JPP
Pirun Polska
Olarin Musiikki OMCD 37 (1992)

OTTOPASUUNA
Ottopasuuna
Amigo (Finland) AMFCD 2001-2 (1992)

TALLARI
Kymmenen pennin ryyppy
Kansanmusiikki-instituutti KICD 24 (1991)

INGA JUUSO
Ravddas Ravdii
DAT records DAT CD-9 (1991)

Pirun Polska is as fine a bunch of Finnish fiddle tunes as you're likely to find, played by JPP's almost orchestral line-up of five fiddles, bass and harmonium. It's a collection of the band's most popular tunes over the ten years of its existence, all newly-recorded, together with eight new tunes including harmonium-player Timo Alakotila's lovely Vaughan-Williams-ish Irish Coffee, written since the band's trip to England in '91. The 21 tracks include polskas, polkkas, quadrilles, waltzes and, of course, a tango.

     Ottopasuuna's album is a well-played, lively set of interesting Finnish and Swedish-Finnish dance tunes, on fiddle, flute, melodeon, mandocello, harmonica, clarinet etc. At least one of the band's members plays Irish music too, and creatively borrowed techniques are in evidence here.

     The group Tallari will be at Sidmouth this year, courtesy of the European Broadcasting Union conference. Its last album included music from right across the Fenno-Ugric area of Europe; Kymmenen pennin ryyppy focusses back on Finnish music. It's probably fair to say it's not wildly progressive, but that isn't what the band was set up to be; its role is to explore the musical languages and dialects of Finland and, as the nation has done with its spoken language in the past century and a half, bring them into common use. Other combinations of musicians, some including Tallari members, do the more "progressive" stuff; Tallari provides a sort of stylistic foundation, making interesting, intelligent albums of songs and dance music, like this one.

     Tallari's last album featured the yoik singer Wimme Saari. Ravddas Ravdii is an album of unaccompanied yoiks sung by another Sámi, Inga Juuso. Sápmi (Sámiland) spreads across the north ends of Norway, Sweden and Finland, and has a vocal tradition unlike anything else in Europe, sounding to outsiders perhaps like some Inuit voice production, using a hard-edged vocal sound. The 19 tracks are all "person yoiks", describing the personality of named individuals. I can't pretend this is easy listening for the average southerner, but it's wonderful to know that anything so distinctive and rooted exists and is well understood in a part of Europe.

© 1992 Andrew Cronshaw