GROUP, THE - The Group (Sealed) (2CD)

Svart presents a heavily extended reissue of The Group's only album, originally released on Finnlevy's prog rock imprint Hi-Hat in 1978. The 2nd LP features an extended studio session with the Sibelius academy orchestra, and the extra 7" has two studio outtakes from the original album. Highly influenced by Weather Report and the jazz fusion scene of the 70s, The Group was set up after Pekka Pohjola and Vesa Aaltonen came back to Finland from Sweden. They both played in the Swedish prog/jazz rock band Made in Sweden. As The Group's guitarist Seppo Tyni remembers, Aaltonen came back to Finland in early 1977 and Pohjola later in the summer. From the early 1977 Aaltonen and Tyni both played in Olli Ahvenlahti Quintet that for example performed at the Finnish Eurovision qualification (though they played as a quartet there). The quartet (Olli Ahvenlahti, Seppo Tyni, Vesa Aaltonen, Heikki "H?k? Virtanen) was the backing band for Markku Blomqvist who performed his song Liehuva liekinvarsi. If you listen to the song, it couldn't be much more further in style from The Group's material. However just in a matter of few months three of the band members would play in the jazz fusion quartet called The Group. "This band was very remarkable for me as I had just moved to Helsinki from Pori in 1976. I played in the Swedish Theatre for one season and it led me to meet other musicians of my age like H?k? Virtanen. Then I met Olli Ahvenlahti and Vesa Aaltonen. It was the first time I got to play with real professionals", Tyni remembers