odysseus (black vinyl)

• 500 pieces limited edition (300 on black + 200 on orange vinyl)
• Gatefold jacket

Odysseus, Eero Koivistoinen's first proper jazz album, gets its title from the wandering spirit of its songs, traveling from one mood to another. Performed by the "Eero Koivistoinen Quintet & Sextet", because Koivistoinen wanted to extend his standard quartet (Koivistoinen-Sarmanto-Laine-Hietanen) to a quintet and invited trumpetist Bertil Lövgren to join. Also Juhani Aaltonen is questing on two tracks. Odysseus is an excellent, youthful package of forward-thinking jazz played by ambitious young jazz superstars-to-come. The compositions are at times lyrical, at others furious and complex, but ever captivating.

The original Odysseus LP, released by the book publisher Otava Kustannus in 1969, is among the ten most expensive pieces of Finnish vinyl. Sähkö Records reissued Odysseus ten years ago, but that version too is difficult to find. The Svart edition brings the masterful album back on the market, in a gatefold jacket and with previously unreleased photos from Koivistoinen's archives.

Track Listing