hYpnosis NeGaTiVe

Hypnosis Negative (Estonia/Canada) – a psychedelic display of dance music the colour of the middle of the night and the texture of winding city streets. Fiddle and flute power a massive and fiercely danceable sound that sits at the unreal intersection of folk music, 70's jazz fusion, and EDM, amplifying the spirit of old village parties through the loudspeaker of the 21st century.

Katariina Tirmaste (Estonia) and Alan Mackie (Canada) animate traditional folk music from their homes and from along the roads in between, with some of the most daring and creative accompanists from across Canada and Europe. This music is framed by the breath of the dance floor - like a folk music DJ set, Hypnosis Negative improvises arrangements and setlists, chasing the energy of the crowd, every show a unique trip that is driven by the synthesis of musicians and dancers.

Their debut album, “three corners”, nominated at the 2023 Estonian Folk Music Awards (Etnokulbid) in the categories of Best Traditional Music and Best Debut album, features 10 tracks of traditional tunes reimagined for modern dancing. Repetition is the key to their creative language. A short melody plays dozens, hundreds of times, until the listener’s sense of time begins to dissolve, time moving not forward but inward – the music on “three corners” dreams of condensing this experience into concise fables, each tune but a small window into a vast musical world. “three corners” also features Spanish percussionist Juan de la Fuente Alcón.

In March 2026, Hypnosis Negative released, “viu/vviu”, expanding on their experiments in improvisation and cyclical music. Their creativity in arranging is expressed through two bands: viu was recorded in in Andineeme, Estonia with Mattias Tirmaste (bass guitar) and Tõnis Kirsipu (drums), and vviu was recorded in Toronto, Canada with Jaron Freeman-Fox (electric banjo) and Steven Foster (drums), the breath of two rhythm sections separated by space but connected by time. viu/vviu also features a number of guest vocalists, including Haldi, Hanna-Reet Ruul and the grandmother-granddaughter duo Mall Reinold and Emma Kiviberg.