Ilpo Saastamoinen

Gatefold jacket, black vinyl limited to 300 copies. Svart Records are proud to present the first ever reissue of Ilpo Saastamoinen’s groundbreaking album Joutsenen juju.  Originally released on Love Records in 1976, this double vinyl release features a full album of unreleased bonus material from Saastamoinen’s personal archives. An active musician since his teens in the 1960’s, Saastamoinen played in Soulset with Harri Saksala and Paroni Paakkunainen. He then befriended the legendary drummer Edward Vesala and joined the folk-prog group Karelia. For most of the 70s Saastamoinen worked as leader of the local big band in Kajaani, northern Finland. Vesala had heard some of Saastamoinen’s home recordings (now released for the first time on the bonus album) and came up with the idea that became Joutsenen juju.

Album musicians were Saastamoinen himself on guitars, sitras, electric mandolin and several other rare string instruments, Pekka Sarmanto on double bass and Juhani Aaltonen on reeds and Vesala on drums. Because of the very special character of the album, Tim Ferchen, Jordan Koschuharov and Kari Hynninen from Kajaani Big Band were drafted in as well. Joutsenen juju sounded very uncompromising and forward-thinking for its time and found very little audience in Finland, making original copies a real rarity. Saastamoinen and Vesala built the album on a progressive rock base, but blended styles fearlessly, making Joutsenen juju a real treasure trove for anyone into creative, psychedelic 70’s music. At times the music borders on the kind of ethno-kraut Popol Vuh were making, at others it dives headlong into psychedelic jazz.