Jazz kiinnostaa

Winding

Nebula

Sunlight

Oddarrang

White Wall Pt. 1

In Cinema

The Sage (feat. Olavi Louhivuori)

Bright

Bapmgwala

Aleatoric

Musica Callada, Part XV

Klima Kalima Finn Noir
Kalle Kalima, Guitar
Oliver Potratz, Doublebass
Oliver Bernd Steidle, Drums
    1. La vie de Boheme, Part I Saturday Night in St. Petersburg
    2.  Part II Sunday Morning in Leningrad 
3. Ariel 
4. Things Will Turn Out Right
5. Maister i Margarita
6. It Is Gas, Inspector Palmu
7. Cafe Brutale
8. Stars Will Tell, Inspector Palmu
9. Calamari Union
10. Eight Deadly Shots
Recorded 6/2012 at RBB, Compositions ba K. Kalima except nr 3
by Brown/Gibson/Johnson/Mallett
Arrangemants Kalima/Steidle/Potratz
 
These songs are dedicated to the Finnish film noir. Films by Matti Kassila, Aki Kaurismäki and Mikko Niskanen have served as an inspiration for the music. This album is not a sound track but rather a reminisce of a certain feeling that each film has left in my mind.
 
As a child I was fascinated by the inspector Palmu films. The flair of 1960s Helsinki combined with the great characters and a lot of humor and excitement. The stories where written by the great Mika Waltari, who perhaps is the internationally best known Finnish author through his bestseller "Sinuhe, the Egyptian". A few years later I saw Aki Kaurismäki´s work Calamari Union. This film is an incredible odysseia of 12 Franks, who are crossing Helsinki but dying one after another trying to do it. Also made in  the romantic 1980s, Kaurismäkis film "Ariel" is incredibly sad and funny at the same time dealing with hard Finnish facts of life. Mikko Niskanen´s "Eight Deadly Bullets" was an early 1970s TV film based on a true story about a poor farmer in the Finnish countryside, who gets in trouble with the police and ends up shooting four policemen. To me this film is a finno-ugrian variation of a wild west story.
 
"Things will turn out right" was sung by the great Topi Sorsakoski with the Finnish titel "Kunhan palaan takaisin". This song was heard in the Kaurismäki film "Man without past". Topi Sorsakoski had an intensive life and he died a way too soon. To me, he was the last great Finnish Iskelmä-Singer in the line starting from Olavi Virta, the master of the Finnish Tango. "The song "Cafe Brutale" is inspired by a composition of Olavi Virta called "Sä et kyyneltä nää". "Cafe Brutale" is a Finnish term for coffee without Cognac.  I think Finnish Iskelmä-music and alcohol are as close as dog and its fleas.
 
"Maister i Margarita" is referring not only to the fantastic book by M. Bulgakow but also to Soviet Union- style tour management experienced by Klima Kalima in the beautiful home town of Lev Tolstoi, Tula (Russian Federation). I think Finnish and Russian culture have a lot in common at least when it comes to using only minor keys in popular music. I could imagine Tarkovsky being an inspiration also for these Finnish film makers. Aki Kaurismäki certainly must have been inspired by Russian ways of decorating a restaurant. His film "La Vie de Boheme" is a sad story about how difficult it is to be an artist, something that every jazz musician can sing a song about. In the Suite "La Vie de Boheme" we imagined a trip through St. Petersburg ending up in Leningrad. These films show a culture that is unique, a warm side of dark Nordic reality. We were inspired by these pictures in all of their beauty and roughness.
 
The band Klima Kalima has been working together over 10 years in this formation and we have been working hard to find our own voice. The explosive Oliver Steidle  on the drums and the strong Oliver Potratz on the bass are among the most sought-after colleagues in Berlin. This town was also the reason how this Fenno-German group came together in the first place. There is a certain roughness in Berlin that goes along with the dark Finnish pictures.
 
Berlin, 10.10.2012 Kalle Kalima


02 La Vie de Bohème II, Sunday Morning in Leningrad

ALEXI TUOMARILA piano
MATS EILERTSEN double bass
OLAVI LOUHIVUORI drums 

ANDRE FERNADES guitar (2 tracks only)

Seven Hills is the new trio album from Finnish born Alexi Tuomarila, an artist on the verge of becoming one of the most important young pianists & composers on the European Jazz scene in recent years. Following numerous first prize awards at various international jazz competitions throughout 2003 he signed to Warner Jazz France releasing two albums that brought worldwide attention and critical acclaim from the international press, fans and musicians including fellow pianist Brad Mehldau, who is quoted as saying, "I'm definitely excited about the future of this piano player".  He shared the stage with some of the biggest names in Jazz and was firing on all cylinders until without warning Warner Jazz stopped their jazz and classical output leaving Alexi Tuomarila, almost overnight, without management and any career direction. Feeling disparaged and dismayed, what followed was a period of self-discovery, growth in his confidence and eventually a realisation that playing this music was his ultimate goal. In subsequent years he released three albums as a leader on smaller Scandinavian labels but more importantly joined Thomas Stankos’ Quintet with which he has toured extensively in Europe, US and Japan as well as recording ‘Dark Eyes’ on ECM.

Today Alexi Tuomarila is now on the eve of releasing his new album Seven Hills, his first for Edition, with his long term trio featuring friends and musical partners Norwegian bassist Mats Eilertsen and Finnish drummer Olavi Louhivuori. This will be Louhivuori’s second outing on Edition, who featured on Dave Stapleton’s album Flight in 2012 and will also soon be releasing his third album with his band Oddarrang in Sept 2013.

Eilertsen and Louhivuori are some of the most in demand players emerging from the highly creative and bustling Scandinavian scene ranking up gigs with some of the most respected names in the business from Tord Gustavsen, Kenny Wheeler, Thomas Stanko and Arve Henriksen. Having met for the first time at a recording for a Finnish Radio broadcast, these three musical minds immediately connected over the 4 hour session which later turned out to be their first trio album ‘Constellation’ released on Jazzland in 2005. This album demonstrated huge promise and originality prompting Stuart Nicholson to include Alexi as one of his ‘six of the best breaking free from the code’ for his own highly distinctive perspective on the music in the Observer in 2005.

With Seven Hills, recorded in Lisbon (the city of Seven Hills) the music, the compositions, the playing and communication are even better. It’s more controlled, bound together with a greater and more developed precision and vision. This music is highly creative and bustling with life and is sure to set ignite a lot of interest over the coming.

Seven Hills is an album that will turn heads and help propel Alexi back to where he left of at the height of his days with Warner Music. It marks is a new chapter in Alexi Tuomarila’s illustrious career and with a greater maturity to his playing, composition and approach to music making as well as a firm home in Edition Records, he is set to leap further than he has ever been before. Watch this space!

07 Visitor Q (Alexi Tuomarila Trio)

The Sage (feat. Olavi Louhivuori)

Oddarrang

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