This international band has a hypnotic sound. The Finnish guitarists Kalle Kalima and the Norvegian guitarist Knut Reiersrud represent styles from rock and jazz (Kalima) to blues and world music (Reiersrud). The drummer Christian Marien and the bassist Igor Spallati are creative players with world class experience. Their programme is composed mostly of the compostions of their latest album entitled Flying Like Eagles, released by the ACT Music. The point of departure far this album is traditional roots music from America, inspired in part by Native American heritage, plus three classic songs that are also imbued with that same spirit of unspoilt authenticity and freedom.
The origins of the main protagonists on this album might come as a surprise, however: these two guitarists are not actually from the southern states of the US but from Scandinavia. And yet there isn't any contradiction: Kalle Kalima, who is Finnish, had already developed a passion far traditional American folk music as a teenager, and a year spent as an ex­ change student in Chicago immersed in the local scene deepened that interest further. Knut Reiersrud has been demonstrating all his life that Norwegians have the blues too, and after at the age of 18, the US became his musical home. Guitarists Kalima and Reiersrud complement each other perfectly: Kalima mostly took the melody line with the electric guitar, whereas Knut on his various different guitars tended to concentrate on colours, sounds and sound layers. "Many of the songs on this disc come from populations and minorities who have lived harmoniously and in a con­ nected way with nature, so the album is a tribute to them," Knut Reiersrud underlines. And it is a message which is now more topical than ever.