Gently brushing the ancient tradition of Mordovian folk music against the grain, opening up to new musical influences and saving the dying languages of their homeland along the way: Merema prove on their second album "Eryamon' Koytneva" (translated: Spiral of Life) that they continue to develop artistically. The ensemble around "boss" Ekaterina Modina confidently shows on its new album that current electronic sounds are perfectly suited to the traditional folk songs of Mordovia.

The five-member folk ensemble Merema was founded in Saransk in 2010 and has set itself increasingly ambitious goals in the following years. The members describe Merema as an "ethnographic folklore studio". They conduct field studies in the Mordovian villages and thus want to preserve the traditions of their home region. For these are under threat: recently, only about 40 per cent of the inhabitants professed to be of Mordovian nationality. Russians make up the majority of the population. To make things even more complicated: The Mordovian population consists of two ethnographic groups, each of which has its own written language. These two groups are called Ersja and Moksch. Mordovia, by the way, is located in the "European" part of Russia between Moscow and the Volga. Football fans may be familiar with the capital Saransk, one of the venues for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.