Ottopasuuna was a Finnish

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

ensemble that mixed their country's traditional music with forms from elsewhere in Europe, played with unconventional instruments.

History

Ottopasuuna was formed in the early 1990s by Petri Hakala (

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

, octave mandolin,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

and

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

), Kurt Lindblad (

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

and bagpipe), Kimmo Pohjonen (

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

), and Kari Reiman (fiddle player who was also a member of the

Värttinä Värttinä (, meaning "spindle") is a Finnish folk music band that started as a project by Sari and Mari Kaasinen in 1983 in the village of Rääkkylä, in Karelia, the southeastern region of Finland. Many transformations have taken place in the ...

group). By 1994, Lindblad had been replaced by Kristiina Ilmonen (

whistles Whistling without the use of an artificial whistle is achieved by creating a small opening with one's lips, usually after applying moisture (licking one's lips or placing water upon them) and then blowing or sucking air through the space. The a ...

, flute and

Irish flute The Irish flute is a conical-bore, simple-system wooden flute of the type favoured by classical flautists of the early 19th century, or to a flute of modern manufacture derived from this design (often with modifications to optimize its use in Ir ...

) and Janne Lappalainen (

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

and

bazouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

). Many of the band members were previously part of Finland's

Sibelius Academy The Sibelius Academy ( fi, Taideyliopiston Sibelius-Akatemia, sv, Sibelius-Akademin vid Konstuniversitetet) is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It als ...

. The band is primarily associated with contemporary

Finnish folk music The music of Finland can be roughly divided into categories of folk music, classical and contemporary art music, and contemporary popular music. The folk music of Finland belongs to a broader musical tradition, that has been common amongst B ...

and its influences include "the Finno-Ugrian world (...) dance tunes and melodies from

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, Ingria, Ostrobothnia (...) and

Karelia Karelia ( Karelian and fi, Karjala, ; rus, Каре́лия, links=y, r=Karélija, p=kɐˈrʲelʲɪjə, historically ''Korjela''; sv, Karelen), the land of the Karelian people, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for ...

." Hakala, in particular, has been recognized for his ability to master multiple instruments and described as "one of the finest players around" in folk and rock traditions of Finland. In 1991, Ottopasuuna released a critically acclaimed self-titled album through Green Linnet Records. It was the first Finnish folk album to be released internationally.

Discography

* '' Ottopasuuna'' (1991) * Suokaasua (1996)

Members

* Petri Hakala – guitar, mandocello, mandolin * Kurt Lindblad – clarinet, flute, whistle * Kimmo Pohjonen – harmonica, marimba, melodion * Kari Reiman – fiddle

References

{{Finland-music-bio-stub 20th-century Finnish musicians Finnish folk musical groups