Allthough I'm Finnish (a person from Finland) myself and have listened to prog rock since early 70s, I never paid much attention to Kalevala Orchestra back then. I have put the band somewhere in the backroom of my interest. Now I'm trying to recall why i did so, because Paeople No Names turns out to be excellent prog rock. It took me about 40 years to notice it. Again, why? First I thought it was because I maybe did not like Harri Saksala's voice too much, but as a matter of fact he sings only on two tracks (and nowadays I like his singing on this album). Then I think I remembered why... It was later in 70s when I first time heard Kalevala. Their deput album's songs were not played a lot on the radio back then, but in 1978 their second album Boogie Jungle's song Boogie was played a lot. I recall that liked it but not more than progressive rock and I must have thought Kalevala Orchestra is mostly boogie style music. It is'n, not at all. This People No Names album did not sell a lot at that time it was released and accurate and original albums are nowadays very rare and hard to find. One seems to have been sold for about 1000 euros on ebay. So I did not have too many opportunities to listen to the real and progressive Kalevala Orchestra before this rerelease by Svart Records. The cover art is quite repulsive and my mental image of Kalevala being mostly boogie rock have formed my feelings to Kalevala orchestra through these years. Now I know the music of the band better and
thank Svart Records for reissuing this.
After all that personal speculation and recolloction of mine I just say that if you are in prog rock and have never heard of Kalevala Orchestra before, I can foresee you may like them too. Their third album Abraham's Blue Refrain is a bit milder and lighter effort, but not bad at all. Their second album Jungle Boogie maybe too under rated too, because it differs from these two others, but if you like straight boogie rock and have an open mind, it may please you as well.
If you dont like the main track People No Names because of the vocalist's sound, don't give up too easily. The other tracks are mostly instrumental and maay delight you more. After all I think this album earns a place as a classic among the others in the prog music genre.
Special respect to: Matti Kurkinen the band's guitarist would have challenged the two Finnish guitar maestros Jukka Tolonen and Albert Järvinen, if he only had not bee run down by a truck in a bus stop in 1975.
