HAIKARA

This band was founded by Vesa Lattunen (vocals, guitar, piano), Markus Heikkerö (drums) and Timo Vuorinen (bass) in 1971 but would soon add the two additional members of Vesa Lehtinen (vocals, tambourine, cowbell) and Harri Pystynen (flute, saxophone) who previously played in Charlies. The band released its self-titled debut in 1972 and experienced minor success although never experienced much recognition outside of Finland but nonetheless crafted an extraordinarily unique sound unlike any prog band in all of history actually.

Consisting of only five tracks, HAIKARA composed a unique mix of King Crimson inspired prog that utilized heavy rock guitar and complex time signature changes mixed with pastroral folk sections but the most unique feature of HAIKARA's sound was the inclusion of a brass section as well as cello which included five additional session musicians to create a larger than life sound for a band in a rock context. Sounding somewhat like early Chicago mixed with King Crimson and Genesis, HAIKARA delivered melodic catchy tunes based on Finnish folk music only played on rock instruments with the contrapuntal backing of a brass section.

Beginning with the oom-pa-pa polka brass heft of "Köyhän Pojan Kerjäys - The Beggings Of A Poor Boy," HAIKARA establishes a veritable brass rock sound with only slight prog complexities and although all lyrics are in the Finnish language, the soulful vocal tradeoffs of Lattunen and Lehtinen evoke a passionate display of instantly catchy ear hooks that are augmented with a thick brassy bombast that adds a touch of angularity from time to time however the album becomes more complex as it proceeds with the following "Luoja Kutsuu - The Lord Asks For You" generating a more sophisticated flair of progginess which only continues as the other three tracks all clock in around the ten minute mark and engage in some serious labyrinthine compositional zigzagging accompanied by nice instrumental interplay.

With lush folk passages trading off with psychedelic jamming sessions graced by fuzzy guitar soloing and soft brassy contrasts, HAIKARA's debut literally stands in a world of its own which is why it has been deemed on the classic Finnish prog album's to emerge from the 70s and while the band didn't find much success beyond this meager selling debut album, history has been kinder in recognizing its innovative musical motifs decorated with the varying rock, jazz and folk aspects. Out of all the Finnish bands that emerged in the earliest part of the 70s, HAIKARA is by far the most eclectic of the bands but unfortunately never made it to the level of bands like Wigwam who actually found recognition outside of Finland.

This is an album that is perfectly represented by its album cover art. It retains a bit of homegrown folklore as represented by the verdant countryside complete with wildlife but also displays a darker side and like the dragon in the sky a sense of awe that offers unexpected surprises that provide a startling contrast to the more familiar sounds. Lots of really excellent musicianship on this one as the band can effortlessly change from emotive acoustic driven folk passages to bombastically jagged soundscapes that pull out the big guns with heavy uses of frenetic tempos, excess guitar distortion and ample use of unorthodox time signatures. This is a brilliant album for sure and one of Finland's best examples of early prog.

Tuhkamaa (= Ashland) was finally released by the Italian label Mellow Records two years after the recording. That tells a lot about the total lack of faith in progressive rock among the Finnish companies at the time. Visually this 37-minute release looks very cheap but musically it is stronger than Domino. The sound, coloured by cello and saxophone, is darker and more intense, thus coming a little closer to the early classic Haikara. Despite its name, 'Hymni' is a surprisingly intense instrumental, comparable to 'Kosovo' in which the march rhythm underlines the reference to the troubles in Eastern Europe.

The powerful 'Tuhkamaa' and 'Klovni' are the best of the vocal compositions, but Lattunen still was very a mediocre vocalist. It really makes me wonder why the female member Saara Hedlund didn't get a bigger role on this album! She sings the uplifting final track 'Oodi'. Quite far from being a masterpiece, Tuhkamaa is a noteworthy album of an old warhorse, but without a question the slow rise of Finnish prog was on the hands of the new generation, bands such as Uzva, Groovector, Moon Fog Prophet/Kuusumun Profeetta and Magyar Posse.

Haikara also participated to the earliest Colossus projects (Tuonen Tytär, 2000, Kalevala - A Finnish Progressive Rock epic, 2002, and The Spaghetti Epic, 2004) and showed very promising signs of improving further their style found on Tuhkamaa, but Lattunen's death in 2005 marked the end of the Haikara story.

In short, two of the members (the frontman Vesa Lattunen and saxophonist-flautist Harri Pystynen) were playing also in Lahti Town Orchestra, and the influence of classical music plus the musical education can naturally be heard in Haikara's music. The album was produced by Heikki Virtanen, later best known as the bassist of Tasavallan Presidentti, who however didn't much take part in the artisctic process. The up-tempo opener (= The Begging of a Poor Boy) differs quite radically from the dark and eclectic prog on the rest of the album. The brass section is used cleverly, and especially the little details in the end of this strangely hilarious track show a sense of humour normally not linked to the band. 'Luoja kutsuu' (= God Calls) is nearly collapsing under the preaching pathos against institutionalized religion, but the next one (= One Country - One Nation) reaches up to excellent, dynamic prog in its instrumental sections.

'Jälleen on meidän' (= Is Ours Again) has bluesy jazz-rock riffing and an electric guitar solo that make it resemble Tasavallan Presidentti. The gorgeous closer 'Manala' (= Underworld [of the dead]) builds very effective contrasts between the otherworldly delicacy and the edginess finished by gritty VDGG-like saxes.

Just like the grotesque cover art by Markus Heikkerö, "Haikara" is a strong, deeply impressive and -- despite some recognizable influences from the more forerunning prog acts of Britain and Finland -- highly original prog classic that may require some acquired taste. The masterpiece ranking is justified.

The international prestige of Haikara is mostly based on their eponymous debut album (1972), a unique, dark-toned and eclectic progressive rock masterpiece that has been compared to the music of King Crimson, Van Der Graaf Generator and Tasavallan Presidentti among others. The next album Geafar, released at the end of the following year, may not be as coherent as its predecessor, but it certainly continues the band's classic era and contains some of the finest moments in Finnish prog.

Around the time Haikara was released, the vocalist-lyricist Vesa Lehtinen departed to rejoin the reformed Charlies, the other of the vintage rock bands hailing from the Southern Finnish town of Lahti. In a sense this was a blow for Haikara but the band soldiered on. The composer and frontman Vesa Lattunen's somewhat mediocre singing found a much needed counterpart in his sister Auli, whose beautiful voice is present to varying degrees on Geafar. This time Lattunen also wrote the lyrics by himself.

The opening track 'Change' is a lively rocker with revolution-themed lyrics sung, unusually, in English. Vesa Lattunen's vocals sound rather shaky in it, probably on purpose though. The jam-like funkiness on the first two tracks is quite a departure from the dark and symphonic seriousness of the debut, which of course is not implying that it would be musically less accomplished. The second song (with a long title meaning "When You Go Far Enough to the Future, You'll Find Out You're in the Past") calms down around the sixth minute for a fascinating slower section featuring flutes and Auli's wordless vocals.

The brief and elegant 'Kantaatti' is practically an art music piece for piano, cello and wordless female voice. Lattunen, who had played double bass in the Lahti Town Orchestra, had witnessed a deep prejudice against rock music among the musicians on the classical side, which only stirred up his will to combine the two musical worlds in his own composing work.

'Laulu surullisesta pilvestä' (Song About a Sad Cloud) is another genre-fusing little piece with Auli's background vocalising and classical instruments accompanying Vesa's tender vocals and a rhythm section. But perhaps the best is saved for last: for those listeners who are hungry for epic and complex prog in the vein of Haikara's first album the 14-minute title track will be most rewarding. This time Auli Lattunen sings with lyrics, and the arrangement is very varied in this superb composition. The orchestral section with sharp trumpets reminds me of 'Salisbury' by Uriah Heep.

Some critics at the time blamed Geafar for being too introverted and uneven. From today's perspective it can be said that the closer one listens to this album, free of prejudices and expectations, the better it sounds in its own right.

The morbidly surreal cover art of Geafar, strongly influenced by Salvador Dalí, was again painted by the band's drummer Markus Heikkerö. It's worth noticing that Haikara also had another member keen on visual expression: the reeds player Harri Pystynen withdrew from music due to stage fright in 1985 and became a cartoon artist until his death in 1990.

Promisingly only two tracks of six are of the modest 3-minute length (the others from 7½ to nearly 13 minutes), and pleasantly the album is instrumentally oriented. The sparse vocals are by Vesa Lattunen and the reeds player Jan Schaper. The opener 'Polku' (= a path) gives a good example of the album's strengths and weaknesses. The mellow sound is reminiscent of the seventies, wich isn't a bad thing, but the mixing is not very succesful. Soprano sax and acoustic guitar dominate, while the keyboards are almost buried and the production is a bit thin. Also the friendly mid-tempo dominating throughout the album may make it rather boring and disappointing to some prog listeners. On the other hand it's fairly pleasant from start to end. The compositions are melodic, extended with long instrumental sections.

'Ykseys' (12:43) is the most progressive and lively track, slightly marred by Lattunen's weak vocals. The interplay between sax and guitar is good. 'Lady' is a beautiful, sensitive instrumental track starring acoustic guitar and recorder, having thus a Medieval flavour (compare GRYPHON). 'Gloria Deo' starts with a Gregorian-like a cappella choir in Latin, replaced soon by a rock combo; the rest of the 9½-minute track is instrumental and among the highlights. The section with a flute may bring CAMEL in mind. The brief closing track 'Kultamalja'(= a cup of gold) is a very delicate acoustic song. I like it.

To some this never would be worth four stars but IMHO the strengths and the pleasant features overcome its weaknesses. Not a masterpiece on any level but a nice, warm and sincere album of melodic, instrumentally oriented prog. 3½ stars rounded up.

Each of the three albums were recorded with a different line-up, and this single marked yet another version of Haikara, which was always led by the late great Vesa Lattunen, a multi-instrumental composer. After this release Lattunen participated in various music projects - for solo artists, theatres, etc. These two songs have appeared as bonuses on the CD release of Geafar, and I'm sure most prog listeners will see them more as curiosities and items of completionism than as a source of deep artistic enjoyment. There even was inconsistence about the track title on the original single: "Poika Pilvellä" ("A boy on a cloud") and "Pilven poika" ("The boy of the cloud"). The latter seems to be the official one.

Probably it was an attempt to play more popular and catchier music at the time when prog was rapidly and completely out of fashion in Finland. This is pretty funky stuff. Technically 'Pilven poika' is a relatively well-creafted, lighthearted track with a colourful arrangement, but the composition per se is rather poor and monotonous, and Vesa Lattunen was never a good vocalist. The song sounds terribly outdated today.

'Jumbo' is a tight and groovy instrumental and works much better. It's not the most original slice of funk music but nothing in it feels disjointed as on 'Pilven poika'. Anyway, on a prog site it would be a bit inappropriate to rate this single higher than two stars.

'Hotellinainen' (Hotel woman) sounds nearly terrible: hard and gritty, riff-based rock finished with bad vocals and noisy saxes. 'Kuinka ollakaan' is also rather straight-forward rock song, but the brief orchestration, flute and an instrumental part make it very interesting. In under five minutes (still the longest track of the album) it's extremely economic prog! Actually, nearly half of the songs are less than three minutes; the total length is about 31 minutes. 'Romanssi' is a melancholic and romantic nocturnal song with a very elegant arrangement, especially various wind instruments are put in excellent use. Beautiful, classically influenced prog!

'2+2=5' may also have a nice arrangement, but the repetition of "kaksi ynnä kaksi on viisi!" is irritating. I'm not sure whether I like 'Leppäkerttu' (Lady Bug) or not. It has some prog rock feel in a naiive, tight song structure. 'Golgata' I definitely don't like as a whole, which is a pity since it contains some very nice details within three minutes. Maybe the vocals make it bad to my ears.

'Für Hanna' is a tiny pretty art music piece, or at least an attempt to be one; the percussion is not credible at all, but so what, this is a rock album anyway. 'Aamu' is a beautiful highlight the same way as 'Romanssi', and the final song 'Jäähyväiset' (Farewell) is perhaps the album's finest fusion of art music and pop music elements. So, this album is indeed very uneven. It includes beautiful stuff for a measure of an EP / mini-album.

As bonuses in the 2013 CD release one gets all four songs (by Vesa Lattunen & Company) of the 1979 EP called Lauluja Dylanilta (Songs by [Bob] Dylan). Wasn't 'Mighty Quinn' covered by Manfred Mann? The synths in this translation sound very Mannish. 'All Along the Watchtower' has seen numerous covers from Hendrix to Affinity etc, but it has never been among my personal Dylan favourites, despite its intensity. Lattunen & Co. do a decent job musically, but the vocals are quite bad, maybe the translation as well. 'North Country Blues' was not a familiar song to me. Here its good translation is sung by Liisa Lampi - why I haven't heard of her before? An excellent folk performance à la Joan Baez! 'When the Ship Comes In' was neither familiar. As a song it resembles 'Times They Are A-Changin' and this version featuring both male and female vocals makes me remember The Seekers.

The fifth bonus track 'Janne' was Lattunen's composition for a yearly Finnish song contest (Syksyn Sävel) in 1980. It's about Jean Sibelius, whose Finlandia hymn is also cited in the music. This song may be a bit kitchy cross-over entertainment music, but quite charming! With these bonuses Iso Lintu is without a doubt worth three stars.

"Iso lintu" is Haikara's third record and it was released in 1976. The cover is very special. I wrote it was ugly but it's also quite unique. Please study the picture at least! They look very nice in their white dresses.

I loved this music, that is my statement of this. Even if the song format is short I am not doubting about say this is prog. The instrumentation is very good and Haikara uses different instruments in a very professional way. Actually there is no weak moments here. The Finnish language is allways different but I think it works perfectly here and gives the music a national feel that is necessery to make music real. The record is also varied, from the comical "Hotellinainen" (with a Beatles-noise), to a prog pop song in "Leppäkerttu" and a medieval tune (à la Gryphon) in "Für Hanna". "Leppäkerttu" is so joyful and there is som much vital joy here. Especially the wind instruments adds perfection to this music. In "Romanssi" the sweet melody reminds me very much of The Web's "War and Piece-suite". Listen to both, Web's song is a masterpiece and Haikara's very good.

Perhaps the vocals could have been little more professional and they could have made longer, even more interesting songs. That doesn't make this worse. Yes I admit I haven't heard earlier Haikara. Is it a crime? I'll se when I hear them. This is a recommended record!

All songs: Für Hanna(10/10), Kuinka ollakaan(8/10), Romanssi(8/10), Leppäkerttu(8/10), Golgata(8/10), Hotellinainen(7/10), 2+2=5(7/10), Aamu(7/10) and Jäähyväiset(7/10)

Quirky, jumpy, reed tooting, galloping, relentless, adventurous, melodic and everything at once, Haikara's debut is quite the amalgamation of differentiating sounds. I've always considered it as a close cousin to the more out there Canterbury groups like National Health and Picchio dal Pozzo, yet with all kinds of Zappaesque irreverence to it, and an unhinged musical joy that literally flies through your speakers, this album is anything but a scarecrow made up of various leftovers from other acts. Hell, it's from 1972, which rules out any association with the two aforementioned Canterbury acts...

The moods range from late 60s melodic psychedelia like the ones emanating from the first cut, Köyhän pojan kerjäys, to more perilous action packed whirlwind fusion, which again performs in parts of the first track. As a matter of fact, all of what Haikara stands for, including a passionate crooked take on Northern folk music, is enveloped in this astonishing opener. What then strikes me a little odd, is that the rest of the album almost entirely consists of the same haphazardly thrown together themes, yet without ever sounding remotely the same. With saxes, flutes, cowbells, triangles, guitars, organs and a rhythm section with magma up it's bunghole, you sense a frenetic, almost squirrely energy pumping through Haikara. Like wild rodents set on fire pacing around the studio with a song on their lips.

I had this album playing here the other day while I was fixing dinner. I'd opened up all the windows to clear out the stale and stagnant air that accumulates whenever I've been away for a couple of days. As a result of this, the fragrant smell of spices like cumin, chilli and garlic invaded the sidewalk together with this music, having people stop dead in their tracks - looking directly in my window, as if to see what kind of strange entity was producing this exotic mix of Eastern flavours and fiery pseudo jazz rock. One girl went so far as to say, that she thought I was an imminent cook, but a rather sad dj - to which I replied: 'Well honey, you know - the music often goes hand in hand with what's being served on the table. You would be surprised to learn what tricky, labyrinthian and bonkers music some of the great chefs listen to.'

I was obviously joking a bit, but there's some truth in that statement. I think this kind of unique galloping cornucopia of rock, with all of it's bombastic reed sprints and saucy psychedelics, wreck havoc on your senses - in just about the right manner for you to be able to feel inspired, chuck full of energy and pure unadulterated geist! It's the exact same mood you want to achieve, when you're headed for the kitchen methinks.

Anyway, enough with the cooking! Aside from these two purveyors of sound, the furious fusion and the jello sheen of shrooms, you additionally get these magnificent crystallised folk segments to boot. With a flirtatious flute, or some abstract guitar strummings the feel of the music will turn on a dime, and suddenly tumble jittery into the most peculiar Northern folk music, you're ever likely to come across. Often this facet comes on during the more rocking sections, and the direction of the tune fiercely changes it's intentions and swoops you down the mountainside with surreal images from the beautiful cover art with elk, dragon and that eerie naked human body looking like it's on the verge of giving birth.

To top it all off all of the vocals are in Finnish. They're mighty jolly and carefree, often playing on that ever so theatrical side of the great Peter Hammill. Even if they don't sound alike, you'll find a common fondness for the grandiose and bewitching, no doubt.

This is perhaps the greatest progressive rock recording ever to come out of Finland, and I see no difficulty in recommending it to the folks on this site. Whatever shortcomings one may face with the impossible Finnish lingo, are made up for a gazillion times by the sheer force of lavish musical sorcery surrounding it. This album is mesmerising in every way conceivable - like the very cover it hides underneath. No wonder they named the group after the be-winged majestic presence of the stork.