Valtakunta (Vinyl) – Eero Koivistoinen

A reissue of Eero Koivistoinen’s debut album. Eero Koivistoinen is a versatile composer and talented musician—one of the all-time greats of Finnish jazz. In 1965, Koivistoinen formed a trio with Pekka Sarmanto and Edward Vesala that played avant-garde and fusion jazz. From 1967 to 1968, he was a member of “Blues Section”—a group considered Finland’s first progressive rock band. “Valtakunta” (“Kingdom”) was originally released in 1968 and is Eero Koivistoinen’s first jazz LP. The album’s tracks are based on texts by the Finnish poets Pentti Saarikoski, Tuomas Anhava, Hannu Mäkelä, and Jarkko Laine. The vocalists include Eero Raittinen, Seija Simola, Vesa-Matti Loiri, and Koivistoinen himself. He also plays tenor saxophone, piano, and vibraphone and is accompanied by a host of legendary Finnish musicians, including Seppo “Baron” Paakkunainen, Pekka Sarmanto, Ronnie Österberg, Hasse Walli, Juhani Aaltonen, Antero Jakoila, Kaj Backlund, Esa Pethman, and Reino Laine, among many others. All compositions are by Koivistoinen. With its broad stylistic range, the album serves as a good reflection of Koivistoinen’s later compositional repertoire. “Valtakunta” was reissued on vinyl in 2016 via Svart, and the pressing quickly found a new home on the turntables of record collectors worldwide. After ten years, it’s time to reissue this outstanding work of Finnish psychedelia, avant-garde, free jazz, and progressive rock on vinyl and CD.