KALEVALA - Texto extraído da Gibraltar - Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock

Discography People No Names (72) Boogie Jungle (75) Abraham's Blue Refrain (77) Live in Finland & Europe 1970-77 (04, Live) Anthology (04, Compilation) Reviews Heavy psych. People is one of Finland's rarest albums, Boogie is more mainstream, but lyrics (and some vocals) by Wigwam's Jim Pembroke. Electric guitar leads, flute, piano and acoustic guitar. Kalevala was founded in 1969 by bassist Juha "Lido" Salonen; they ended up with the name of the Finnish national epic almost by accident, when a concert organiser objected to their then-topical original name Vietnam and they needed a quick replacement. The band's early line-up sported such would-be icons of no-nonsense Finnish rock as guitarist Albert Järvinen and drummer Remu Aaltonen, and that's pretty much what their early material was, straight-ahead and aggressive guitar rock; a few surviving live recordings from this period have been released on compilation discs, so be careful if you come across these. Subsequent line-up changes turned Kalevala's course towards progressive rock, especially the arrival of guitarist Matti Kurkinen who would compose all eight songs on their 1972 debut album. Some of the songs on People No Names (Finnlevy SFLP 9532) are closer to psychedelic than progressive rock in that they are still essentially grounded in the blues scale, especially during the vocal sections, but feature some compositional sophistication beyond the scope of ordinary rock music and long guitar solos over repetitive instrumental vamps. On the other hand, "Where I'm From" and "My Friend " are more formally prog as they feature delicate, classically-influenced instrumental sections with exquisitely spun-out piano work from guest keyboardist Olli Ahvenlahti, which then suddenly lurch into a wildly contrasting vocal section or gradually grow rockier as they pick up more instruments on the way. The strident and twisty title track definitely fits the progressive bill, with its acoustic/electric shifts and a bass line which reveals the band had at least heard "Heart of the Sunrise". There is also a noticeable folk influence, especially on the final track "Tamed Indians". What keeps the album together is Kurkinen's tasteful guitar work, which shows some influence at least from Focus' Jan Akkerman and also Steve Howe; he comes up with interesting parts that serve the songs (listen to his nimble, Howe-like riffing on the otherwise pedestrian instrumental "Escape from the Storm") and creates interesting arrangements by overdubbing interlocking acoustic and electric guitar lines with a good use of wah-wah and Leslie colourings. Vocalist Harri Saksala is the least impressive part of Kalevala's sound, sounding a bit like a more guttural and Fennophonic version of Ian Anderson (the song lyrics were originally written in Finnish, but pressures of the market place necessitated a translation into English). A nice solid album of rough-edged and enthusiastic early prog, People No Names is not the classic of Finnish prog that its relative obscurity has made it out to be (an original LP copy will these days command a ridiculous price), but it is the strongest of Kalevala's three albums. Before Boogie Jungle (Hi-Hat HILP102) was released, Kalevala had found time to break up and reform with only Salonen and Kurkinen remaining from the previous line-up. The album itself is much more straight-forward an affair than the first one was: gritty 1970's hard rock with dual electric guitars riffing and soloing over alternatively solid and vaguely funky rhythm section. The new vocalist, "Limousine" Leppänen, has a stronger voice than his predecessor and in fact reminds of Family's Roger Chapman, albeit without the monster vibrato. One of the album's few keyboard moments is the clavinet played by Wigwam's Jukka Gustavson on one track, while his band mate Jim Pembroke provides the lyrics and backing vocals. However, there are only two tracks that stir any real interest: the ballad "If We Found the Time" has an intricate guitar arrangement with layers of acoustics and electric slide, while "Jungle" goes on a seven minute instrumental jam with throbbing bass, drums and spacey synth whistles over which Kurkinen spreads a smorgasbord of Jan Akkerman-influenced guitar work and finally concludes the song on a rather anthemic note. While Boogie Jungle has more curiousity value than anything else, you can get it as a bonus with People No Names, as both have been re-released on one CD; the first edition was by Finnlevy in 1990 (long out of print), the second by Escape Records a decade later. On the cover of Abraham's Blue Refrain (HILP126) the band were billed as Kalevala Orchestra, apparently in an attempt to appeal to wider international markets. It sports a more typically "progressive" cover artwork than the other two, but the music continues mainly along the same straight-forward lines of Boogie Jungle, only the compositions and production have improved, with very good layered guitar arrangements throughout (all played by Salonen, as Kurkinen had been killed in a tragic accident two years earlier). Vocalist Leppänen also sounds increasingly like Chapman here. Three progressive tracks make this an album worth hearing (the only three to feature keyboards, incidentally): Pembroke provides backing vocals and lush piano for the grand, Family-like title track, which is among Kalevala's finest songs, while both "Playground" and "Lighthouse" slip from their bluesy roots long enough to include prog-styled guitar melodies or, in the case of "Lighthouse", very tasty lead synth work. The band soldiered on for some time after this, touring France with Ange, but lack of domestic support eventually killed them off. Their swan-song album was eventually reissued on CD as part of Kalevala Anthology (Shroom SAP004/05). This 2-CD compilation, like its companion release, the very shabby and error-ridden Live in Finland & Europe 1970-77 (Shroom SPLE200105), also contains number of live recordings that give a slightly more balanced idea of Kalevala's live potential than the earlier snippets. The most interesting are the 1972 recordings, since they include a few unreleased, Finnish-language songs that didn't make it to People No Names, plus early versions of songs that did. The material was rougher live, with only flute and some piano to offer respite from the guitar assault. No lost classics are hidden here, though Saksala's folky agit-prop rocker "Antti" is amusing enough and would have improved the album. Kalevala Anthology concludes with five demo-quality songs Salonen and Leppänen recorded in 1995 with a new line-up (including Pekka Pohjola on bass). They had remained unreleased, because record companies felt that English material would have little potential in the domestic market of the 1990s (an ironic turnaround considering the fate of their first album). Ultimately, the record companies may have made the right choice for the wrong reasons: "The Song" is a nice powerballad in a pathetic sort of way and "Runaways", a hardrock song taken hilariously too fast and aggressively, but generally their mixture of hardrock, AOR, various ethnic influences and a bit of progressive sounds slightly out of time, its essence now better assimilated and exploited by newer bands like Five Fifteen. -- Kai Karmanheimo