root salad f20 Tsuumi Sound System
The Finnish octet are about to hit England for the first time. Andrew Cronshaw tells us what to expect.
T
he name might suggest, as it did to some who skipped its showcase at last year’s Womex, that Tsuumi Sound System is a posse at the decks playing their record collections very loud. Not so; they’re a band.
The name came about because after nine years as a group of musicians playing for Tsuumi Dance Theatre, the first profes- sional dance company basing its choreo - graphy on Finnish folk dance, in 2007 the band expanded and became a separate unit. Accordeonist and leader Hannu Kella is the only one remaining of the original trio recruited by Tsuumi at the end of the ’90s.
“At first there were three people –
Vilma Timonen, myself and Hannu Oskala, and later came Antti Järvelä and Esko Järvelä and so on. Mainly we were com- posing music for different kinds of dance shows; there were big shows for the sum- mer, 45 to 50 shows mainly for tourists, and other more artistic projects. We made a lot of music for that, and so after 2000 it was time to make our first album. Of course we had to rearrange the music quite a lot because the arrangements for the dance were quite long. So we short- ened them, and we had great help from Timo Alakotila who was producing us at that time. We did three albums as part of the dance company.”
Kella composed the music for the dancers and musicians in the voting break in the 2007 Eurovision semi-final, the same one that featured accordeonist Johanna Juhola in the opening.
“At that time we’d sort of found we wanted to have this eight-member band, and it was almost impossible to work with dancers with that big a band; it’s just a ques- tion of budgets. And that’s why we decided it was time for us to go our own way.”
The octet is Hannu, fiddlers Tommi Asplund and Esko Järvelä (possibly Finnish folk music’s most hyperactive musician), saxist Joakim Berghäll, Pilvi Järvelä on piano and harmonium, guitarist Jani Kivelä, double-bassist Tarmo Anttila and drummer Jussi Nikula.
None of their material is actually tra- ditional, but it’s strongly rooted in peli- manni music, Finnish folk-dance music. It’s largely composed by Hannu and Esko, but the whole band arranges it.
“Actually there are a lot of composers in our band – almost everybody is doing their tunes and bringing them to rehearsals. It’s a heaven for composers because there are such wonderful talented musicians who can do almost anything. I’ve done compositions for theatre and several bands, and always you have to
W
think, ‘Is this possible for the players?’ But in the Sound System you can do whatever crazy idea comes to your mind, bring it to rehearsals and it starts to live its own life. I can do a tune in 3/4 but the guys will say ‘You can play 3/4 but we’ll accompany it in 7/8’. It’s a shame it only says in small letters in one corner of the CD cover, ‘All arrange- ments Tsuumi Sound System’. It should be a lot bigger; arranging together is a huge part of our music.”
hile half of TSS have deep roots in folk music, the others come from rock or jazz. “It was a new thing for them, and they’re
open to it. That’s what I think is the richness in our band; how they handle it is different from when you’re studying in a folk music department and have played pelimanni music for a long time.”
In my review of their most recent CD, Floating Letters, I broke my rule of not comparing one band to another by saying ‘In some ways – just to give an approxi- mate overall impression, and though they’ll probably not thank me for saying it – Tsuumi SS is a sort of heavy Frigg.’
“It’s probably quite true! We’re the same age in both bands, we’ve studied together, played together, and of course we had the same idols in our youth – we listened to JPP, Maria Kalaniemi, and of course Folkkarit and all those. So we have sort of the same background; and actually there are two guys who play in both bands.”
As Tsuumi Sound System they’ve made three albums. “It’s sort of a trilogy, because all three have the same producer, Roger Tallroth. It was hard to decide who to ask. We were almost sure we didn’t want anyone from Finland; we know them, and they know us, too well, and we have different collaborations going on with them. So there was a list of names, and finally it was quite obvious that Roger is the one, because even though we’re from different musical backgrounds every- one respects Väsen. And Roger is a guy everyone can look up to.” (As, given his height, so do most people.)
“And also I think it has helped us a lot
that we can’t speak Finnish together while we’re in the studio; we have to speak English. It cuts the crap quite a lot, because we’re heavy talkers; I don’t think we’d manage to finish an album with all that talking!”
Their first-ever show in England is at Kings Place in London on November 1st as part of LIFEM festival.
www.tsuumisoundsystem.com F
Photo: Markus Schulte
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