The music on this album is all over the place from minimalist/ambient to trad folk and avante garde and the wonderfully weird circus vibe of Jenkka Skitsofrenia.  I am new to his music but so far I have loved anything Jouko Kyhala is a part of.
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Music from Finland is often very special - somehow in Europe's northeast musicians    have other ideas than in the rest of Europe. Pekka Lehti with his unique music    is no exception... 
   Pekka Lehti plays the upright bass. His band Outo Voima (= unknown force) is named after the first band (a punk rock group) Pekka played in about 20 years ago. Outo Voima consist of the percussionist Marko Timonen and Jouko Kyhälä on Harmonium, harmonicas, melodica, claviola, overtone singing and kantele. All the compositions are made by Pekka Lehti, except one that he has made together with his band and one one of Jouko Kyhälä.
   I really don't know exactly why - but the music of Pekka Lehti & Outo Voima fascinates me a lot. It is not easy to be classified, it is very catchy, there are several instrumental earwigs, it is inspiring and often unexpected things happen. The tunes are somehow nostalgic, but still in today's times.
   As I said it is unique music - and if you now still do not know, what music they are playing, go and buy 'Sohjo'!
      
Christian Moll-FolkWorld
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The combination of bass, percussion, harmonium, harmonicas, melodica, claviola, overtone singing and kantele is a hard one to bring off. There are few who would dare go down this road, and there are certainly few who could do so in a way which isn't gimmicky or seriously weird. 

Not that there's anything wrong with seriously weird, and if there's one man who can explore those jagged frontiers and leave you begging for more it's bassist Pekka Lehti.

For ten years Lehti was bassist with Finnish band Värttinä,  But although his roots, like theirs, go back to Karelian soil, it was with punk band Outo Voima he made his first musical mark. Along the way he's inhabited the jazz world too, and found inspiration from Nino Rota, Mingus and Piazzolla.

Lehtis is joined by percussionist Marko Timonen and multi-instrumentalist Jouko Kyhälä, making music which would be as at home in the searing heat of the Californian deserts as by a Finnish lake in midsummer. 

From the gentle bells of the opening and a bass line which creeps into your consciousness you're gripped by a musical force which could go in any direction.  Its inherent beauty is unsettling; the physical effect of its rhythms is compulsive. 

It's in track 2, though, 'Snadina', where you say to this album, "take me I'm yours": the harmonica's seduction is impossible to resist. In 'Ite' the same harmonica aches until all passion is spent, and you realise that all along you were being dragged in the direction of a Finnish folk dance. 

'Jenkka Skitsofrenia' is full of circus sounds, sinister and dark, a truly schizophrenic take on a traditional tune, while 'Skrubu' is cabaret tango, snaking its way into the days of the 1930s European tango, storm clouds gathering with the insistent rhythms of the snare drum.

This is an album of danger and smokey desire, with just enough nostalgia thrown in to tug at the heartstrings.  Unforgettable.
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