POP-LIISA: LIVE IN STUDIO 18

Pop Liisa and Jazz Liisa series on Svart Records are archival releases of the 70's live performances in Liisankatu studio, Helsinki, organized by the the Finnish Broacasting Company YLE. This one is a split LP featuring a 1976 two-act gig by the guitar oriented, non-prog band Donna and the well known prog group Tabula Rasa.

Although Donna only slightly showed progressive tendencies, I'd say their set is the more interesting, at least for the Finnish listeners. The group was signed to the legendary Love Records but they only released one single, 'Muinainen kaunotar' (1976) which is considered as the first Finnish reggae release of original material instead of e.g. Bob Marley covers.

The band came from a small town Virrat nearby Tampere and in 1975 they won the national contest of pop groups. Their songs were composed mainly by the singing guitarist Jari Yliaho, to the 1950's poems of an obscure, dead-at-young-age poet named Kimmo Koskimaa. In addition to reggae, the music also had elements from pop, soul, hard rock and prog. This set contains the mentioned single track plus four previously unreleased songs. Interviewed on the liner notes, Yliaho can't remember why they never recorded an album despite having some 20 songs written. Anyway, the band collapsed when Yliaho joined the group of Juice Leskinen, the major figure in Tampere- based rock. In the early 80's Yliaho was one of the founders of the rock group Siberia.

The highlight Donna piece is 'Lipasto' that features the guesting electric piano (though not in a notable role) and is the proggiest one as it continues from a fairly serene song-part into its instrumental tail. Here it's shorter than on Donna's other gigs due to the limited time. All songs are quite good, nevertheless. Just not prog.

Tabula Rasa is introduced by Jake Nyman, the outstanding figure in the history of YLE's rock programmes. Sadly here there are only two pieces from Tabula Rasa. 'Ekkedien tanssi' is the instrumental title track of their second album from 1976. Yes, they play it very well live, but it's very faithful to the studio version. 'Windy' is a previously unreleased 8-minute song offering a rare glimpse at the final stage of the band. The original vocalist Jukka Lempilampi had been replaced by Jukka Salmela (featured on TR's single Rakastatko vielä kun on ilta). This is the only song the band performed in English. I like it a lot, it's rather melancholic in a peaceful tempo,and the instrumental section has gorgeous melodies. They did have some other new songs written, but the band just deceased in the summer of 1977 when some of the members followed the more mainstream rock oriented path of Mikko Alatalo (with whom Tabula Rasa had already co-operated).

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