A small group of players have made the Finnish traditional horse hair lyre jouhikko visible again after many decades of silence.
One of the most original jouhikko players is Pekko Käppi (from groups as Kiila, Vilddas, Lau Nau, Avarus, Päivänsäde, Äijä and Office Building) who has transformed the tradition to a wholly own music. His influences come mainly from Finnish folk- and song tradition, but also the North American root music as well as Russian and Siberian indigenous music go through a metamorphosis in his hands.
Pekko’s earlier, shorter solo releases and his shows in Europe, USA and Russia have gathered a wide group of admirers for his music. Even if he plays songs based on Finnish tradition on a different continent he manages to touch his audience deeply.
"Jos ken pahoin uneksii" (Peippo 2007) is Käppi’s first long album. It has a little bit less the melancholic, slow jouhikko ambience than the earlier releases. Instead, Käppi concentrates on the rock side of life and starts the record with a beat that goes on like a steam train.
It’s clear that Pekko Käppi is a virtuoso jouhikko player and his intensive style to accompany his beautiful singing voice is impressive. No one else has ever made a record that would combine jouhikko music to folkrock, song tradition from other cultures, old gospels and psychedelia.
From time to time the rhythms remind of krautrock or roots music and then again his music jumps to such beautiful, floating layers of jouhikko playing and singing that the listener hopes that the world would stop right there.
TOMUTONTTU
