Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha, Näennäinen

Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha’s fourth album presents the ensemble as vivacious as ever. Ever since Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha was established in 2009, their music has had an unique speciality to it with various musical elements mashed into one, main elements being the Balkan Roma grooves, Russian romances and old Finnish tango and humppa. The band consists of vocal, trumpet, bouzouki, accordion, double bass and drums.

Steering away from lyrics on previous outputs of Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha, texts on the album ’Näennäinen’ are more narrative than the ones on the three previous records. Band’s frontman Jaakko Laitinen opens up the lyrical diversity of the texts on the upcoming album:

The broad timescale goes from all the way back to the moments of life first being born in the depths of the primeval sea to the far away dystopian future, not forgetting the problems of loving. Questions on love are addressed in both cosmological and phenomenal point of view, in the same manner as things like life being born and milliards of years old mystical forces are viewed from both scientific and mythological light.

’Näennäinen’ album is featuring a Danish-Makedonian clarinetist Bjonko and a Berlin balalaika player Morgan Nikolay as well as violinist Matti Pitkänen and percussionist Tuomas Timken. Albeit most of the pieces have come from the pen of the ensemble’s frontman Jaakko Laitinen himself, the band has also taken use of old classics around the globe: ‘Kännissä ja pilvessä’ follows the tracks of an Anestis Delias’ Rembetiko classic from Greece and melodies from ’Valheet ja Kahleet’ are borrowed from Russia and Ukraine.

Watch the absolutely bonkers music video of single ‘Naamioleikki’:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20q3lx0C8H4

Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha is known for their lively on stage performances and Balkan inspired tunes have been played with a pace of approximately 80 gigs per year, from the villages the very northern Lapland to the hippest dance floors of Helsinki. Abroad the band has played in Germany, Italy, around Scandinavia, Baltic States, Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia.

Concert dates:

20.3.2017 – Mühldorf D - Haberkasten 21.3.2017 – Augsburg D - Kresslesmühle 23.3.2017 – Flawil CH - Kulturpunkt 24.3.2017 – Freiburg D - White Rabbit 25.3.2017 – Zürich CH - Suomi Disko