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Peter Lerche
Peshawar Diary
$16.99
One of Finland's best known jazz, and rock guitarists (working with Pekka Pohjola, Pedro's Heavy Gentlemen and Esa Kotilainen to name a few) tackles a world of sounds, with a strong empahsis on India and South America. A few tracks are pretty standard, straight ahead jazz for piano, guitar, sax, bass and drums, while others are complex fusions with tablas, accordions, electronics, kantele or other unexpected ensemble arrangements. The musicians working with Lerche include Indian vocalist Sarathi Chatterjee and accordion/kantele player Pauliina Lerche. Esa Kotilainen adds some quirky mellotron to a few tracks. It's a varied and often confusing mix of ideas, but they usually work well because of the musicianship of the players, and for every light moment there is some thunder to follow. Not every track hits its mark, but they all seek new ground, even where the occasionally earth moves out from underneath them. This recording falls under the 'not for everybody' category, where much of the world's interesting music hides.
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Listen:
First Sargam
Vilina
Song for Mukunda
Blues for Akhtar
About the artist
Peter Lerche (born 1954 in Helsinki) is a one of the best-known guitarists in Finland. In a professional career spanning 25 years he has worked with a multitude of artists on the Finnish music scene. He published his first solo CD in October 2002. - I seem to ripen rather slowly, says Peter.
Peter started to play the drums at the age of seven living in Bangkok, Thailand, where his father was working for the Finnish Foreign Ministry. The playing was basically accompanying jazz-standards played by his father. The mother, a classically trained pianoteacher, had inspired a deep love for classical music, especially J.S. Bach, in Peter.
In 1966 Peter started to play the guitar in Pakistan, where his father was working for the United Nations Developement Program in Peshawar, near the Afgan border. Here he was subjected to three cultures: Finnish/European at home, American at school and Northern Indian in the bazaars of Peshawar.
School was at an American air-base. It was there that Peter was subjected to the American popular music of the `60s. The white airmen played surf, pop and country, the black, blues and soul. - It was at this formative time that I grew to love both the blues and Northern Indian music, says Peter.
Peter was self-taught until the age of 18 when he started serious study of classical and jazz guitar. He got his professional break in 1981 when he toured West-Germany with UMO Jazz Orchestra. This led to a plethora of session work and different bands.
Next in turn was Pekka Pohjola Group, with whom he toured extensively in Europe. Two records were recorded during this period: Urban Tango and Everyman (Jokamies). After Pekka came stints in various rock-groups in the 1980`s with tours and recordings, many of which went gold and platinum.
In the early 90`s Peter felt that he had done his share of session work and became the band leader, arranger and producer of Vesa-Matti Loiri, Finlands best-known actor/singer. Recordings include Rurja, a collection of traditional Finnish folksongs with new arrangements and Leino 4, songs with lyrics by Eino Leino, arguably Finlands greatest poet.
Starting in the 1990`s Peter has also worked with a number of symphony orchestras such as Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Avanti!. He`s also done arena-concerts with world-famous soprano Karita Mattila in which they have been featured in duet-numbers (arranged by Peter).
In 1995 Peter fulfilled a long-standing ambition and dream: he went to Bombay University to study the methodology of Hindustani classical music. In 1998 a trip to Madras ensued. This time the studies concentrated on the methods (especially rhythm studies "solkattu") of Carnatic classical music under the tutelage of dr. Subramaniam.
Peter published his first solo CD Peshawar Diary in October 2002 to very favourable reviews: it was featured on the list of "best records of the year" in Helsingin Sanomat (Finlands largest newspaper). The record is a musical diary of the above-mentioned time when Peter started to play the guitar in Pakistan.
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