FEATURED CD - Tabula Rasa : Ekkedien Tanssi

[Duncan Glenday]

Per Svart Records:

Originally released on Love Records in 1976, Ekkedien tanssi was the second and last Tabula Rasa album. The Svart reissue is fully authorised and sourced from the original masters. The package features new liner notes by Mikko Alatalo and a new interview with vocalist Jukka Leppilampi. A repro of the band's last single from 1977, Rakastatko vielä kun on ilta / Yksin is also included.

http://www.svartrecords.com/releases...ien-tanssi-lp7

[bob_32_116]

Never heard of them. What language is that? Swedish?

Clicking on the link gives very little additional information.

[Kcrimso]

Never heard of them. What language is that? Swedish?

It is Finnish.

[bob_32_116]

It is Finnish.

Thanks.

I checked on Wikipedia, and my question was not as silly as it looks, because it seems there have been at least three bands called Tabula Rasa, with or without various accent marks over certain letters.

[miamiscot]

Sounds pretty good. Never heard (of) them before.

[Kai]

Tabula Rasa were active from 1972 to 1977 and rather big in Finland, while barely known elsewhere. Released two albums, the bit rougher and more rocking debut with guitars, flute and influences from Jethro Tull in 1975 and Ekkedien tanssi, which replaces flute with keyboards and goes for a more mellow Camel-like tone, in 1976. The main feature on both are the melodic lead guitar work and compositions by Heikki Silvennoinen. The first one is (IMO) more consistent, while this one has some of their best songs, including this:



Most of the group's lyrics were written by songwriter, pop singer and later MP Mikko Alatalo and they were source of some amusement for their rather formulatic Weltschmerz and social observations. Though the language is Finnish, singer Jukka Leppilampi does somewhat peculiar things intoning it at times, especially on the first album. Some of the lyrics on "Omantunnon rukous" prefigure the gospel music which he has been inflicting upon us since leaving the band.

In fact, the group fell apart after, to quote Silvennoinen, ”half the band got religion and didn't want to play with the rest of us anymore”. Silvennoinen has since had a long and distinguished career as a rock guitarist and occasional comedy actor, but Tabula Rasa was his only real attempt at progressive rock. The band's albums are well worth investigating, if you like accessible, non-too-busy garden-variety prog.

[Progbear]

I like the first one better. Yeah, prog’s proggier with keyboards, but I thought the songs and the whole vibe of the first was a lot superior. “Omantunnon rukous” and possibly “Kehto” are really the only highlights of this one. The rest of the album feels a bit tired. The first had a lot more spirit to it.

[spacefreak]

First album works better for me as well. Thanks for reminding to re-spin this one.

[Trane]

I can't help finding both TR albums totally soporific. Worse than Camel or Curved Air

pheeeewwww... i'm about to make a shitload of friends

[zutul]

I like both albums, nice, melodic and relaxing stuff

[Scrotum Scissor]

They're OK. I probably prefer the debut to this by a split hair or so. There's a bit more atmosphere of magic (er...), whereas this one has a bit more funky hunk to it.

I sometimes get the feeling that TR are undeservedly looked down upon because of the general level of the "bigger" Finnish acts (Wigwam, Tasavallan, Haikara, Kalevala et al.) - although , as stated by Kai, TR actually made a selling name of themselves.

[bill g]

Interesting. I've only vaguely heard of them, but with the clips-the first song has a great instrumental section in the middle, but the vocal sections are pretty ordinary. The instrumental section is so warm and nostalgic, I'm very tempted to pick this up just for that short bit. The 2nd track is nothing special but pleasant enough-has a strong mood of being out on a pleasant summery morning, and the innocent freedom of the 70s. This one I like more when the voice comes in. Kai's link brought up a 'this video is not available' message so couldn't listen to that one.

[Kai]

"Rakastatko vielä kun on ilta" wasn't even on the original album, funnily enough. It was a single released after the album and a line-up change, the group's last release. The instrumental section and guitar melodies were usually Tabula Rasa's forte. The lyric warns about getting caught in "yesterday's dances", so the kind of luringly pleasant nostalgia is an understandable feature of the rhythm and melody.

Funny that you should assiociate "Aamukasteen laiva" to summer mornings. The song title actually translates to "Morning Dew's Ship" . Though the actual lyric is more gloomy than pleasant or innocent. The song originally had full verses, but singer Leppilampi and producer Gustavson decided to cut them all off just before recording, leaving only the chorus.

I still can still see "Omantunnon rukous" video without problems, so could it be regionally restricted?

[bill g]

That could be, I've had that come up before on a rare occasion. And thanks for the background to those tracks. If that nice instrumental break is characteristic of their sound, I'm going to check out more of their stuff. I've always been a sucker for a beautiful melody!

[Pr33t]

I sometimes get the feeling that TR are undeservedly looked down upon because of the general level of the "bigger" Finnish acts (Wigwam, Tasavallan, Haikara, Kalevala et al.) - although , as stated by Kai, TR actually made a selling name of themselves.

For me, they don't musically live up to the other acts you mention. I had only been quite familiar with Wigwam before the last few years, and have come to a number of these Finnish albums through Svart's wonderful reissues. TR stands out as not having anywhere near the inventiveness and originality as the others.