way Juuksur did things.” In addition to people losing their job, the generous state subsidies thanks to which Juuksur had managed to host not only local artists but also ones from all over the world disappeared. But the founders themselves had also grown tired. They had a tendency to blur the line between entertainment and work.
Juuksur was followed up by Kodu Bar, after which the rooms were home to the culture club Kelm, both of them also nice places. But in the end, they also closed their doors or moved away – the party scene had hopelessly left Old Town for North Tallinn. -
Restko bar
Lai 29Lai 29
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxIn the autumn of 1992, Restko Bar emerged as a new place to eat during the day and come to a bar in the evening. The local developing alternative club music and indie scene discovered Restko Bar because it could be rented to organise events. As this meant they had to share the space with the bar’s regular customers, it immediately highlighted the cardinal difference between the new club culture and earlier party traditions. In the usually very calm environment, this could create tension leading to conflict in a stressful time.
Restko Bar’s labyrinthian basement rooms and medieval atmosphere characterise this place where people felt at home and free at the time, despite the low vaults, obscurity and crowds. In some unexplainable way, the newest music at the time seemed to fit well with the centuries-old atmosphere. It may have been Restko Bar that gave rise to the myth that the modern club culture in Tallinn began in the Old Town’s basements.
The parties at Restko Bar were eclectic. The directions of the new kinds of club music had not yet fragmented. In one night, one could hear music characterising various artistic directions. Rocking live performances with electric guitar and drums were a change of pace from electronic music. And this programme was also facilitated by the opportunity to use two stages for two different styles of music, if needed. The main organisers were the people involved with the ERKI band room Heven and Hüpnitro Sound System. Examples of the performers include live artists Röövel Ööbik, Öäk, Zahir, Hüpnosaurus, Out-or and 1983 and DJs Erkki Tero, Raul Saaremets, Aivar Tõnso and Vadya Lahari.
At the time, the parties were not organised regularly. It required initiative. For one night, you had to rent sound and light equipment, organise ticket sales and the bar. As things were mostly done on the fly, people dared to find amateur solutions to impossible situations. For example, if the promised sound equipment for a legendary Hüpnitro party had not arrived due to unexplained circumstances, there was no other choice in this time before cellphones but to go to your own band room and bring a guitar amplifier that was used to amplify modern bass-based club music.
But the parties were already taking place more often than before and despite the irregularity, the audience at the time could finally feel that the long-awaited era of having enough parties had finally begun. The alternative music community at the time was still rather small. Information about the parties was mainly spread by word of mouth and a couple of posters in strategic places. Nevertheless, the parties were public enough that information reached the people it was not meant for. Unlike today, where there are dozens of parties taking place every weekend, there was little choice at the time and if there was an event somewhere, there was a risk of people showing up who did not understand what was going on and who might be annoyed: who are these people? Why are they dancing alone? Why is the DJ not saying anything? They were used to dancing with partners and a DJ whose main activity at the same time was verbal communication with the public, accompanied by the well-known hits that everyone liked. But now, the DJ was a nerd music lover who did not talk to the audience and focused on playing unknown songs nobody had ever heard before and heaven forbid that anyone should disturb the DJ with a song request! But this was what the parties’ main audience preferred, as they attended parties mainly to enjoy music and this music was not played on the radio or other popular channels.
Restko did not stay at the top for long. By the mid-nineties, Restko Bar had been forgotten as new venues opened up with better technical and recreational facilities. A vivid example of this is the nostalgia night hosted by Restko Bar’s former DJs in the late nineties when the restaurant Teater operated there, to remember the golden days of Restko. At the same time, having to face that they are permanently a thing of the past. -
Bar 13
Lai 13Lai 13
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxThe Institution of Arts of the Tallinn Pedagogical University operated out of 13 Lai Street – thus, there were always future film directors and dancers, art teachers and hobby group leaders in front of the building. In the basement of that building was a bar where students could get cheap food in the mornings. It was also a place where all sorts of people gathered, especially at night.
“Bar thirteen”, according to a polite advertisement in the newspaper Post in 1995. “You can spend time in the cosy basement rooms. Reservation of tables. Group catering. Reservation of rooms. 50 to 60 seats.” This could easily give the reader an impression of a cosy place to have a proper company party. There were lots of parties at Thirteen, but how proper they were is a matter of opinion.
The narrow staircase was especially crowded in the evenings, when the basement at 13 Lai Street became a well-known concert venue with performances from local bands, from punk to metal. And not only that – in those poor days, when young people would often hang out in agreed meeting places on the streets of Old Town due to lack of money, Bar 13 was one of the few venues they could enter. Especially if you were unfairly still legally a schoolchild but were bursting at the seams with a desire to belong and be alternative. More so that there were no mobile phones or texting or chatting online – if you wanted to see somebody, you had to go to them.
“A new girl joined our class and we got along immediately,” recalls one of the schoolgirls from that time. “She was from Tallinn and already involved in the punk scene. And she was the one who invited me to Bar 13. It’s where everything took place and where I met others in the punk scene. I used to take the train to school and home so I’d stop by before getting on the train. It always had people who were interested in you and took you in.” She explained how important information was also exchanged at Thirteen, for example where and when Operation Õ or Kurjam would be performing. When there was a concert at the bar, the bartender would make A4 posters and everybody who spent time at Thirteen would spill out onto the city to put them up. Because the usual spots for posters were common knowledge to both the people who put them up and people interested in attending concerts.
As characteristic of the nineties, the boundaries between the alternative scenes were quite friendly and blurred. There were a lot of long-haired young Russians at Thirteen who were associated with grunge and affectionately called the Russian hairys. Another time, the Estonian Depeche Mode fan club celebrated their 5th anniversary at Thirteen, bringing a romantic darkness to the room.
Bar 13’s life was short, opening in 1995 and closing only a few years later in 1997. In the new century, the Institution of Arts of the Tallinn Pedagogical University, now Tallinn University, also moved out of the building. By 2023, subcultures are almost all gone from Old Town and the formerly cheap slums have been replaced with luxury apartments. But those who were part of the underground in the mid-nineties, those people will remember.
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Kodulinna maja
Gümnaasiumi 3Gümnaasiumi 3
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxThese days, it might seem like Kodulinna House has been there forever. You can smell the layers of culture left there over the decades as soon as you enter. It’s like the building operates on a different version of time, where the hustle all around is not disturbing or motivating. Instead, they are open to everybody who has no place where they belong. Thus, in turbulent times, significant events have taken place here which in their time were more about defiance by doing your own thing despite everything else. From the beginning, this timeless atmosphere was created by the Tiina Mägi’s determined management – open on the one hand, self-contained on the other to avoid the house becoming a playground for winds coming from different directions.
In the former auxiliary building of Saint Michael’s Convent, which later housed Tallinn’s Lemonade Factory that closed in the seventies, Kodulinna House started operating in 1986 as an outgrowth of the youth movement “Kodulinn” (“Home Town”), which had done various kinds of work in the Old Town. As it adapted to environmental changes, Tallinn’s Old Town and Estonian culture have generally remained priorities for the arts. Though it started as more of a house for the youth, it has now become something similar to a community centre where everybody interested in the House’s activities are welcome – no matter how old, what religion or nationality they are. The house may seem small on the surface but the building has enough room for two halls, a library, wood work shop, lobby, looms and a tiny office. In addition to the building’s programme, Kodulinna House is also involved with outside events like the concert marathon “Ringing City Wall” that has taken place every year since September 2013, running from tower to tower, and “Spring takes a walk in the city and Kodulinna House joins it with their good friends” that takes place on Kissing Hill to celebrate spring.
While Jaak Johanson and Tõnis Mägi have had acoustic performances in the chamber concert hall on the building’s second floor, the basement hall has provided musical highlights of a different sort.
As the start of the Kodulinna House coincided with the rise of the punk movement, it is natural that punk concerts, shunned everywhere else, made it here. This is how Kodulinna house hosted the public punk concert “Sponsor Parade ‘87” with performances from eight punk bands, and at the same time the Old Town Days were taking place, punk band performances could be heard for seven days straight. This is also where the last joint concert of Vürst Trubetsky and J.M.K.E. took place in 1988, before they separately became the leading forces of Estonian punk music. In addition to music, punk poetry was also valued here, leading to students, artists and poets visiting the events attracted by the desire to find like-minded people among the punks who were also against mainstream thought.
In the beginning of the nineties, Kodulinna House became a significant beacon to respecters of indie music and the new alternative electronic club music. In those days, these music styles could still co-exist side-by-side. The first part of a usual party night was occupied by concert performances, followed by DJ music played from cassettes. This is how the legendary party related to the band room Heven in shooting range of ERKI took place in January 1992. It was originally supposed to take place in ERKI, but due to opposition from the school board was directed to Kodulinna House a day before the event, where the outcasts were offered shelter. Öäk and Hüpnosaurus, from the new outrageous generation of musicians, gave their first performance and the event was headlined by Röövel Ööbik, who had already gained a cult following. The success of the venue choice and the party is also demonstrated by the fact that half a year later, a concert was organised in Kodulinna House to welcome John Peel, one of the most legendary radio DJs in the world, who had arrived to Estonia on a BBC tour bus.
Not only did John Peel like the concert, he was also reassured that Röövel Ööbik could be counted among those selected to be invited to the BBC Studio in London to record a studio session for John Peel’s radio show. Röövel Ööbik remained the only Estonian band to receive such an honour – right next to world-famous artists like Pink Floyd, Sonic Youth, Tangerine Dream and many other future talents at the beginning of their careers. This can be considered one of the most important success stories in the field of music of the early days of the newly independent Estonia. -
Depeche Mode bar
Nunne 4 / Voorimehe 4Nunne 4 / Voorimehe 4
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxIn 1990, the British electro pop band published their album Violator, which rolled over Eastern Europe like a tsunami. It was listened to by boys and their mothers, girls and their fathers, Estonian and Russian youth in the country and the city. Depeche Mode united young people all over Estonia, largely thanks to their fan club, the members of which met each through letters. Conversations ranged from Paide to Pärnu and from Tallinn to Tartu, and it was not about your nationality or gender, just your love for the band. There has been no other long-term fan club that still exists in Estonia today.
Against this backdrop, it doesn’t seem all that weird that in 1999, the only bar in Estonia dedicated to only one band – Depeche Mode – opened its doors in the former Nunne basement of the Nukuteater building. The bar was opened in 1999 by fan Härmo Liiv, who combined work and hobby by managing the bar. The bar was considered especially unique those days – it wasn’t easy to find a similar one in Europe, but in 2023, for example, there’s a Depeche Mode bar in our neighbouring capital city Riga, open on the weekends. By now, the Depeche Mode Bar in Tallinn has moved to Voorimehe Street and changed ownership – another long-term fan Dan Buinenko has managed the bar for almost 20 years. Similar to today, the original bar was also decorated with autographed photos, Depeche-themed pictures with music videos on the screen and only Depeche Mode’s music playing during opening hours.
The reason behind the bar’s location change was poetic – the lease on Nunne Street was coming to an end. At the same time, the bar owner Dan had a restaurant on the next street, but it was not a big hit. Which is why the Depeche Mode Bar slowly replaced the restaurant. The new rooms were bigger, too. Until the Nunne Street lease ended, there were two Depeche Mode bars operating at the same time.
And despite moving, the bar has remained a hit with both locals and tourists, as there is no shortage of Depeche Mode fans from Finland to Australia. Why else would media channels all over Europe lead people there, including BBC and with Lonely Planet ranking it 5th in the top ten strangest bars in the world in 2010. “Pure hell for some, blessed heaven for others,” commented a journalist.
Many fans recall the Depeche Mode Bar bringing together people speaking different languages in a friendly atmosphere at the turn of the century when Estonian and Russian teenagers were still quite separate in the music field. The greatest moment at the bar took place on 27 August 2001 when Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher and Christian Eigner, members of Depeche Mode, partied there with their fans. And it’s not like they’re the only artists to have found their way to the bar. It has also been visited by members of Rammstein and Slipknot, in addition to film director and photographer Anton Corbijn, whose aesthetic is familiar to music lovers from Nirvana’s and Depeche Mode’s own music videos.
And lastly. Many local Depeche Mode fans have quite similar memories of what attracted them to the band at the end of the Soviet era. “All those Eastern European countries had similar backgrounds, full of angst and melancholy. They were living in an oppressed country and all of this was reflected in Depeche Mode’s music,” is how Craig Tislar, then-president of the Depeche Mode fan club, summarised the phenomenon. Though the Soviet angst is hopefully in the past now, the Depeche Mode bar will surely remain as long as people yearn for romantic darkness. -
Eeslitall
Dunkri 4Dunkri 4
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxIn 1990, during the Soviet era, Dutch businessman and music lover Jens Moustgaard opened Eeslitall on Dunkri Street near the Town Hall Square. It wasn’t the first restaurant in the building’s history – the catering history of 4 Dunkri Street goes back centuries. But Eeslitall was special because, after the Kaukaasia restaurant that had been in the same building, it was a fresh and western place of entertainment. It combined a night club and a restaurant and had live music every night.
Then it is no wonder that the bar attracted both locals and foreigners, people who just liked music and people who were well known then, from politicians to artists, to party side by side. And as the musician Herbert Murd has said in his interview with Raul Ranne, in the time of cantina heads and co-operative bars, Eeslitall was not just “a breath of fresh air in the grey everyday life of the Soviet era. One might even say that it was a mighty explosion of fresh air that further loosened the iron curtain, barely holding on, in its own way.”
Thus, Eeslitall was one of the most popular bar-restaurants of all time, progressive in quite a few ways. For example, it’s alleged to be the first place in Estonia to replace 50 and 80 grams with 4 and 8 centilitres as drink measurements, to serve pepper steak instead of minced schnitzel and, as early as 1994, to have a modern fan on its wall to clear the air of thick cigarette smoke (do you remember the time when you could smoke in a bar!). And occasionally, it had unexpected deals like getting a free full meal with your beer – local ingredients were just so cheap compared to foreign alcohol. Another time, as was common those days, the bar received a bomb threat, and though no explosives were found, the guests had to be evacuated.
Eeslitall had multiple floors. On the first, there was a cloakroom with two restaurant halls and a kitchen. In the basement was a recessed party room where bands would perform and everybody could dance if they wanted to. On the second floor, there was a red hall that was good for quieter concerts and a small bar. And Eeslitall really had music for the widest variety of tastes – jazz and funk, disco and rock, and the number of guests could reach the hundreds.
When the Von Krahl bar-theatre was opened next door a few years later, it was of no harm to Eeslitall. The audiences split their time carefully between the two establishments every night. And as Peeter Jalakas, the manager of Von Krahl, has reminisced in an interview to the Äripäev newspaper, by the end of the night, people would often forget which establishment’s cloakroom they had left their overcoats in.
Though you could even listen to new and modern club music at Eeslitall, it became sort of a refuge for jazz. In interviews with Silvia Luige, a musicologist and researcher of Estonian jazz, musicians have recalled that the end of the Soviet era and the beginning of the new era was a difficult and confusing time for musicians, as it was for rock and jazz music. Like other members of society, musicians were also suffering from unemployment, but on the other hand, there were new opportunities to perform, for example, in Finland. Moreover, the audience of the golden age of disco was often interested in other things. But where there’s a stage, there can be music, as stated by Luik. In this context, Eeslitall offered musicians the opportunity to express themselves on stage and hosted several jazz nights a week. So, Eeslitall’s stage hosted many musicians who are well known today, including Villu Veski, Taavo Remmel, Tanel Ruben and many others. Naturally, Jazzkaar, then a fledgling festival that had just started in 1989, made it to Eeslitall with its events.
Eeslitall closed its doors in 2002 when the building got new owners. Times were changing and it was replaced by even newer and more modern party venues. -
Clazz
Vana turg 2Vana turg 2
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxFor some venues, it is customary to come and then go in order to return fresh and rested. This tends to be the case with the restaurant-club Clazz at 2 Vana-Turg Street right across Olde Hansa. While in Olde Hansa, you can listen to the medieval flute and see young people in bonnets and robes offering people passing by sugared almonds, Clazz is a vastly different kind of live action role-play – it’s where Steppenwolf meets tempestuous jazz.
Clazz opened its doors in April 2008 to celebrate jazz month – considered by Estonians to be April thanks to the world-class Jazzkaar Festival. Clazz’s opening night was magnificent. The blues met jazz, reggae met Latin rhythm and the stage was occupied by great musicians from the Ivory Coast to Jamaica and from USA to Cuba.
So throughout the years, Clazz has hosted both foreign and local musicians, played Estonian jazz and Brazilian samba and featured local pop stars and DJs from Hedvig Hanson to Tanel Padar. For example, the young Anna Pärnoja made music there, in addition to Joel Remmel and Peedu Kass. Another night, Clazz would host the warm-up party August Blues, otherwise operating out of Haapsalu, or a movie night for the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. And it’s not like they just watched the movie, there was always live music, like Sergei Pedersen playing the piano during a 1918 silent German film.
Clazz represented a new era in Tallinn’s Old Town that was characterised by a more affluent but also more demanding audience. The customers knew exactly what they would get visiting Clazz – good food, as one of the chefs had worked in restaurants with a Michelin star, and even better music. The wide variety of music guaranteed loyal customers for Clazz. Oddly, the audience wasn’t even disturbed by the venue being equally popular with tourists and locals.
After all, music unites. And as Auri Hakomaa, the club’s owner in the beginning has put it, Clazz brought together people of various nationalities, ages and social statuses, whether they were in the audience in front of the stage or the musicians on the stage, whether they were just learning about music or experienced interpreters. Maybe the musical rhythm really did encourage people to talk more openly with each other.
But what did Clazz’s fans themselves say kept pulling them back? “If there’s nothing going on in Old Town during the summer and all you can see is a crowd of tourists, then Clazz always has a party and real life,” found one man. “It was truly the only place in Tallinn where a Brazilian party was like an actual party in Brazil, it was so authentic,” added another woman who found solace in Clazz after living in Rio for years and clearly missed Brazil.
By the way, in 2012, Clazz also managed to make its mark in crime fiction history. Namely, Inspector Banks, the hero of the British-Canadian writer Peter Robinson’s novel “Following the Darkness”, comes to Tallinn to investigate the murder of his colleague. There are all sorts of establishments on the way, including good old Clazz.
Despite its grandiose beginning, Clazz’s life became uncertain. The restaurant-club kept changing ownership, was constantly being renovated and kept opening and closing its doors. But now the club is open again – there’s no Tallinn without Clazz! -
Winkel
Suur-Karja 8Suur-Karja 8
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxAt a time when the local night life had more or less drained out of the Old Town and the COVID-19 pandemic had caused all doors to close, the cultural club Winkel opened its gates. The events at this diverse little venue are undoubtedly refreshing. Even better: Winkel, driven by intellectual entertainment, is located in close proximity to the Bermuda Triangle. Not the mythical region of the Atlantic Ocean where ships are said to disappear, but the zone of the Old Town bars that have been titled the loudest for decades.
Winkel’s creation was inspired by good opportunities, conditions and people who came together at just the right time in the autumn of 2020. “It’s not like we knew right from the start what Winkel would become,” says Karin Koorep. “We felt the urge to create something cosy, adventurous, uniting and creative – all this at the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed us a slow and steady start.”
Winkel can be described as a homely and warm atmosphere. It is a cosy cultural venue where all sorts of events take place, and if you have a good idea, you can arrange to host your own event for anyone. This variety is where Winkel’s novelty lies and why this little venue appeals to a diverse audience.
At Winkel you may find yourself at a band concert, a dance night, an art show, a poetry night or even a free jam. Alternatively, you could catch a movie or do some art. Several times a month, the club hosts the best Estonian stand-up comedians, including English-speaking ones, and sometimes young punk bands. All this adds up to a diverse audience that cannot be described with just a few words. It was the creators’ intention for everybody to find something at Winkel for more fun, thoughts and life to be shared between the thick basement walls in the evening hours.
Winkel looks small on the surface, but once you discover it, the venue is big enough for anyone to find their place. Though cosy, it is also always surprising, changing and developing. “Our aim is not to finish Winkel, but the process itself,” explains Karin Koorep. The diversity of the events is also encouraged by the design of the building, which creates fitting decor for the events. It is a well-preserved building from the late Gothic era that was mentioned in archival sources as early as the 15th century. And though Winkel has a magnificent hall of its own, the guests are often more enticed by the basement, accessible via hatch at street level. In the basement, you can find a small cosy bar with a low beamed ceiling and reliefs and recesses characteristic of the Old Town. -
Grafodroom
Müürivahe 3Müürivahe 3
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxGrafodroom, as the name implies, is first and foremost an art studio that connects graphic artists and used to operate out of 8 Vabaduse Street but was accessible through the Art Hall’s inner courtyard on Müürivahe Street. Grafodroom’s main goal has been to develop the traditional techniques of graphics, interpreting and experimenting with them, but alongside that they have also hosted several music and art events with live performances.
Grafodroom was founded in 2009 and first operated in Kalamaja in the Non Grata House on 46 Vana-Kalamaja Street. The studio was founded by artists Mari Prekup, Britta Benno and Jaanika Okk. When Grafodroom moved into the Art Hall’s basement, the community was joined by artists practising various forms of media, in addition to many foreign artists occasionally residing there.
Grafodroom was not just a studio space rented to a smaller circle. It hosted various cultural events: parties, concerts, courses, performances, movie nights and sound art events. In the musical framework, Grafodroom mixed genres and tested boundaries. But improvisational experimental and noise music dominated. As instruments, many performers used homemade synthesisers or other electronic and mechanical inventions that helped find new meanings and forms of self-expression.
Grafodroom’s music programme was mainly led by Villem Jahu with Juhan Vihterpalu and Eleonora Tikas. The event series “Atelier Live” brought a lot of foreign artists to Grafodroom, including the famous Japanese drummer Ryosuke Kiyasu. It was also host to many album presentations, not only musical but also in the field of literature. For example, in 2018, Grafodroom hosted the presentation of the acclaimed poet Katrin Väli’s poetry collection “Relative”.
But it wasn’t easy for the mainstream audience to find Grafodroom’s concert events, as they rarely received large public promotion. Over time, a steady community developed, but the events were often stumbled upon by random people, even tourists. On some occasions, the random guests would not realise they were at an art studio and expected bar service with a wide variety of cocktails. But there was no alcohol there. Guests were allowed to bring their own drinks.
Entrance to the events was based on donations and guests could contribute as much as they were able to. Events were not organised to earn a profit and used whatever resources they could. For example, some foreign performers were housed right there at the studio or at an organiser’s home. This is why there was a free and creative atmosphere at Grafodroom, with the main focus on ideas and the conversation between artists and their friends. There was a pleasant and informal atmosphere.
Grafodroom’s activities were hit hard by COVID-19 and due to the renovation of the Art Hall, they had to say goodbye to 8 Vabaduse Street in spring 2022. Grafodroom as an art studio connecting graphic artists is currently on hiatus. Some of the events have moved to the Kuku Cultural Tower at 2 Pärnu Road. -
Lekker / Philly Joe’s
Vabaduse väljak 10Vabaduse väljak 10
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxIn some places, there is always something happening. And even if the place changes its name, owners and profile in the meantime, nothing changes – there is still always something happening there. There’s a place like this in Tallinn at 10 Vabaduse Street, right on the edge of Freedom Square in Old Town.
At the moment, the former Moscow Cafe’s basement is home to the jazz club Philly Joe’s. The club was actually started in 2014 on Tatari Street, but just a few years later they moved to Freedom Square, also known as Vabakas. The dim basement rooms fit the club like a glove. After all, Philly has been christened our jazz music incubator, perfectly bringing together musicians and listeners in the perfect environment and being sort of an umbrella for all creatives. By now, the club has hosted over a thousand concerts, master classes, workshops, seminars and music cinema events.
But who was at 10 Vabaduse Street before Philly Joe’s moved in? Lekker – considered to be the coolest night club in Tallinn by both former and current night owls. Lekker’s parties were headlined by the most popular DJ’s at the time, like Ben UFO, Fabio Monesi and Eclair Fifi, while techno was mixed with house music. By doing so, Lekker brought together cosiness and coolness, which is – let’s be honest – a rather unusual combination. And yet, the place managed to retain an underground vibe between the recessed basement walls and you would never see VIP tables or hear radio hits here.
“We founded Lekker because there wasn’t a place like that in our music scene,” reminisces Robert Nikolajev of the Lekker founders. “We were different from the others because of our programme. Our goal was to have as many of our favourite artists perform as possible and to offer local artists a platform to create a dialogue in the universal language that is music.” Lekker’s audience consisted of all club music admirers 18 and up. And as the founders recall, everybody who knew how to behave were welcome and cared for.
Lekker closed its doors on Freedom Square in the autumn of 2017 – only two years after they opened. Nevertheless, Lekker’s parties continue under the name of Lekker Dance Night, at Sveta Bar and other venues. But before Lekker, another night club at the same address had closed its doors – Bibabo. If Lekker was made special by their slightly underground atmosphere, then Bibabo, which opened its doors in 2012, was a very different story, with a rather glam flavour. “This is the only night club in Tallinn with an age limit of 25 years,” announced the founders as they opened the club. And added, “The club is made more special by the drink menu, embellished with champagne brands exclusive only to Bibabo and for the gentlemen, a wide selection of cigars that they can enjoy in the city’s most comfortable cigar room.” In addition, the basement used to be home to a bar called Vabandust. It was a cosy spot where you could listen to local Russian post-punk music like Lemon Trees and Ruslan PX, but also to dark synth pop and new wave.
10 Vabaduse Street has been home to very diverse styles and the people who love those styles. Which, by the way, is why these places are remembered to this day. But what took place in the building’s basement during the first Estonian Republic? It was home to the street-level legendary Kultase Cafe, which opened its doors in 1937. It offered various types of coffee and even more types of cakes, foreign newspapers and intelligent conversations. When in need, there was a suit pressing workshop in the basement. This was the service the cafe offered and you could have your suit pressed right there after a trip. -
KuKu club
Vabaduse väljak 8Vabaduse väljak 8
ReadLOCATION ON THE MAPxEverybody knows Kuku art club. But what does the “kuku” in the name mean? As it is a bird sound, one might easily think of ornithology or maybe the similarly named Estonian actors, but the name is actually shorthand for Kujutavad Kunstid (Visual Arts). It was originally established as a night club in the basement of the newly built functionalist Art Hall during the first Republic of Estonia in 1935 and the opening event was a grand ball.
Heinz Valk, who wrote a book on Kuku art club has said that before World War II, the club was a stronghold for intellectuals with its liberalism and allowed them to oppose the stiffness and snobbishness of that time. And though afterwards there were periods when the club had to temporarily close its doors, Kuku was also a tiny oasis of freedom in the Soviet desert of totalitarianism.
When built, the club was designed according to the Parisian separée system, which meant that the tables were separated by small partitions. Thus, groups could be private but not isolated. A similar invisible partition separated the club goers from non club goers and a decision was made in the early years to have the club be closed and belong to artists. This allowed full and supportive members to join the club. While the former were artists, the latter were public figures, representatives of other art styles, like literature and music, and other important people. This means that throughout the decades and generations, Kuku’s guest list has included many great cultural figures.
Kuku in the Soviet era was known for quite a few things. Some remember the wild parties and delightful humour, others the excellent food and eye-catching porters. But most importantly, Kuku was a place for an art person to visit whenever they had time and to feel relatively free in the totalitarian conditions.
The club required occasional renovations, for example by the architect Allan Murdmaa who replaced the elegance in Kuku with an accentuated masculine modernism in 1962. With this, the rock and roll generation smoothly joined the audience. Throughout the years, the club updated its visuals even more, moved the bar and one generation was replaced with another. There were good times and there were bad, for example Kuku was also hit hard by Gorbachev’s fight against alcohol in the second half of the 1980s. As remembered by Heinz Valk, only two bottles of vodka a day were allowed in the club at that time but the situation was solved elegantly and the forbidden drink was politely and quietly poured into a coffee cup.
Kuku retained its mystery throughout the decades – even at the beginning of the new century, entrance was only allowed with a card. This might be why many thought that once Kuku opened its doors to everybody, it could only go downhill. All the more so because Kuku’s reputation had risen and fallen repeatedly throughout the decades. But on the contrary, Kuku became even more popular. So sometimes, Ennu Ratta’s party had so many people that not even a pin could fit between the sweaty bodies. And not only Ennu Ratta’s parties – in the new century, Kuku regularly hosted a wide variety of cultural events, not turning away a single genre. Whether Kuku’s stage featured the pan flute or newer club music, punk or rock, its doors were open to all sorts of repertoire, not to mention art performances. And at lunch, the students at Georg Ots’ Music School next door to Kuku continued to get their fill there.
In 2022, Kuku held its final party and moved out of its original location, a little further onto Pärnu Road. It was about time, as by that time there had been two collapses in the depreciated building, or the club to be precise. Full renovation has begun in the Tallinn Art Hall.
MAP OF THE CELLARS OF OLD TOWN
- Bel Air, Vana-Viru 14
- Enke’s basement, Müürivahe 33
- The basement of the House of the Blackheads, Pühavaimu 9
- Levist Väljas bar, Olevimägi 12
- Juuksur bar, Vaimu 1
- Restko bar, Lai 29
- Bar 13, Lai 13
- Kodulinna maja, Gümnaasiumi 3
- Depeche Mode bar, Nunne 4 / Voorimehe 4
- Eeslitall, Dunkri 4
- Clazz, Vana turg 2
- Winkel, Suur-Karja 8
- Grafodroom, Müürivahe 3
- Lekker / Philly Joe’s, Vabaduse väljak 10
- Kuku club, Vabaduse väljak 8
Texts by:
Aivar Tõnso ja Brigitta Davidjants
Preface:
Brigitta Davidjants
Photos of buildings:
Martin Siplane, 2023
Audio production:
Audioguide OÜ
Project management:
Tallinn Culture and Sports Department
Tallinn Culture & Sports Department
Vabaduse väljak 10, 10146 Tallinn, Estonia
e-mail: kultuursport@tallinnlv.ee
Music samples used
Bel Air – Lu:k „La:v“
Enke kelder – Myrakaru „Casteheinad“
Mustpeade maja keldrisaal – Tehnoloogiline Päike „Päikesevarss“, Kirtana Rasa – „Põhjataeva tuled“
Levist Väljas – BF „Paadi valss“
Juuksur – Wrupk Urei „Algiers-New York-Luunja“
Restko baar – Hüpnosaurus „Always In’n’Out“
Baar 13 – End Variations „16 & Playing Games“
Kodulinna maja – Röövel Ööbik „The Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction“
Depeche Mode baar – Dallas „Strangelove“
Eeslitall – Fame and Shame „Foolkiller“
Clazz – Anna Pärnoja, Peedu Kass, Erki Pärnoja ja Joel Remmel „Sinu hääl“
Winkel – Kaisa Ling Thing „Läänemure lained“
Grafodroom – Juhan Vihterpal „Live at Grafodroom“
Lekker / Philly Joe’s – Dima Disk „Loosie“
Kuku klubi – Pastacas „Jaanusele“