KOUTUS

— First review of this album —

Koutus is a wilderness area in Finnish Lapland. Accordion player and composer Harri Kuusijärvi named his instrumental avant-fusion group after the location near his hometown to reflect his approach to making music. "My musical roots are far reaching and I seem to be in a constant process of discovering them. They reach out to different worlds and form a universe of musical stories that is ever expanding", he writes in his liner notes of the group's third studio album Mirage.

The rather Crimsonesque debut Koutus (2014) was a trio effort of Kuusijärvi, guitarist Veikki Virkajärvi and drummer Tatu Rönkkö. To my ears somewhat warmer second album Music for a Family Picnic (2017) saw Kuusijärvi and Virkajärvi accompanied by vibes & effects man Teho Majamäki, bassist Eero Tikkanen and drummer Jesse Ojajärvi. The line-up and instrumentation is again new: Kuusijärvi (accordion, electronics), Virkajärvi (electric guitar) and Ojajärvi (drums, percussion) are joined by one new member, Mikael Myrskog (synthesizers, electronics). Mirage is a solid fusion album, both accessible enough for contemporary jazz/fusion listeners and dynamically adventurous enough not bore the more demanding prog oriented listeners. Much of the album's music was already heard on Live in Helsinki, recorded on March 3rd and released in June 2020. Mirage followed just a few months later.

The opener 'Lumi' (= Snow) is a calm, reflective and spatial piece. Accordion's introspective melodies, electronics, nuanced guitar textures and the powerful elegance of the rhythm section are here and there coloured by the sound effects of a car ride with the navigator's female voice giving guidance in Finnish. 'Safari' is a more lively fusion composition and has a nice playful atmosphere. The near 8-minute title track is my favourite for its hypnotic and highly dynamic nature. The guitar takes the lead in the powerful middle part. This is an impressive mixture of fusion and avantish instrumental prog.

The nervously edgy 'Dark Matter' with a noisy, distorted guitar sound is not exactly up to my taste, but for the more avant-oriented listeners it undoubtedly increases the album's overall appeal. 'Azulin iltapäivä' (= Azul's Afternoon) is comparable to 'Lumi' as an introspective and spatial piece. After two more fairly good pieces the album is closed by 'Apina Revisited' (the map printed on the leaflet reveals that Apina -- 'monkey' in Finnish -- is a specific hillside location in the Koutus area). This piece has almost toy-like, bright-sounding synths/electronics, as if to underline that the group has a sense of humour too.

To me Mirage is the best of the group's three albums this far; 3½ stars rounded up. Accordion is an instrument I don't generally enjoy very much, at least in the leading role, but Kuusijärvi's impressionistic approach is really to be appreciated. [ An extra-musical minus comes from the way the small text is white on light-grey, and therefor very hard to read without a magnifying glass. ]

This "almost self-titled" album has been released in 2014 as Koutus' debut creation. Very curious how the rock sound combination with an accordion goes, and we have never got betrayed at all. Overall in this album Harri's accordion play has a role of exclamation ... sometimes gentle like a breath of air, sometimes tough like a metal, sometimes weird like a Pierrot, and always magnificent like a planet. Interesting his powerful accordion play makes the audience feel hugely "rock"-ish via their chamber soundscape. The first shot "Introduction" consists of their complete essence ... here are Harri rushing out, Veikki's electric guitar making another distorted dimension, and Tatu cooling the two fighters down with his sincere, precise footsteps.

All tracks are not so long but various colours we can touch and enjoy. "Reindeer Derby" has strong percussion irregularity and avantgarde melodious hotchpotch (one of my faves really). In "February Oblivion" or "Waltz From The Past" quiet, bluesy atmosphere is thrown out through the three instrumental actors. Via "Joik" we can hear psychedelic fantasia tinged with Krautrock eccentricity. "Fragile", like a plate of thin glass or a clean cool mirror, injects their kaleidoscopic vibes with post rock hints. And in their titled track their eclecticism flooded with heaviness leaning toward King Crimson gets exploded. Plenty of rock / pop / anti-pop elements are into this creation. Also an excessive mysterious sleeve is impressive. Keep rockin'!

A mosaic of sound, let me say.

A promising Finnish rock combo founded by an accordionist Harri KUUSIJÄRVI have launched the second album titled "Music For A Family Picnic" in February 2017. Harri says he (maybe) always changes the combo formation for creating soundscape different from previous ones ... his musical collective would be amorphous for realization of music-spherical diversity.

Kinda indescribable chamber soundscape filled with mysterious accordion-based cotton candy is flowing over the audience. Their (his) sound texture and melody lines are walking around between realism and ambience like a creature of fancy. On another side we can hear monotonous, inorganic cold grey turf. Quite interesting, impressive is such an excessive sound contrast and complete coexistence.

The titled track is a colourful one ... drenched in cynical identity against pop but simple melody threads wound upon a song spool, no difficulty, no shoulder pain. And as for progressive rock-oriented atmosphere, a track with a meaningful (and looong) appearance "I Was Driving 160 Miles Per Hour From Turku In The Midnight When I Felt The Time Was Slowing Down" has definitely heavy / metallic elements of King Crimson or psychic ones of Pink Floyd.

Harri's accordion play sometimes stands up at the very front and sometimes sits down behind the all instruments. He can be mentioned as the forward and as the goalkeeper ... namely the key player. Awesome really.

Here's the latest Finnish artist addition. The eponymous 2014 release was a trio effort in which the accordeon player and composer Harri Kuusijärvi (b. 1986) was accompanied by electric guitarist Veikki Virkajärvi and drummer Tatu Rönkkö. That album featured rather steep dichotomy between avant-oriented angularity -- to some degree comparable to the music of the other Finnish alternative accordeon artist Kimmo Pohjonen -- and mellower pieces, and it was inspired by wild Lappish landscapes. I wasn't notably impressed by it, and although this second release will hardly become my favourite listening either, I do find this one more mature... and above all, warmer and less bipolarized in style, and thus more accessible to also those jazz/fusion-minded listeners who aren't much into avant prog.

The line-up is a little bigger this time, featuring the same guitarist and a new rhythm section plus Teho Majamäki on vibes and effects, on most tracks anyway. I only wish the vibes were more heard on the album, but already the addition of bass means an important improvement in the sound. The opener 'Naltio' (don't ask me what it means) centres on a hypnotic, circulating accordeon riff and slightly industrial or Post-Rock sounding playing from the others. The title track is a slow and relaxed jazz piece in which accordeon is used very melodically. 'La Route de Pokka' is an excellent, crisp and guitar-oriented fusion piece, a little marred by (most likely an artificial) bird-whistle. The vibes are more central on slow and moody 'UFO Bar'.

All nine tracks are enjoyable, not very avantish really, but nor without brave dynamics and sonic variety. As with Sanni Eskelinen & Stringpurée Band (Finnish kantele-led band, also to be found in PA), all in all this music would more naturally be categorized under jazz instead of rock. A librarian's point of view, you see. Warmly recommended to anyone appreciating the sound of accordeon.