Uzva - History

History

Uzva preparing for a gig at Espa, Helsinki, by doing a little gymnastics. Year 1995.		The story of Uzva began in the summer of 1994. The band, that was founded then, started playing cover songs from bands like Pink Floyd and the Doors. Soon we moved into playing instrumental music. We started to play some little pieces that Heikki had earlier composed. At that time our line-up was two guitars (Heikki Puska and Lauri Kajander), bass (Pekko Sams) and drums (almost from the beginning Olli Kari). With this line-up we recorded our first demotape and did some gigs. Our style back then could be described as humorous and angular, anarchistic ”teen-prog”. As time went by, our songs became longer and more diversified. We tried some extra-instruments and finally the band had six members: clarinetist Heikki Rita and violinist Lari Latvala joined the band in the beginning of the year 1997.
Every now and then we have had some short (and sometimes a bit longer) periods of lower activity in Uzva, and after them we have always started again with new enthusiasm. One of these breaks happened in 1998, so at the end of the year there was time for a different kind of a project. A special line-up was put together for a tribute concert in Helsinki: the plan was to play the legendary Finnish prog classic, Tasavallan Presidentti’s Lambertland. Heikki and Lauri of Uzva participated that project and the evening was a success: some seven hundred people came to see the show at Tavastia-club, and in the audience there was three original Tasavallan Presidentti –members (Tolonen, Groundstroem and V. Aaltonen)!		The best album in the world?
We recorded a demo version of Tammela in January at our rehersal place.		During the break, Heikki had thought of some new ideas, some of them was even written down. So in January of 1999 he decided to go to a cottage at Tammela, which is a small village at the countryside of Southern Finland. He was planning to make something out of the material he had been thinking of. He took some instruments and a four-track recorder with him and after a month of lonely working he came back to Helsinki. He had composed the work ”Tammikuinen Tammela”, which means literally Tammela in January. Even though some material existed before the time in Tammela, most of it is composed there. After Heikki had come back, we agreed with Colossus, the Finnish association of progressive rock, on a gig at Vanha, Helsinki on Easter 1999. So we started to practice intensively, excited by the new material. That Easter-gig was the first public performance of Tammikuinen Tammela. Other bands at the concert were 5.15 (FIN) and Morte Macabre (SWE). Next summer we recorded a demo-version of Tammela and played some other concerts.
Next autumn an Italian progressive rock label offered us to publish the demo-version of Tammela. After some thinking we decided that TT deserves to be recorded more properly. We also wanted some extra-instruments to color the music. So we called Måns Groundstroem, who had seen our Tasavallan Presidentti –tribute. He liked the tribute so much, that he promised immediately to record our album. We were very excited about this because Groundstroem had played bass in two of the most legendary Finnish prog-bands in the 70’s: Tasavallan Presidentti and Wigwam. He had also recorded many of those records we love, as the house-producer of Love Records, the most remarkable Finnish record label in the 70’s. After all our negotiations with the Italians went on the rocks, we decided to release the record ourselves as Ylösmatka Records. The album got great reviews as well in Soundi and Rumba (two major Finnish music magazines) as in many prog-oriented magazines and web pages outside Finland.		Uzva in Kaivopuisto, Helsinki, year 1999.
Uzva & co. at Tavastia Club performing the hole Tubular Bells of Mike Oldfield. A poster here.		The spring of 2000, after we had the album out and did a few gigs, was a good time for another tribute concert. Again, the theme was one of the most influential albums for us - Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. Now the basic line-up was the entire Uzva, which was expanded by some other musicians (three members of Höyry-Kone and a few other friends). The concert was arranged at Tavastia-club at the end of April and the other bands were Höyry-Kone and the Latvian Holy Lamb. Even though, as the last act of the three, we weren’t able to start until almost two o’clock in the morning, the athmosphere was as devoted as in a church. After this we had some gigs usually performing the entire Tammela and some cover-songs. Little by little our activity slowed down and some problems within the band, both practical and ideological, appeared. At the few last gigs the bass was played by a younger brother of our drummer Olli, Lassi Kari, who already performed with us at the Tubular Bells show. After a while of some confusion we ended up having another break. During this time we understood that we had again only four active members: Heikki, Olli, Lauri and Lassi. The former bassist Pekko, the clarinetist Heikki and the violinist Lari had left their own way and the future was unpredictable.
The guitarist Heikki and the drummer Olli had started studying music at the Helsinki Conservatory. In the autumn of 2000 Heikki was asked to make music for a short film (12 minutes) at a very short notice. A special line-up was put together for this project: Heikki played piano and bass, Olli played vibraphone and marimba and from the Conservatory Inka Eerola played violin, Tuure Paanala cello and Hanne Eronen flute. This project was succesful and fruitful also because almost accidentially a new interesting and working Uzva line-up of seven members had been born. Now for the first time in Uzva-history there was also two female musicians in the band (Inka and Hanne). Some new material had been planned for a while. Some of it had already been played on a few last gigs of the former line-up. Now we started arranging and practicing it with the new line-up. The first gig of the new Uzva was in November, 2000. At that gig our set was totally new: music from the short film and some new compositions. Once again our future seemed sunny and all members of the band were enthusiastic and devoted. A new entity of music was getting shape and we were planning to record our second album next summer. Also Uzva's first gigs outside Finland were organized: we played a couple of gigs in Slovenia and Italy in April 2001.		Hanne and Heikki in Gloria, Helsinki 2001
***** The story will be continued as soon as possible...

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