ARTO JÄRVELÄ & KAIVAMA

I hadn’t realised that there was a Finnish community in the USA but it should have been obvious. They came to the Great Lakes area a century ago to mine iron ore and like so many became assimilated. Two of their descendants are Sara Pajunen and Jonathan Rundman – Kavaima.

Arto Järvelä is a Finnish fiddler, also expert on singöfiddle, and esseharpa and a “dabbler” on the jouhikko. He is one of Finland’s most respected musicians and a prolific composer and has built up a fruitful relationship with Kaivama, so much so that they toured together and recorded this album on a day off in Cincinnati. Now it might be said that knocking out a dozen tracks in a single session is not a good way to make a record but this is the music they were playing every night and they recorded live as though they were on stage. I was waiting for a noticeable difference when I got to the last track, ‘Røros’, which was recorded on stage but I couldn’t see the join.

The album gets off to a brisk start with ‘Hoppavalsi’, one of Järvelä’s own compositions. He wrote eight of the thirteen tracks and there are three traditional pieces plus one each from Pajunen and Rundman. For me, the problem is a lack of variety: we have mostly fiddle duets backed by solid acoustic guitar and the times when Rudman switches to harmonium or Järvelä picks up the essaharpa are too few. I imagine that the record reflects their live set and there is a tendency to avoid swapping instruments too often on stage. That said, there is some absolutely superb playing and some splendid tunes. 

Dai Jeffries

Artist’s website:  www.artojarvela.net

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