AMULET / A Musical Ethnicality
THE BAND
PETRI IKKELÄ accordina, accordions, bandoneon and concertina
MARKO TIMONEN drums and percussions
KIMMO LEPPÄLÄ clarinets and saxophones
ILMARI RÄIKKÖNEN piano
EERIK SIIKASAARI double bass and el-bass
PETER ENGBERG guitars
TEPPO ALI-MATTILA violin
JORMA UOTINEN recitation no. 8
Arranged and conducted by PETRI IKKELÄ
Producer PETRI IKKELÄ

Recorded: MIMIXSTUDIO, JANI LIPPONEN
Paitsi no. 9 ROLAND SCANDINAVIA STUDIO, VEIJO LAINE
Mixed by: PETER ENGBERG, JANI LIPPONEN, PETRI IKKELÄ
Mastered by:  ERKKI MARJASVAARA
www.mimixstudio.com
Booklet design: MIKKO KARPPANEN
Photos: MIKKO KARPPANEN, (Petri Ikkelä)
THE FINNISH ACCORDION INSTITUTE FAICD-21
www.harmonikkainstituutti.net

“If you imagine that all the things I have learnt and and experienced are like nuggets of gold in a stream, then this disc is a gold pan vigorously shaken round and round, a search for those nuggets: projects and line-ups, friends with whom making music has been especially bright. Each in turn surfaces and engages in dialogue with my accordion. The result is music such as you may not hear anywhere else. Nothing I have learnt is just its own self: not folk, tango, world, classical, traditional or rock. All are filtered through one another and answer two questions: what has music made of me and what have I made of music?

Family and roots were one starting point. My great grandfather was a conductor and professional musician back in the 19th century. His son, another conductor by the name of  Martti Parantainen (Matthias Pará), found  a piece for me to arrange. Merja Ikkelä, my sister and my teacher for many years, composed Mal de Mer for this disc. The rest I found among the treasures of  Finnish folk music and the works of familiar composers. Having assembled my repertoire, I noticed to my surprise that the name of a bird features in many of the works or composers. I hope that all those gallant birds will lend wings to my music  Finnish from the home-nest perspective but the music of the whole world from a bird’s-eye view.”

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORKS IN PETRI IKKELÄ’S ALBUM:  FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO

1.  LAPIN TUNTURIT
THE FJELDS OF LAPLAND
säv./comp. Anssi Tikanmäki, sov./arr. Petri Ikkelä
This song is a part of a larger orchestral work, which was composed for a symphony  orchestra and a rock band that was inspired by the views and landscapes of many different regions of Finland.  This particular song comes from the most northern part of Finland called Lappland.  Its spirit comes from the Shamen rhythms of the native Sami culture of Lappland.

2. LOS CUENTOS DEL CASTILLO VIEJO
(based on the Finnish folk melody Säkkijärven polkka)
trad., sov./arr. Petri Ikkelä
The best known Finnish polka is the Säkkijärven Polkka. I decided to change the name of this song, because in my arrangement it has been transformed from a polka into an “ethnic jazz” tune.  The new name (“tales of an old  castle”) tells us a story from the second wold war time when the playing of this polka helped save a castle in eastern Finland. That castle, The Castle of Viipuri, still exists – and this polka does too.

3.  PIRU JA PAPPI
A DEVIL AND A PRIEST
trad., sov./arr. Petri Ikkelä
In this arrangement, I wanted to use older, Kalevala-inspired and younger Finnish folk melodies to tell a story about a devil and a priest. The devil asks the priest to dance. Can you tell if the priest complies? You can decide for yourself by listening to the music.

LAST YEAR’S FALL & COLOURS OF SPRING
4. Last Year’s Fall
5. Colours of  Spring
säv./comp. Petri Nieminen, sov./arr. Petri Ikkelä
Antonio Vivaldi and Astor Piazzolla had works about the different seasons. Here one can listen to musical stories about autumn and spring here in Finland. I hope that you can soon hear the rest of the Finnish seasons in my concerts.

6. KOTKAN RUUSU JA KOTKAN POIKII ILMAN SIIPII
säv./comp. Helvi Mäkinen/Juha Vainio, sov./arr. Petri Ikkelä
Tango has been a very special part of my musical career.  In Finland, tango has a large and loyal following.  I would say that, in a way, a great number of  Finnish folksongs are “tangos”. The tempos, melodies, rhythmical structures, and even the stories themselves have elements that can be seen in tango.
Finnish seamen often brought new musical ideas such as jazz and tango to my country during the old days from abroad, so port cities were our windows into other countries and cultures. These two melodies are from a very important Finnish port city called Kotka (The Eagle).

7. MAL DE MER
säv./comp. Merja Ikkelä, sov./arr. Petri Ikkelä,
Runo / poem
Ilpo Tiihonen (French version by Olivier Descargues):
”Miten lämmintä hämärässä” /
”Comme il fait chaud dans la penombre”
      esittäjä / recitation: Jorma Uotinen
I have composed music for a couple of films, which I enjoyed a great deal. Somehow I wanted to bring this movie soundtrack-feeling into my cd. My sister had a beautiful and very suitable melody for “my movie”, but how can one without the film? I decided to use a narrator voiceover the way it is often used in French films. A very famous Finnish master of  poetry, Mr Ilpo Tiihonen, gave me a permission  to use his work together with this tune.
In this tune, in my mind, everything is in a harmonious balance with the ocean depths: fish as clarinet, the waves of the sea and the surface water as piano, and the sky above with a bird in flight as concertina.

8. ÉTÈ – MARGERITTE – AMOUR
säv./comp. Lasse Pihlajamaa, sov./arr. Petri Ikkelä
The grand old man of Finnish accordion music is Mr. Lasse Pihlajamaa who brought new colours and ideas into Finnish music. My first solo album, “Accordions – Bandoneon – Concertina”, had several of Mr. Pihlajamaa’s compositions in it, and I wanted to take at least one of these into my new CD to keep the spirit of his ideas, especially since he gave me the permission to arrange these tunes freely.

9. THE EARTH
Trad., sov./arr. Petri Ikkelä
World Music – this is my version of it. All the folk tunes come from different parts of the world: America (old Indian-song), Europe (old Finnish Kalevala-song, a tune from Russia), Asia (a folk song from Japan), Africa, and Australia.
I am interested in all new ideas and machines, which is one reason I started to play all kinds of accordions.  Accordions are constantly changing, are not standardized and may never be, and are different in different parts of the world. I was given a unique opportunity to play this entire work with a new kind of accordion, an electronic digital or virtual accordion, which I did not want to use like a normal accordion.  I tried to find special sounds in it. Some of the sounds (especially the percussive sounds) were put into this instrument to make it sound like a more realistic, authentic accordion. It is not as if all accordions can fit into one box, but rather, each accordion is its own unique instrument. This virtual accordion has its own character and place among the accordions of the world. 

In this song I wanted to use some of the unique sounds generated by this virtual accordion and balance these sounds with the beauty inherent in the range of human voices that can be heard around the world from Finland, to Japan, to Iran, to America, to Russia, France, and Germany.  Maybe all of these voices can be heard at an airport somewhere, but increasingly in a world plagued by war, pollution, and terrorism, the less likely these voices will be heard at the same place peacefully. So, in this song, I wanted all of these voices to be heard at the same time in peaceful, virtual communication with one another.

10. MUSICAL MINUTES
säv./comp. Matthias Pará, sov./arr. Petri Ikkelä
When I started to plan my new CD, I had an interesting idea to look at old photos in our family album. There have been professional musicians in my family for more than one hundred years. So I went back to the roots of my musical family to get material for this arrangement. My great uncle, Mr. Martti Parantainen, was the chief conductor of the Finnish Army Orchestra for many years. In addition to his regular job he composed non-military music including many beautiful melodies such as this one. Before his military career, he was an all-around musician as I am now. He even played banjo in silent films. Enjoy this glimpse into our family album!

11. KOTKAN VARJO
THE SHADOW OF THE EAGLE
säv./comp. Eerik Siikasaari, sov./arr. Petri Ikkelä
The bass player in my Amuletti band, Mr Eerik Siikasaari, is one of the leading bass players in Finland, but he is an excellent composer, too, which you can hear here. When I first heard this tune, I knew, that it was going to be the last tune on this CD, as somehow this tune keeps flying on the air. Well, it has wings – it is an eagle.

Petri Ikkelä as a guest musician with other artists on the following recordings:
ARTIST, NAME OF THE RECORD, CD-CODE

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE TUNES OF PETRI IKKELÄ`S ALBUM

1. NUORUUSMUISTOJA (MEMORIES OF YOUTH)

comp. Lasse Pihlajamaa, arr. Petri Ikkelä
Mr Lasse Pihlajamaa asked Petri to arrange his compositions for an Argentine style Tango Orchestra. Most of Lasse`s own tangos have already very virtuoso layout and that is why Petri used Lasse`s most famous waltz (one of the most famous waltzes in Finland) to get a simple and beautiful melody to work with.

2. KATRILLI AUNUKSESTA (QUADRILLE FROM AUNUS)
trad., arr. Petri Ikkelä
This tune comes from eastern part of Finland which is called Karelia. Nowadays eastern part of Karelia belongs to Russia but there is still some people which keep up their Finno-Ugric traditions.

3. SÄHINÄSAMPA AAMU-UNISELLA JÄRVELLÄ
(SPEEDY SAMBA ON A DROWSY MORNING LAKE)
comp. Lasse Pihlajamaa, arr. Petri Ikkelä
This is a typical example of Pihlajamaa`s virtuoso pieces. Petri has combined two of his tunes to get enough material for this modern Brazilian Forro style arrangement.

4,5 and 6. KOLME KUVAELMAA CONCERTINALLE JA JOUSIKVINTETILLE
(THREE TABLEAUX FOR CONCERTINA AND STRING QUINTET)
comp., arr & cond.:Heikki Valpola
These Three tableaux for concertina and string quintet are representing the oldest music which have been written for any accordion instrument. The oldest fully chromatic accordion instrument was the English Concertina (invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone 1829 in England) and it was used in classical music like the flute or violin or any other solo instrument. This composition is new and it has a little Northern colour, but it has the right old-fashioned style.

7. HAMBO-MASURKKA (HAMBO-MAZURKA)
comp. Lasse Pihlajamaa
Even this Mazurka is composed by Lasse Pihlajamaa, it represents Finnish 1-row diatonic accordion folk music tradition.

8. ELÄMÄNI TARINOITA (STORIES OF MY LIFE)
comp.Lasse Pihlajamaa, arr. Petri Ikkelä
Petri supposes, that this is a Latin American way to play
Finnish waltz?

9. and 10. KIEROSILMÄINEN KAMELI JA TÖNNÖ
(THE CROSS-EYED CAMEL AND TÖNNÖ)
comp. and arr. Petri Ikkelä
The cross-eyed camel and Tönnö is Petri`s way to write new music for 2-row diatonic accordion.

11. LAGRIMAS
comp. Lasse Pihlajamaa, arr. Petri Ikkelä
Lágrimas consists of several Pihlajamaa`s compositions. Petri made it to be the first member of next generation of Finnish Tangos. He hopes that all the listeners, too, would consider it a totally NEW FINNISH TANGO!

12. UNIHIEKKAA (THE SANDMAN)
comp. Jukka Siikavire, arr. Petri Ikkelä
The Sandman is very famous children`s song in Finland. It is played on TV every evening to tell the children that now is the bedtime.