Jouko Kyhälä - Saalas

Jouko Kyhälä
Saalas
Aito Records (www.aitorecords.com)

Finnish harmonica virtuoso Jouko Kyhälä is part of a new generation seeking to expand the expressive range of that instrument. A member of the eclectic harmonica ensemble Sväng and a doctoral student in harmonica at the Sibelius Academy, Kyhälä is accompanied on this outing by a sympathetic quartet of players (fiddle and kantele, bouzuki, bass, and percussion). These largely improvised sessions were recorded live without overdubs, resulting in a loose, playful feel. As Kyhälä explains in the Finnish and English liner notes, "I want to hear what people discover at the very moment they play music."

Emblematic of this is "Polksa in F", which manages to be both foot-stomping and elegant. Other pieces draw on improvisational musical games taken from Finnish folk music. On "Mäkliinin Uni Ja Syrjälän Kaapoon Polksa" (Mäkliini's Dream and Kaapo Syrjälä's Polska") Syrjälä and fiddle player Piia Kleemola apparently looked into each other's eyes, each trying to anticipate whether the other would alter the tempo or play another section of the melody.

Kyhälä has customized some of his vast collection of harps, which results in sonorities not generally thought possible on the harmonica. On "Maanitusia" ("Persuasion"), Kyhälä plays a diatonic harp tuned to allow him to play both a constant drone note and the melody, in imitation of the bowed harp. On other tracks he relies on technique alone to produce unorthodox sounds, as on "Kaikuja" (Echoes), where his harmonica evokes the droning overtones of a Jew's harp.

Saalas is not always successful. Because the recording is so weighted toward polksas, some of the tracks tend to blend together and lack emotional complexity. However, Jouko Kyhälä and his crack ensemble are to be commended for expanding the sonic possibilities of the harmonica, and in allowing the listener to experience the sheer joy of musicians at play. - Michael Duke

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