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Written in fRoots issue 335, 2011


SVÄNG
Schladtzshe!
Aito AICD016 (2010)

Marginally less immediately flashy than the preceding two albums from the Finnish harmonica whizzes (though their degree of co-ordination and division of labour in these four-part arrangements filling the whole sound spectrum is in itself dazzlingly smart), this one has depth and charms that emerge more gradually on the repeated listens it merits.
     As usual, virtually everything is written by Jouko Kyhälä, Eero ‘Geero’ Grundström or Eero Turkka, with Pasi Leino providing the surprisingly deep, tuba-pumping low end on his bass harmonica. This time, while Geero’s opener quotes from a Romanian song tune, reminding that it was a besuited Romanian harmonica group that inspired Sväng’s beginnings, and they also credit inspiration from Roma brass and taraf music, they’ve made further inroads into reflecting and playing with indigenous Finnish musical forms, including wild note-bending squee on a seduced and corrupted humppa and some lovely slabs of stately, slithering sinuousness on a Messiaen and blues influenced, Radiohead-referencing reworking of a Finnish remorse hymn melody.
     The live show is well entertaining; they showed up on Jools’ New Year Hootenanny a while back, and are briefly back in Britain in June. Read and hear more via www.svang.fi, where they also generously give details of their instruments, including Jouko’s rare and ingenious Hohner Harmonetta keyed chord-harmonicas, and the technology they use to achieve such a massive live sound from just four smallish blowy things.

www.aitorecords.com

© 2011 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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