Valtakunta

Eero Koivistoinenis a wide-ranging composer and a talented musician – one of the all-time greats of the Finnish jazz. In 1965 Koivistoinen founded a trio that played avant-garde and fusion jazztogether withPekka SarmantoandEdward Vesala. In 1967–68 he was amember ofBlues Section– a group that is regarded as the first progressiverock band in Finland.Valtakunta(“Kingdom”) was originally released in 1968 and is Eero Koivistoinen’s first jazz LP. The songs of the album are based on the lyrics written by Finnish poetsPentti Saarikoski,Tuomas Anhava, Hannu MäkeläandJarkko Laine. The vocalists areEero Raittinen,Seija Simola,Vesa-Matti Loiriand Koivistoinen himself. He also plays the tenor saxophone, piano and vibraphone, and is joined by a vast selection of legendary Finnish musicians, includingSeppo "Baron" Paakkunainen,Pekka Sarmanto,Ronnie Österberg,Hasse Walli,Juhani Aaltonen,Antero Jakoila,Kaj Backlund,Esa Pethman,andReino Laineamong many others.All compositions are by Koivistoinen. The album reflects well the forthcoming compositional repertoire of Koivistoinen with its wide style spectrum.Valtakuntawas reissued on vinyl in 2016 viaSvartand the pressing quickly found a new home on the turntables of record collectors worldwide. After ten years, it's time to bring back this quintessential piece of Finnish psychedelia, avant-garde, free jazz, and progressive rock on wax and CD again.