Kimmo Pörsti

What a nice surprise to get a new album from this Finnish band, already five years since their second album Behind the Curtains. But as the extended title suggests, this is a special project. Some background information first: in April 2015 the core members of Paidarion (drummer Kimmo Pörsti and bassist Jan-Olof Strandberg) invited several friends from various countries to join them on a small tour in southern Finland. These friends were the US vocalist Jenny Darren, British hard-rock bassist Kev Moore, Hungarian guitarist Ákos Bogáti-Bokor (leader of the bands Yesterdays and Tabula Smaragdina), Finnish electronic music -oriented musician Otso Pakarinen, and Robert Webb (best known as the frontman of the 70's band ENGLAND)…

Multinational ensemble THE SAMURAI OF PROG was formed as a project lead by Finland-based Italian composer and bassist Marco Bernard. He's been active in the Finnish Association for Progressive Music since 1995, and have been involved in their Colossus Magazine since 1996 - and instrumental in the Colossus series of theme albums they have created in cooperation with French label Musea Records. It was for a contribution to one of those projects that The Samurai of Prog was born, and joining Bernard as permanent members we find US artist Steve UNRUH and Finnish drummer Kimmo Pörsti. Besides this core trio, the philosophy of this band appears to be to involve additional musicians as needed and wanted, and their debut effort Undercover from 2011 bears testimony to that line of thinking, with a list of guest appearances impressive in length, scope as well as quality.

Paidarion is a new group from Finland playing Folk-influenced progressive Rock with gospel-oriented vocals. Some members from the groups Mist Season and Progression have participated in the Paidarion-project. Although Paidarion's music is related to Mist Season, it relies more on rock and ballads. The CD has been mixed by the Finnish Prog Legend, Tommi Liuhala (who ever since the 70's has worked with for ex. Wigwam, Kalevala and Haikara). Hauras Silta-CD contains 12 melodic songs from different situations in life. The music could be described as prog/gospel with country- etc. influences. The instrumental parts of experienced musicians color the vocal parts of Kristina Johnson and Jari Markkula with many kinds of lights and shadows…

THE SAMURAI OF PROG was born in 2009, project and nickname of Marco BERNARD who worked on Colossus and Musea; its philosophy is to integrate guest musicians according to album releases; 15 including three per year since 2020, impressive. Kimmo PÖRSTI and Steve UNRUH forming the backbone, after covers of MARILLION and other groups, they embark on personal compositions from 2014 to make music of quality and emotion; themes on short stories such as Gulliver, Robinson Crusoe or Grimm's tales. Here it's S-F composed by Marco GRIECO for a symphonic prog stamped 70's. "Anthem To The Phoenix Star" on travel with the constraints of time and space as a preamble, a PINK FLOYD sound for bass, Marek's sax and Juhani's guitar, voice-overs including that of Clive NOLAN forming a spatial soundtrack where the synthesizer is king and where the universe shaped is indeed dystopia…

Having enjoyed such fruitful collaboration with the Spanish musician Rafael Pacha (both in The Guildmaster project and albums under Kimmo's own PA artist page, plus within The Samurai Of Prog), Kimmo Pörsti insisted they should make a CD consisting of revisited material from Pacha's solo output. As Rafael says in his liner notes, there have been two major paths he has followed and combined as a musician, those of Folk (e.g. the Celtic tradition) and of progressive rock. The source albums are mentioned - without their release years though - but the liner notes concern his thoughts of the individual tracks and their recordings then and now, with a fondness for various occasional collaborations. You really can feel the labour of love attitude of this gifted multi- instrumental musician and composer.

This release is a must have for everybody who is into retro progressive rock. Highly recommended to those who like the music made by Rick Wakeman, Yes, Jethro Tull, Kansas, Supertramp, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Steve Hackett and Yes back in the good old seventies.

The Samurai of Prog will release their new double album, “Lost and Found”, on April 20th. Working with original members of Pavlov’s Dog, Lift, Cathedral, Odyssey, and Quill, the band has discovered lost prog epics from the 1970s. Because of dissolving record contracts, band line-up changes, and the shifting landscape of popular music, these amazing compositions were never properly recorded… until now! The Samurai have created stunning, brand-new versions, and the result is a prog-lover’s paradise.The recording is audiophile quality. The package is first-rate (thick cardstock mini-LP style, with a 32-page booklet and artwork by Ed Unitsky).

The Samurai of Prog are having a prolific run. A few short months after 2020‘s "Beyond the Wardrobe" album, the core trio of Marco Bernard, Kimmo Pörsti, and Steve Unruh are joined - as is their way - by a cast of contributing artists and writers, this time crafting an album inspired by The Brothers Grimm fairy tales. ("The Lady and the Lion" is the first of two Grimm-themed albums set to be released in 2021.) The Samurai have become known in progressive rock circles for their symphonic prog creations, which feature lush and varied keyboard sounds, powerful picked bass guitar, dynamic drums, virtuosic violin and flute, and always mixed and mastered for audiophiles. "The Lady and the Lion" features a terrific array of talent, including Ton Scherpenzeel and Bart Schwertmann (Kayak), Octavio Stampalía (Jinetes Negros), Cam Blokland (Southern Empire), Valerie Gracious (Phideaux)…

'The Man in the Iron Mask' is the exciting and ambitious new album from The Samurai of Prog. It was composed by Oliviero Lacagnina (of "Latte e Miele"), written in the "symphonic progressive rock" style - the musical genre he has been exploring and expanding since the 1970s. This CD will certainly satisfy lovers of classical and symphonic progressive rock; new music weaving in quotations and callbacks to great composers of the past, interpreted by keyboards and powerful electric guitars along with Steve Unruh's violin, Kimmo Pörsti's drums and Marco Bernard's Shuker bass. The album's theme is the life of, and events surrounding, the "Secret Twin of the Sun King". It visits key moments from the story (inspired by the texts of Alexandre Dumas and Voltaire).

Everyone's favourite project outfit are back with part 2 of the Brother Grimm tales, part 1 was one of the many musical success stories of recent times and Kimmo Pörsti, Marco Bernard and Steve Unruh along with Ed Unitsky ensure excellence and quality, also as ever there are some amazing contributions from an array of prog musicians.