keijo

keijo ~ along the stream (cabin floor esoterica 2011)

"Finnish legend Keijo Virtanen (the voice behind the Rambling Boys, The Free Players, etc.) returns to Cabin Floor with nearly an hour of fried blues. He rolls effortlessly from the sparse disjointed riffing and freakouts of '15 Days' into the solid locked coasting-blues groove of songs like 'With White Woman' and the almost Valentine-like dream of the instrumental title-track. Every song is developed and full. Beautiful howling harmonica wails, dancing clear guitars and the snapping drums keep things exactly where he wants them to be. Edition of 50 tapes in cardstock sleeves with two inserts, one featuring a photo from Keijo." cabin floor esoterica

foto: connor novotny

otro mejor disco de mi vaquero finlandés favorito. six months on exile, folk minimalista y melancólico susurrado ante un micrófono imaginario qu no parece de este mundo

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rambling boys

rambling boys ~ ain't got no home (cabin floor esoterica 2010)

"Keijo Virtanen, Jukka Nousiainen, Lauri Puttonen and Sami Virtanen join together to put a spin on the dust bowl ballads of Woody Guthrie. After two incredible lathe cuts, Rambling Boys finally throw down a full album of what were once simple road songs, now pulled apart at their roots and tossed into the basement to be jammed into something completely new and unstoppable. Heady rolling guitar licks, fuzzy harmonica wails and snapping drums drift in and out of each other, locking in perfectly only to split back into the mumbling open." cabin floor esoterica

ain't got no home, de los ilustrísimos rambling boys, ¡por fin! 

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keijo & jarmo

keijo & jarmo ~ talkin bout death past gone (ikuisuus 2010)

"We were not tired, but we were cold. We sat on a campfire and started to sing. There was someone at our home who had forgotten us. There was nothing left for us. Some black man sat by us. Or was it a woman? It opened its mouth and did not have any teeth. The song was cold, the song was warm. We were not afraid anymore." ikuisuus

"Finnish artists Keijo & Jarmo sing the most stripped down suicidal traditional blues and folk on Talkin Bout Death Past Gone. I really wonder what inspired this harmonica induced primitive Americana folk in Tampere." undomondo

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keijo

keijo ~ first time (full of nothing 2010)

"The Finnish free folk elder statesman Keijo Virtanen is back with another album in his vast discography. However, this work is titled "First Time". The album follows his recent output of his own very open approach to blues. But no W. Guthrie covers here, only Keijo's own pieces, with help from friends on two tracks. This is where free folk meets blues in the most beautiful and stunning way. Cardboard sleeve with photocopied collage pieces, hand-stamped cdrs. 100 copies." full of nothing

foto: vamitos

at night, at night, at night....

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keijo

keijo ~ songs of luck (ikuisuus 2009)

"Keijo's songs draw from country-blues sources, as is often the case with his releases, there's a couple of Woody Guthrie interpretations included here. Harmonicas whine and woe, but also keep up the rhythm of keepin' on. In these songs, people get up early and travel in a land "that used to be your land."..." ikuisuus

quiero viajar por carreteras desiertas con songs of luck de fondo, y rambling around en repeat

foto: laura lynn petrick

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keijo

keijo ~ maailma hetkina (luovaja 2009)

"Maailma syntyy ('The World is Born') derives from the Finnish cosmogonic myth. The way of singing here is Keijo's adaption of the tradition he had learnt in the mid 1990s in Jyväskylä from Ville Elonheimo (who, by turn, had learnt it from his grandmother). For many years Keijo and Ville performed material influenced by ancient poems, such as this tale of creation.

Yön hetkinä ('At The Moments of Night') is named after the moments when the fragments of it were born, at night one is open and able to hear, when it is possible to hear other ways and other things than the day. The soundscape of the piece is like the night, you swell and churn, and sometimes something solid may come up." luovaja

foto: marija strajnic

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keijo

keijo ~ songs of luck (ikuisuus 2009)

"Keijo's songs draw from country-blues sources, as is often the case with his releases, there's a couple of Woody Guthrie interpretations included here. Harmonicas whine and woe, but also keep up the rhythm of keepin' on. In these songs, people get up early and travel in a land "that used to be your land." It's a place where luck comes and goes, just like the people that you meet. The girl knows how to hit you like rolling thunder, the workers are left unpaid (the boss ain't), the ones with no work are standing in the welfare line, your "true love" throws you a suitcase and shows you the door, there's working in the country and in the cities, an anonymous wanderer carries the blues wherever he goes...but it's bigger than just being down: you don't see me worrying, 'cos I've got nothing left to lose. That's why we all share the blues." ikuisuus

todas sus canciones podrían dar vida a un western mágico...don't remember me, don't remember me when i'm gone. y tanto que sí, larga a vida a keijo virtanen!

foto: kaitlin van baarle

she's like a lightning

rambling on my mind

touch of sunshine

careless life

the free players

the free players - the free players (last visible dog, 2006)

The Free Players are a super-group of featuring members of Finnish free-jazz pawnpins Vapaa, Kheta Hotem, Kundalini Snakes and the venerable Keijo Virtanen. While previous documents of this band exist, this is apparently the more democratic version (no longer is it 'Keijo and the Free Players'), a shift documented by the more accessible sound here.

What we have here is an hour long set of jams that seems more reminiscent of Floyd and the Dead than what we've come to expect from Keijo's previous output. Wild guitar leads and wailing sax (nevermind the space-organ) reveals immediately what cloth this recording has been cut from -- which is to say that The Free Players is a true psychedelic album!" last visible dog

foto: coquinete

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rambling boys

rambling boys - pastures of plenty (7'' 2008)

"Original Rambling Boys were Keijo, Jii & Jaakko (2005). Story goes on with open lineup. Lately it has been: Keijo, Jukka, Sami, Lauri, Leila, and Jii. Out now: Rambling Boys: Pastures of plenty (Rambling Boys/W. Guthrie) / Uusi (Rambling Boys) 7" lathe cut. 50 copies. 5 eur + postage. blues, folk, psicodelia."

Jukka Nousiainen, Sami Virtanen y Keijo Virtanen son tres de los responsables de esta maravilla que combina el espíritu de jam y psicodelia de Davenport con la magia de Woody Guthrie y Paivänsäde; algo así como un grupo soñado. Buy you a car, Hard travellin' y Up the birch whisk mountain se convierten en un bucle adictivo en el que todo es perfecto: la voz aguardentosa de Keijo, las percusiones destartaladas, el blues rural, los campos de trigo, el Delta del Mississippi, los bosques de Finlandia...todo a partes iguales y en perfecta armonía

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keijo

keijo - palla, blow from here (digitalis 2005)

"Keijo hails from Jyväskylä, Finland, a small town in the north that claims to be the center of the universe. In the sprawling Finnish underground, Keijo is the wise sage who everyone admires. In his 52 years, he has travelled the world twice and seen his share of turmoil. He was nearly killed in a motorcycle accident and still bears a metal plate in his skull as a constant reminder. But these experiences have been essential in shaping the sound world he constructs with his fingertips.

Palla, Blown From Here sees Keijo finally getting the larger audience he deserves. He has worked and collaborated with Finnish acts such as Vapaa, Avarus, and Kheta Hotem. This nine songs sees Keijo taking a more solemn path, reflecting on the quiet moments nature brings, and showcase Keijo's array of talents, including his impressive throat-singing abilities. Palla, Blown From Here is the aural transition of summer into autumn. Over the course of this album, Keijo's soft acoustic compositions flow from him like prose from a poet's pen. The beauty this music exudes is a testament to his life and his work. This is Keijo's world and we are just living in it." digitalis

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keijo

keijo - neverending blues (ikuisuus 2008)

"Keijo Virtanen makes his long distance walk into the stream of folk/countryblues continuum. These marvellously rusty and dusty tracks have been cooking with tender flame in Keijo’s mind&soul for a good while: "When I was just a little boy, I used to just lay down under the blanket (just before falling to sleep) randomly switching the channels of our transistor radio. Under the crunches and washes I also found the new pirate radio stations and there, among the speeches came out the echoing, rhythmic, electric guitar music. Eventually under rock music and British pop music I discovered the sounds of the black people of North America. I felt like those deep singing voices and wailing guitars would somehow also belong to this kind of environment, to rural, middle-of-nowhere Finland, surrounded by wildlife and physical work with our own hands and whatever we may get grown from the land." ikuisuus

foto: sophie curtis