Kalevala - Abraham's Blue Refrain (Reissue) (1977/2010)

Abraham's Blue Refrain on Kalevalan kolmas studioalbumi. Yhtye oli tuolloin uudelleennimennyt itsensä Kalevala Orchestraksi. Levyä markkinoitiin useisiin Euroopan maihin (tähän vaikutti ranskalainen Ange-yhtye, joka piti yhtyeen musiikista). Levyn julkaisi 1977 Hi-Hat Records. Levy on julkaistu remasteroituna 2004 Anthology -kokoelmalevyllä sekä erillisenä cd-julkaisuna vuonna 2010
The progressive scene of Finland in the early 70s was not rich in names and events. When rare stars flashed, they burned not for long, but brightly. KALEVALA is one of such half-forgotten legends, legends whose musical heritage deserves a better part than oblivion.
The group was assembled in late 1969 by bassist Juha "Lido" Salonen. Originally the team was called VIETNAM, but during one of the concert performances the organizers demanded to change it. So appeared KALEVALA (which is translated as "land Kale"), a name derived from a collection of national legends about a hero named Kale. The musicians immediately stressed the proximity of folk traditions.
The first few years the composition was not stable, at different times there played Albert Jarvinen - guitar, Remu Aaltonen - drums. Music was progressive rock, with an abundance of aggressive guitar. The appearance of guitarist and composer in the group (the author of all the songs on the first plate) Matti Kurkinen seriously strengthened the position of KALEVALA on the local stage. The debut album, recorded in early 72, showed the audience a real masterpiece. "People no names" demonstrated an organic fusion of folk motifs (Waves, Tamed Indians) with more dynamic and hard material. Genuine pearls turned out the title track, with incredible transitions from the "hard face" into a melancholy detachment, and an instrumental play Escape from the storm. "Escape ..." strikes not only the original melody, but also Kurkinen's brilliant guitar part. It is impossible not to mention the voice of Harri Saksala, quite unusual, but attracting with every minute more and more. If you draw analogies, you can recall FOCUS and the closer in style Norwegians KEBNEKAJSE (although KALEVALA is not as hard-rock oriented as the latter).
Complete indifference from the listeners led to the rapid disintegration of the group. The only one who showed the greatest musical activity was Harry. Experience before KALEVALA with such groups as TOPMOST, SOULSET, APOLLO helped him to get settled from the beginning to PUNAISE LANGA, and then to MANIFEST. The latter also played Hasse Walli - guitar and Jukka Linkola - keyboards.
In 1974, Salonen and Kurkinen reformed the team, in a completely renewed composition. In addition to this pair of guitarists (Salonen switched from the bass guitar to the leading one, thus creating a magnificent tandem with Kirkinen) appeared - Limousine Leppanen - vocal, Ari Vaahtera - bass, Beaver Aitto-Oja - drums. Recorded in 75m plate "Boogie jungle" turned out much weaker than its predecessor. Instead of the original mix of prog and folk, the musicians presented to the listeners a typical hard time for their time. Quite exquisite, draughty, but uninteresting. Nevertheless, the participation in the recording of two veterans of another legendary Finnish band WIGWAM - Jukka Gustavson, Jim Pembroke - led to more attention from the listeners. So I want to say, "where were you in the 72m, when the real masterpiece was recorded?".
For the next couple of years the musicians of KALEVALA continued to tour (sometimes speaking under the name KALEVALA ORCHESTRA), at 77m they released a new disc ("Abraham's blue refrain") and soon after it broke up. The last years of life of the group are almost not covered in rock encyclopedias. Yes, and music, we must assume, they played quite differently than in their younger years. It should be added that literally before the recording of the third disc of the group Kurkinen tragically died in a car accident, therefore all the guitar parts on "Abraham's blue refrain" belong to Salonen.