”Harri Kuusijärvi Koutus totally renews ones image of accordion music. ★★★★★ 5/5 stars”
Juha Seitz / Soundi 2014
”Unexpected, curious, striking, offbeat, rockin’, avant-garde, and fucking good. – – Koutus is one of the best discs to emerge this year, regardless of category.”
Mark S. Tucker / FAME 2014
”I have to say that I don’t think I’ve ever been completely astonished at the first listen to a CD as when I slipped in Harri Kuusijarvi Koutus’s debut – – Koutus is startling, stunning and ferocious.”
TJ Nelson / World Music Central 2014
Harri Kuusijärvi Koutus is a Finnish band led by accordionist Harri Kuusijärvi. Drawing on various contemporary influences the group creates a distinctive soundscape with taste of 70´s prog rock, jazz and world music fueled with improvisation – avant-fusion- accordion-jazz, as it has been described. Kuusijärvi’s compositions present accordion in a totally new light, accompanied with electric guitar, vibraphone, bass and percussion. The group’s debut album Koutus was internationally acclaimed by jazz, rock and world music critics. On their second album Music For A Family Picnic, released by Eclipse Music in February 2017, the band digs deeper into the northern state of mind:
”Music For A Family Picnic became a working title for our new material after someone describing our music mentioned that anyway he wouldn’t play it at his next family picnic. The twists of human life, the stories and relations of people and the oddities of humankind were a big inspiration for this music. The name suited the album, which in a way is a soundtrack for all this: program music for the picnic of humankind.” -Harri Kuusijärvi
Harri Kuusijärvi Koutus consists of five musicians each actively working in the Finnish jazz, rock and world music scene. Harri Kuusijärvi (Sampo Lassila Narinkka, Tero Hyväluoma Frost V, Tango á la Yona, Zazambor) is a Helsinki-based accordionist, originally from Lapland. He has explored the possibilities of accordion with an exceptionally wide angle ranging from contemporary solo repertoire to different forms of jazz, world and improvised music. In the album he is joined by Veikki Virkajärvi (Njet Njet 9, Aapo Heinonen Quintet), Eero Tikkanen (Mopo, The Mystic Revelation of Teppo Repo, Mikko Innanen 10+), Teho Majamäki (Teho Majamäki Travelogue, Ismo Alanko Teholla) and Jesse Ojajärvi (Tero Hyväluoma Frost V, Ville Vokkolainen & Kusipäät).
Harri Kuusijärvi · accordion, fx, compositions
Veikki Virkajärvi · electric guitar
Eero Tikkanen · bass
Teho Majamäki · vibraphone, percussion, fx
Jesse Ojajärvi · drums
