mariin k. wins the Telliskivi Creative City, Selektor Studio and Tallinn Music Week Award
Estonian shoegaze band mariin k. has won the studio award competition by Telliskivi Creative City and Selektor Studio in collaboration with Tallinn Music Week (TMW).
This is the third year the award has been presented, with the winner selected from artists who performed at this year’s TMW festival and applied for an opportunity to record, mix and master their new music at Selektor Studio in Telliskivi Creative City, Tallinn.
Estonian dream pop outfit mariin k. are carving out their own space in the shoegaze and dreampop revival, led by guitarist and songwriter Mariin Kallikorm‘s vision of yearning soundscapes wrapped in cascading reverb. The band has grown over the past few years into a full lineup also featuring also guitarist Paul Sild, bassist Art Ainsoo and drummer Christofer Nõmm.
Their debut album rose skin, recorded and produced by Kallikorm herself and released in 2025 via Estonian indie label Seksound, has gained the support of US radio stations KEXP and DKFM and praise from Darla Records as “a lush, introspective journey through shimmering guitars and ethereal textures”.
The band has performed at notable international events including Reeperbahn Festival (Germany) and ESNS (Netherlands). At TMW 2026, mariin k. performed at Paavli Culture Factory. US publication Under the Radar praised the band’s music for its freshness and openness rarely associated with the shoegaze genre, and wrote of Kallikorm’s stage presence: “She is both arresting and disarming — almost as though a pre-Raphaelite portrait had come to life.”
The award includes recording, mixing and mastering up to four tracks at Selektor Studio with producer and recording engineer Martin Laksberg.
“We are genuinely grateful for this win and this opportunity — we’re hoping to record new music with a slightly different approach and we believe Martin Laksberg will bring a fresh vibe,” says Mariin. She explains that whereas on previous releases instruments have been recorded separately, this time the aim is to record the whole band live together. “We’ve been playing together for two years now, and recording as a whole would be like a photograph of the band at exactly this moment. I also believe that working this way will preserve more of the raw energy of our live performances,” she adds.
26 applicants from all over the world who performed at this year’s TMW festival were evaluated by a jury comprising Selektor Studio representatives Martin Laksberg and Henrik Ehte, Telliskivi Creative City CEO Triin Marie Juss, Music Estonia Live representative Silvia Käsk, and Executive Producer Eva Johanna Lepikov and Head of PR & Communications Ingrid Kohtla from TMW.
“It is a great pleasure for TMW to be able to support artists who have performed at the festival through this award, in collaboration with Telliskivi Creative City and Selektor Studio,” says Eva Johanna Lepikov. “Many thanks to our wonderful partners and fellow jury members! We are also delighted that in the award’s third year, the win now goes to a wonderful local act. We hope that through this we can provide mariin k. — who are already conquering stages abroad — with an extra boost.”
The previous winners are Lithuanian duo Superkoloritas from TMW 2024, who completed their EP Ritmo at Selektor Studio, and last year’s winner, Kosovo artist La Fazani, whose Selektor Studio-polished first instalment of a two-part EP series, Ekstrovert, is out this week.
mariin k. and La Fazani will perform at the Station Narva festival in September. Mariin Kallikorm will also perform at the same event as a guitarist in the British trip-hop legend Tricky’s band.