Alamaailman Vasarat

Alamaailman Vasarat ("The Hammers of the Underworld") is an unusual phenomenon not only in their home country Finland, but in the globe in general. Listeners have had problems cathegorizing this music but you probably will see something like "ethnic brass punk" when people are writing about the music of Alamaailman Vasarat. Hammers themselves consider their music to have its roots in the traditional but fictional ethnic trends of their own continent, Vasaraasia (“Hammer-Asia”).
Alamaailman Vasarat was founded in 1997 by two members of Höyry-kone - the highly regarded avant-garde progressive rock group - drummer Teemu Hänninen and bass player Jarno Sarkula. Jarno had just bought a soprano saxophone and that was a good reason for starting a new band. After some months of experimenting the line-up was ready. Miikka Huttunen joined the band to play pump organ and couple of months later cellist Marko Manninen and trombonist Erno Haukkala joined to complete the band. Year 2002 Marko had a minor hand accident and young cellist Tuukka Helminen was asked to help during the recovery. From the first moment it was obvious that in wasn't just couple of gigs he was going to play in the band and after Marko returned from the holiday, band had two cellos.
The debut album of Alamaailman Vasarat "Vasaraasia" was released in 2000 and it hit the world music chart Europe top-20, peaking at position 7. In 2003 Alamaailman Vasarat released their second album "Käärmelautakunta" and 2005 Alamaailman Vasarat recorded a collaboration album "Kinaporin Kalifaatti" with a highly praised Finnish singer-songwriter Tuomari Nurmio. The album received rave reviews in Finnish music press and received also a highly valued TEOSTO– prize from the Finnish Composers' Copyright Society.
The recent gig venues have varied from world music festivals to progressive rock gatherings and from rock clubs to jazz dives. Alamaailman Vasarat has played in Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, USA and in all big rock festivals in Finland.
Alamaailman Vasarat have just finished their new album "Maahan" which will be released 14th of March in Finland and 28th of March as a special edition in Japan.