Eero Koivistoinen: Valtakunta

Koivistoinen and Simola Behind this ambitious 1968 "concept" album was the multi-talent Eero Koivistoinen, best known from the legendary Finnish psychedelic rock band Blues Section and after that for his highly-appreciated jazz albums such as Wahoo!. The publisher was not any established record label but Otava, one of the traditional book publishing houses in Finland, and the album's songs even had their broadcast premiere in a literature show of Finnish Radio!

Music here -- clearly influenced by The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper -- is a diverse combination of jazz, ballads, cabaret songs and psychedelic underground rock, with many of the same musicians who appeared with Blues Section and Suomen Talvisota 1939-1940. The lyrics are from the poets Pentti Saarikoski, Jarkko Laine, Tuomas Anhava and Hannu Mäkelä. As vocalists are heard Finnish pop singers of the time such as Eero Raittinen, Koivistoinen himself, the actor/singer Vesa-Matti Loiri and chanteuse Seija Simola.

It's a shame this album is hard to come by these days, since this is musically and lyrically a missing link between the "literary albums" of the day (where famous writers and poets could be heard reciting their own works), the popular Brecht-like cabaret songs and ballads of Kaj Chydenius and Finnish underground rock of the 1960s, such as Blues Section and Suomen Talvisota.

Very rare is also the CD version published in 1995, with four new bonus songs from pop singers Maarit, Sakari Kuosmanen and Pepe Ahlqvist -- the addition which was not too successful, since the new songs lack the adventurous sound and production of the original recording.

Later on, the track 'Lennosta kii!' was covered in 2007 by Finnish jazz chanteuse Johanna Iivanainen on her album also titled Lennosta kii! where she was accompanied by Eero Koivistoinen's band.

Eero Koivistoinen's liner notes to Valtakunta:

Tämän levyn toimiessa valitsemieni runojen ja musiikin leikkikenttänä toimii se myös musiikillisena hiekkalaatikkona. Tuntuu kuin ihmiset, jotka tekevät kaupallista musiikkia avaruuskaudella tässä maassa, pelkäisivät sähköä ja sen sekä magnetofoninauhan mahdollisuuksia.

Pidän kaikenlaisesta hyvästä musiikista. Jos minun pitäisi sanoa keneltä olen saanut vaikutteita sävellyksiini, en voisi sanoa ketään tai sitten pitkän luettelon: Beatles, Bach, Basie, Bacharac, Ellington, Evans, Eric Dolby, Debussy, Donovan, Coltarane, Frank Zappa, Ravi Shankar, Henri Selmer, Ives, Monk, Mingus, Mothers of Invention, Fathers of Connection, Vanilla Fudge jne. Toisin sanoen luettelosta tulee sitä epätäydellisempi mitä pidemmälle se jatkuu.

- Eero Koivistoinen



Image above: Eero Koivistoinen and Seija Simola.

Discography credits:

Valtakunta Various Artists
Valtakunta ["The Kingdom"] (LP/CD)
Otava OTA-LP 66 (LP), Otava P5821 (CD) / Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava
December 1968 (LP) / 1995 (CD)

1. Alkusoitto (1:12)
["Overture"]
2. Kentauri (1:14)
["A Centaur"]
3. Vorwärts (3:56)
["Forward"]
4. Lennosta kii! (5:22)
["Caught From The Air!"]
5. Kolme runoa (1:28)
["Three Poems"]
6. Pientä peliä urbaanissa limousinessa (6:02)
["Small Games in an Urban Limousine"]
7. Kello kuusi (3:27)
["Six O'Clock"]
8. Television ohjelma on loppunut (3:31)
["TV Programme Has Ended"]
9. Kerran ei ollut valtakuntaa (4:29)
["Once There Was No Kingdom"]
10. Hiljainen hetki (4:30)
["A Silent Moment"]
11. Tuutulaulu (2:03)
["A Lullaby"]

Valtakunta 1995 bonus tracks:

12. Pientä peliä urbaanissa limousinessa (6:27)
13. Kentauri (3:34)
14. Neito (5:02)
["A Maiden"]
15. Vuokrakasarmin tyttö (4:46)
["A Girl From the Block of Flats"]

Compositions, arrangements and the orchestra conducted by:

Eero Koivistoinen

Vocalists:

Eero Koivistoinen [5, 8]
Vesa-Matti Loiri [3]
Eero Raittinen [2, 4, 6, 7, 9]
Seija Simola [10, 11]

Pepe Ahlqvist [14]
Maarit Hurmerinta [13, 15]
Sakari Kuosmanen [12, 13]

Original lyrics by:

Tuomas Anhava [5, 9, 11]
Jarkko Laine [4, 6]
Hannu Mäkelä [7, 10]
Pentti Saarikoski [2, 3, 8]

Väinö Kirstinä [14]
Jarkko Laine [12, 15]
Pentti Saarikoski [13]

Musicians:

Juhani Aaltonen - flute, alto sax [2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9]
Kaj Backlund - trumpet [3, 8]
Matti Bergström - electric bass [4]
Antero Jakoila - sitar [7]
Eero Koivistoinen - piano [4], tenor sax [2, 8, 9, 12, 13], vibraphone [7]
Matti Koskiala - drums [3, 8]
Reino Laine - drums [10, 11]
Pekka Leander - trombone [2, 3, 8, 9]
Erkki Lipponen - trombone [2, 3, 8, 9]
Eero Ojanen - piano [1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11]
Seppo Paakkunainen - flute [1], baritone sax [2, 3, 8, 9]
Raimo Pesonen - tuba [3, 8]
Esa Pethman - flute [10, 11]
Heikki Sarmanto - piano [5, 8]
Pekka Sarmanto - bass, electric bass [1-11, except 4], violin [5]
Hasse Walli - electric guitar [2, 4, 6, 9]
Ronnie Österberg - drums [2, 4, 6, 7, 9]

Mongo Aaltonen - percussion [12-15]
Yamar Cham - tama, talking drum [13]
Seppo Kantonen - piano, synthesizers [12-15]
Eero Koivistoinen - tenor sax [12, 13]
Jarno Kukkonen - electric guitar [12-15], solo [12]
Anssi Nykänen - drums [12-15]
Jarmo Savolainen - synthesizers [12, 13, 15]
Jukka Tolonen - electric guitar [12-15]
Heikki Virtanen - electric bass [12-15]

Studios:

Finnvox 1968, MTV-Studiot 1988

Recorded by:

Erkki Hyvönen, Jorma Hämäläinen, Antti Joki

Sound effects:

Reino Isoaho

Cover art [1995 re-release]:

Timo Aarniala

CD mastered by:

Otto Donner 1995



Eero Raittinen: 'Kentauri' (1968)


Seija Simola: 'Tuutulaulu' (1968)

Valtakunta

Clockwise from the left: Seija Simola; Eero Koivistoinen & Eero Raittinen; Vesa-Matti Loiri.




Valtakunta Links:

  • Discogs

  • Levyhylly (in Finnish)

  • Valtakunta @ Google (search results)

    Eero Koivistoinen Links:

  • The Official Eero Koivistoinen Site

  • Blues Section

  • Eero Koivistoinen @ Wikipedia

  • Eero Koivistoinen @ Ezhevika Fields

  • Eero Koivistoinen @ Google (search results)

  • Synkooppi Op. 52 (a brief review in Finnish)

  • hertsi.com - discography page including some Eero Koivistoinen recordings


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