Re: [Harp-L] Re: Svang

["Fernando Bresslau" <ferbress@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have met Jouko, the leader of the group, at the Masters' Workshop
2004 here in Trossingen. He is a Music Professor in a Finnish college,
and the Sväng group was the result of a paper one of his students had
to make (I guess for masters). He had to compose the pieces and
arrange for a mixed harmoncia quartet.
Actually, they don't use much chord harmonica, but Jouko plays the
Harmonetta. So you have at time 3 melody harmonicas, mixed between
diatonic and chromatic, in different keys and tunings being used.
XB-40s and tremolos are also used. Besides Jouko, both melody players
are his students (Eero T, and Eero G.). The bass player (Pasi)
actually played in a traditional trio in the 90s, but had switched to
stringed bass, when trios weren't hip anymore. He was then
"ressurrected" for this project.
I had the fortune to see them live here in Trossingen last year, they
made a tour sponsored by the German-Finnish Society. It was great!
http://www.svang.fi/

By the way, Jouko has released a solo CD where he pays an homage to
traditional Finnish folk music. He plays often with a fiddle player.
It is not completely right to compare, but the comparisson is 
inevitable: imagine it as being a "new Finnish harmonica" CD. As much
as Brendan's CD was a great discovery to me, Jouko's CD opened up a
new style of music to my ears, which had already been getting
accostumed to his style with Sväng. Not surprisingly, Jouko has taken
lessons with Brendan. His new CD is called Saalas and is available at
cdbaby.com.
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/joukokyhala
I must say, I love this store.

BTW, Sväng's CD is also there:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/svang

Well, I guess that's it. Back to work now

All the best,
Fernando

On 2/21/06, Glenn Weiser <celticguitar1@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Has anybody ever heard of a Finnish harmonica quartet named Svang?. They
> have a bassharp, a chord harp and two melody guys on either diatonic or
> chro. The music is well played, but is for the most part not famamliar to
> me.
>
> -Glenn Weiser