HUONO PARTURI

Huono Parturi is the second studio album by Finnish progressive /avantgarde rock band Höyry-Kone. The title of the album means "Bad barber", just look at the album artwork... The album featuring 11 tracks is about 49 minutes long, at least my copy. I have the one relasesed by Nordic Notes in 2013, I had to wait some time to get my hands of a copy of Huono Parturi. The music is performed by the often operatic male vocals, two guitars, bass, violin, cello, flute, drums (Anders Nordin from Anekdoten makes a guest apperance in two tracks beside Teemu Hänninen, the band's drummer), plus the wind ensemble in the purely jazz track called Baksteri. Beside cello player Marko Manninen the trained tenor singer and violinist Topi Lehtipuu deserves a special mention, but the musicianship is outstanding on this album. The album starts with a beautiful rendition of Beata Viscera by Perotin the Great. He was a composer of the 12th, early 13th century, one of the earliest known composers. Topi really shines here, I think Perotin would be pleased with this performance. Terva-Antti Ku Häihin Lähti suddenly explodes after the Perotin piece, and the other tracks of Huoni Parturi with the exception of the mentioned Baksteri are in more in less in the vein of the explosive second track. The music is somewhat similar of King Crimson and some classic avantgarde artists like Zappa or Univers Zero, but far heavier, than any of the mentioned artists, and Höyry-Kone certainly had the sound of their own. Some of the tracks are instrumental, some of them are supported by the gorgeous vocals of Topi Lehtipuu, but really all compositions are very impressive. Weird, quirky, really powerful and playful, an absolutely fantastic album, one of my 10 favourite albums of the Nineties.