Kaiku

Many people’s knowledge Finnish music could at greatest end up being summed up in the task of Jean Sibelius, or possibly Einojuhani Rautavaara — but there’s Kaiku. A sextet of three feminine singers who appear to be a cross between your Roches as well as the Swingle Performers, are associated with three men on percussion, cello, and accordion. These were produced in 2004 in NY (where else would one type a Finnish group?) by Jaana Kantola and Paula Jaakkola — after that members of an organization known as Akapella — who made a decision to strike from their own using a third vocalist, Erja Vettenranta. Cellist Christopher Hoffman emerged aboard next, accompanied by accordionist Rob Curto and percussionist Scott Kettner. They called the group Kaiku, that is Finnish for “echo.” Their audio, mixing three feminine voices of dazzling range with a variety of Finnish lyrics (attracted from folk music and epic poems) and vocalese, recalls not merely the Swingle Performers, but Kate Bush multiplied by three, or Petra Haden minus the overdubbing, and it is sensitive, witty, brutal, and warm, by transforms and sometimes all at one time. Regular, “established” gigs at locales like the Cornelia Road Cafe in Greenwich Town as well as the Brooklyn Academy of Music cafe adopted, along with looks on local tv and WBAI-FM radio. In early 2005, they released an EP of the music on Compact disc, and as prepared, an album ought to be coming.