KLAVA

Klava biography
founded 2004 in Helsinki, Finland

KLAVA is a prog band with their debut album 'Polku' released in the late 2019. The music is psychedelically flavoured jazz-rock with some folk touches as well. Just like the classic TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTTI with Nik Turner /Hawkwind reminding woodwinds and psychedelic atmosphere. The line-up in its various phases have relations to prog bands such as VITKASTE, DASPUTNIK and UZVA. The vocals, both by male and female, are in Finnish.

The core of the band has always been a trio, where drummer Henri Tuomi and guitarist Kalle Kuisma have been complemented by a bassist that has changed a couple of times over the years. KLAVA MK III was born when guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Joonas Hietala joined the band as a bassist in the autumn of 2008. With regular rehearsing and active giggin as KLAVA's playing evolved into more flowing, steady and swinging, also saxophone player and multi-instrumentalist Sini Palokangas joined the group. The new sound began to take shape - the musical natural talent of Joonas and Sini added more tonality and melodic richness to the songs.

The band's music has always been flexible and breaking its own limits. KLAVA MK III line-up also made improvised gigs. When another saxophonist, Jussi Hurskainen, joined, a handful of songs began to be ready for recording. In December 2010 they went to a rehearsal space studio in Turku for ten days, and recorded nine tracks for the album. When Joonas left the band in the spring of 2012, KLAVA went on hiatus and put the album on ice. In the summer of 2014 Kalle was a resident artist at a house of his friends - in the silence of the countryside, under bright stars. There, the album started to breathe again and the tracks were added with guitars, vocal parts, percussion, sound effects and more.

KLAVA continued their active rehearsing and the line-up gained new edge with the addition of brilliant folk musician Ringa Koskinen, who quickly found her place as a singer and playing jew's harp and overtoneflute. The motivated new line-up was in full swing when the band was joined by Ayhan Akgez (flute) and Susanna Salama (alto saxophone). The recordings were finally finished and Eclipse Music - a jazz and prog label from Tampere, Finland - showed interest in releasing the album. The mixes were finalized by the band by the summer of 2019.