Pekka Valter Mattias Streng (April 26, 1948 in

Sysmä Sysmä () is a municipality of Finland. It is situated in the Päijät-Häme region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Neighbouring municipalities are Asikkala, Hartol ...

– April 11, 1975) was a Finnish musician who had a notable influence on

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

in Finland. Streng died of cancer at the age of 26. He knew about his disease throughout his career and the awareness of his forthcoming death can be heard from both his lyrics and music. During his short career he made two albums, which were published by

Love Records Sean Combs (born Sean John Combs; November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, or Diddy, is an American rapper, actor, record producer, and record executive. Born in New York City, he worked as a talent directo ...

. He wrote the songs and lyrics (in

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

), and performed vocals and acoustic guitars on the albums. On the first one, ''Magneettimiehen kuolema'' (1970), he collaborated with

Tasavallan Presidentti Tasavallan Presidentti (in English '' President of the Republic'') is a Finnish progressive rock band. It was founded in 1969 by guitarist Jukka Tolonen and drummer Vesa Aaltonen. Other founder members were Måns Groundstroem (bass) and Frank ...

, a renowned Finnish prog band of the time. On ''Kesämaa'' (1972), various other noted musicians such as

Olli Ahvenlahti Olli Ahvenlahti (born 6 August 1949, in Helsinki) is a Finnish pianist, composer and conductor. He is of Russian descent. Ahvenlahti succeeded Ossi Runne as the Finnish conductor at the Eurovision Song Contest for the 1990 Contest. In all, he ...

and

Hasse Walli Hannes Mikael Waldemar "Hasse" Walli was born on 10 February 1948 in Helsinki. His father Aarno Walli was a musician and bandleader, his mother Anne-Marie Strandberg a singer. Hasse Walli was about ten years old when he started playing drums. ...

took part in the studio sessions. At the time of publication, Streng's records did not prove especially popular. Later, however, his music began gradually to attract more and more following. The two albums were first released on (one) CD in 1990. Due to demand, remastered CD editions of both albums (this time separately) were released in 2003. Pekka Streng avoided publicity and only gave one interview to a music journalist during his life. Because of this, not much has been known about him as a person, which occasionally has helped form a somewhat mystified image of him. In 2009, nearly 34 years after Pekka Streng's death was released a posthumous album called ''Unen Maa'' which was built upon old recovered tape recordings where Pekka sings and plays acoustic guitar. Studio musicians (Olympia-orkesteri) provided overdubs for the recordings.

Discography

*Magneettimiehen Kuolema (with

) (1970) *Kesämaa (1972) *Unen maa (posthumous album with Olympia-orkesteri) (2009)

External links

Pekka Streng website
- song lyrics, images and articles (in Finnish) 1948 births 1975 deaths People from Sysmä Finnish male musicians 20th-century male musicians {{Finland-musician-stub