"It's all about art and its absence."
Alamaailman Vasarat ("The Hammers of the Underworld") is an unusual phenomenon not only in their home country Finland, but around the globe in general. Listeners have plenty of trouble trying to categorize this unique instrumental music; you'll probably see some weird quotes like "ethnic brass punk" when reading reviews or surfing the web on the subject. While these terms may get close, it is safe to say the band seamlessly blends wide variety of styles, sometimes even within the same song!
In the Alamaailman Vasarat music you can find traces of tango, klezmer, jazz, psychobilly, cabaret, circus music, new age, progressive avant-garde and heaviest of heavy metal.
It is fairly typical to hear the band sail between creepy “Christmas-songs-for-the-poor”-type melancholic Finnish melodies and hot desert mirages of Ancient Persia. Journey might take you head-banging through the deepest mosh-pits of trashy dish factories of modern India, maybe ending up chilling out in a long-lost jazz dive of 20’s Harlem.
Whatever the mood or style, the combining elements in all Alamaailman Vasarat compositions are a strong visual image and powerful melodic content, preparing the listener for an unforgettable musical journey to places yet explored, strangely distant but at the same time curiously familiar - almost like the band is able to tap into some long-lost primordial memory strain common to all people on the planet. True World Music!
Strangely enough, "The Hammers" themselves consider having their musical roots somewhere in a fictional continent called Vasaraasia ("Hammer-Asia") which is also the title of their highly praised debut album released September 2000.
Alamaailman Vasarat was founded in 1997 by Jarno “Stakula” Sarkula and drummer Teemu Hänninen. Jarno had just bought a soprano sax - a reason enough to start a new band! After a few months of experimenting the line-up was primed for live action, but has never stopped evolving. New instruments expand the band's musical vocabulary album by album.
Split between six members, the band's weaponry now consists of high and low saxes & clarinets, a trombone, tuba, two cellos with multi-effects (sometimes heavily distorted), a pump organ, grand piano, drums & percussion. The most recent addition is truly a rare beauty – special contrabass saxophone called Tubax, already a favorite of the audience. Huh, this mother goes so low you can feel the Earth move!
In 2000, the debut album "Vasaraasia" entered the World Music Chart Europe Top-20 at the seventh position, leaving many big Finnish world music acts far behind. In 2003 the second album "Käärmelautakunta" got out and portrayed a mature band with refined sound and much evolved compositions. In 2005 the band released a collaboration album "Kinaporin Kalifaatti" with Finnish singer Tuomari Nurmio. The album received five stars all over and was awarded with a highly sought-after TEOSTO PRIZE from the Finnish Composers' Copyright Society.
The fourth Alamaailman Vasarat album "Maahan" was released March 2007 simultaneously in Europe and Japan. Getting back to their beloved instrumental form, the band once again proved its unique ability to blend wide variety of styles into pure and distinctive Alamaailman Vasarat sound. The album was praised all over and is widely considered best one to date.
Alamaailman Vasarat have also done film music; most recently for an animated movie Elukka ("The Animal") which was awarded for best music score at French film festival Premiers Plans 2006. The band's music has also been used in numerous theatre plays during the years.
ng as early as 2000, Alamaailman Vasarat have constantly performed outside Finland, spreading the word of Finnish instrumental music and leaving many mouths open in the process. Such is the intensity and performance power of this act that many bands refuse to go on stage after the crazy Finns, realizing there is nothing more to offer! No surprise - Screaming Saxes, Moshing Trombone & The Impenetrable Wall of Distorted Cellos can be hard to handle even for the old school heavy dinosaurs, let alone cynical purists who say all music has been done already - well, we can safely say this old axiom can be buried right here and right now!
All those surprised venues have varied from big time world music festivals to huge progressive rock gatherings, never forgetting intense acts at rock clubs and jazz dives. To name a few, the band has played in Portugal (Festival Músicas do Mundo), Netherlands (Stranger Than Paranoia), Germany (TFF Rudolstadt), Sweden (Urkult Folk Festival), Japan (Pit Inn, Tokyo), USA (NEARfest, Trenton) and in all major festivals of Finland such as Ruisrock, Provinssirock and Ilosaarirock.
One of the recent additions to an impressive gig list was the unforgettable October 2007 performance at World Music Expo WOMEX in Sevilla, Spain, where the band took the Alamaailman Vasarat saga to a whole new level, leaving many big time acts in the dust. Ah, surely a night to remember!
The summer of 2008 the band was all over: Mission Folk Music Festival in Canada, massive Sziget in Hungary, Bardentreffen in Germany, Festival Musicas do Mar in Portugal and Ethnomechanica in St. Peterburg, just to name a few.
The future plans of include a lot gigs and of course new releases. The new album had a kick-start in Italy late October 2008, where the band spent a full week composing and arranging new material. This upcoming masterpiece hits the shelves in April 2009 in Scandinavia, Central Europe and later in Japan. Next release in line is the long-awaited Live DVD, targeted for Spring 2010.
For countless occasions, Alamaailman Vasarat have proved that old wood and brass can really beat the shiz out of any modern day instruments. It is just a matter of attitude and clever arrangements and compositions. But do not mistake the band to be just a master of Wall of Sound – it is just as important to play Silent. According to loyal fans, the most breath-taking moments are in fact those creepiest bars when the band plays so quiet and so petite you can almost hear the dead moaning six feet under! And when the distorted cellos kick in once again…
The saga of Alamaailman Vasarat has already spanned more than a decade, but hey – we’ve just scratched the surface, this hellish ensemble is just getting warmed up! Be ready to witness some hot brass and burning wood to light up all the stages of the world in the years to come!
