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| Alamaailman Vasarat and the evolution of an album As much of the world prepares to celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin next month, a fictional Finnish counterpart of the celebrated Briton is the central figure on Huuro Kolkko, the latest album by Finnish group Alamaailman Vasarat. "Huuro Kolkko is actually the name of a Finnish explorer from the early 1900s, " Jarno "Stakula" Sarkula, the group's leader, told The Daily Yomiuri on a visit to Tokyo to promote the record, which came out last month. Huuro Kolkko is AV's fifth album. As a concept album, it represents a departure for the group, whose instrumental style is a mix of jazz, progressive rock and creepy avant-garde film music, defined by Stakula's tubax (an unusual variation of a contrabass saxophone). The songs are based on the central story of Kolkko's Darwinlike voyages of discovery during the early 20th century. "It's more or less a true story, " Stakula said. In this case, though, the emphasis should be placed on less rather than more, as Stakula eventually admitted. "I wanted it to be a concept album, [but] I couldn't find any real interesting concept ideas so I actually made up my own, " he said. Fortunately for Stakula, his bandmates agreed. "They were like, 'It sounds like a freaking good story, let's do it, ' and that's all there is to it. It's the same attitude we have in our band. If there's not a good music style to do a melody, let's make up our own. If you want to do it properly, you do it yourself, " he said. While concept albums were very much a 1970s...well...concept, Green Day's latest album, 21st Century Breakdown, suggests the idea has yet to go the way of spacehoppers or cheesecloth shirts. In spite of being an old prog rock fan, Stakula sees Huuro Kolkko through a wider lens. "I think of it as a soundtrack as well, for an imaginary movie, so it's closer to a soundtrack idea than a concept album, " he said. Alamaailman Vasarat will play at Duo Music Exchange in Shibuya, Tokyo, on Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Jazz News :: home page |