Wet plate photograph by Gunnar Bäckman, 2020.
Nightbird (Anna-Stina Jungerstam) is a singer-songwriter born in Vaasa, Finland. After a few years in Sweden, while studying at Ella Music Nation and then being a part of a bluesy rock band called Mud Walk, she has settled down in Turku, Finland. Nightbird sings the soundtrack to sleepless nights, a blend of roots blues deep in mud, moon-gazing melodic guitars and velvet-voiced midnight jazz songs written under the influence of the delta pioneers and a fusion of American and Finnish folk. Her songs spin tales from the life of a ramblin’ woman, finding her way back home.
After the release of her critically acclaimed debut album Nightbird in 2015, she has toured in Finland, Sweden and Norway, as well as Germany, Austria and France. Her second album Travelin’ Baby was recorded in Matti Bye’s magical studio in Stockholm and released on November 24th 2020 by Swedish record label Ella Ruth Institutet (Stockholm). Three singles were released in 2020: Good One (March 13th 2020), Travelin’ Baby (June 12th 2020) and Spring (November 12th 2020). Nightbird has also made a few TV appearances: Strömsö (2019), Efter Nio (2019) and Närbild (2021), as well as the YLE Musikdokumentär-podcast (2021). In February and March of 2024, two singles were released: Starling Murmuration (22.2.2024) and You Make Me Feel (22.3.2024), prior to the release of her third album Out of These Days, which saw its release through her own label Nighttime Recordings on 3rd of May 2024. Out of These Days was produced by award-winning producer Pentti Amore (Mirel Wagner, Maustetytöt, Kauko Röyhkä) and recorded by Amore and Esa “Katz” Nissinen (Radiopuhelimet) in Amore’s Wolfbeat Studios in Kempele, north of Finland, and received wonderful reveiws (Soundi 4/5 ☆☆☆☆, Desibeli.net 4/5 ☆☆☆☆, Rootstime.BE).
“Nightbird is a singer-songwriter hailing from Vaasa, and in her music the folk and blues tradition is spun into a really captivating, personal and fresh world, a world where you just have to go wandering… I myself hear something very universal in her music, which means that it can work anywhere. And I strongly recommend you to hear this live. She’s definitely got it: there’s nothing superficial about this.” – Pekka Laine, radio host
“Nightbird is a singer-songwriter with class, and there are very few voices that compare. There’s something quite extraordinary about her. It’s in everything she does – the special way she plays her guitar and the sweep of her vocal range, from melancholy and deep to happy and dreamy. She casts a magical shimmer across the stage and seems like a mythical being.” – Kultursidan.nu
“Nightbird is a very exciting musician. I rarely come across artists that touch me so deeply. It’s the same thing I heard in Ane Brun. Her beautiful songs and amazing voice take your breath way.” – Katharina Nuttall
“That’s where I saw Nightbird play who opened up for me that night. Swedish-Finnish female singer-songwriter. Dark, intense, folk-blues songs, occasionally accompanied by her hauntingly beautiful slide guitar playing. One of those slow nights with a small audience, every one of which just sitting there mesmerised, like in a gloomy, oddly misplaced Sunday service.” – Mäkkelä
