Ingrian-Finnish folk singer Arvi Kemppi’s début album to appear posthumously

Life under Stalin carried Kemppi via exile to Siberia into the Red Army

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By Harri Uusitorppa
     
      When Arvi Kemppi sings on his début album about having been born in Finland “in the beautiful Karelia”, it seems that there is an even stronger than usual sense of emotion to his already quavering interpretation - in spite of the fact that the text itself does not exactly hold good to the letter.
      Sure, Kemppi was born “on the shores of a blue lake” and also “in a lowly shack”, but instead of Karelia, his birth took place in Toksovo in Ingria, in Himakkala, a village of nearly a hundred houses, close to near St. Petersburg.
      Well, close to Leningrad to be more precise, for the year was 1931, and the Soviet union was still in its infancy.
     
Of course, Arvi Kemppi’s interpretation of this famous folk song that he has recorded may well have received influences from his own life-story, too.
      In fact, avoiding that story might have proved rather difficult, for at the age of ten - in March 1942 - Arvi Kemppi was forcibly expelled together with his family to the Arctic Ocean coast of Siberia for ten years.
      After having returned from Siberia, Kemppi had a long career as a singer in the Soviet Red Army Choir.
     
Regrettably, the Ingrian-Finnish singer, who spent the last 15 years of his life in Finland, is no longer with us to tell about his adventures.
      Kemppi died in Espoo last October at the age of 77.
      Fortunately, however, just before his death Kemppi managed to complete the recordings for his debut solo album Inkerinsuomalaisia lauluja (“Ingrian-Finnish songs”), which is now being published in a form that he had accepted.
      And it is fairly safe to say that no-one else will release a similar record this year: the album is quite unique.
     
Kemppi was already a pensioner when he finally moved to Finland.
      Naturally he did not quit music, but instead sang with several of the capital area choirs and even belonged to an Ingrian heritage group.
      In Helsinki Kemppi was regularly spotted busking away at metro stations, in shopping centres, and in the Hakaniemi Market Square, where in the summer of 2007 his performance finally caught the attention of record producers Roope Ahola and Antero Priha.
      In the course of the summer and the following winter the two men recorded twenty folk songs from Kemppi’s repertoire.
      A common theme of the chosen songs is love, or at least pairing up.
     
Seventeen of the heart-rending recordings finally made it to the freshly-published album.
      Songs like Oi riiu riiu, Sinä minun lempeni, Tule oma heila meille, Tuoltapa näkyy se heilani talo and Ero oli yöl, ero oli päiväl seem to originate from even further back than the days of Kemppi’s youth.
      In market squares and at the metro stations, Arvi Kemppi used to perform these same songs relying on an accordion backing track, but for the record a professional acoustic band was assembled, consisting of guitar, mandolin, violin, trumpet, and bass. Accompanying Kemppi’s renditions the band succeeds remarkably well in recreating the spirit of the time.
     
”Now, of course we regret that we only recorded about a half of his splendid standard repertoire”, says trumpet player Antero Priha, one of the two producers of Arvi Kemppi’s (1931-2008) first and last solo record.
      “We compiled the album out of our own passion without any knowledge of a possible publisher, which we finally found just before Arvi died. At that moment Arvi himself believed that the record would be finished. And that was a pretty big moment.”
      Priha and his co-producer Roope Ahola finished the album piece by piece in over a period of two years in addition to their normal work commitments.
      In arranging the songs, Priha and Ahola received help from the other musicians performing on the album, namely accordion player Jussi Liski, guitarist Timo Seppänen, and bassist Tero Siitonen.
     
But the last word was with Arvi Kemppi, a music pro who had sung in the Red Army Choir for almost three decades.
      “Arvi had exacting opinions regarding the instrumentation and arrangements, and we did listen to him. Without hesitation I can say that the Inkerinsuomalaisia lauluja is very much an Arvi Kemppi album”, Antero Priha says. “It has his imprint all over it.”
     
Arvi Kemppi: Inkerinsuomalaisia lauluja (“Ingrian-Finnish songs”). Helmi Levyt, EUR 20.00
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 4.5.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  National Archive to investigate postwar repatriations of Ingrians (16.2.2007)
  No new applicants accepted into queue for Ingrian returning migrants (20.10.2006)

See also:
  Ingrian Finns (Wikipedia)

Links:
  Toksovo (Wikipedia)
  Arvi Kemppi on MySpace
  Helmi Levyt (Helmi Records)
  Ingria (Wikipedia - the section on "Soviet Ingria" gives some idea of the massive deportations and forced migrations in the area)

HARRI UUSITORPPA / Helsingin Sanomat