Description
Probably very few people today have ever heard of the Finnish band called Uranus. In the short time of their existence in the mid-seventies, the group recorded their sole album Aamun hauta (“The Grave of the Morning”) which remained mostly unnoticed by the music consuming public. As drummer Jari Unha says, “the time just wasn’t right for the kind of music we were playing”. The more rewarding it is now, nearly half a century later, to dig the album up from the grave of oblivion and let its happy soul groove reach our ears. With the help of historical perspective, it’s perhaps easier now to appreciate this extremely well played and rare early Finnish dive into the vibrating musical territory inhabited by legendary figures such as Otis Redding and Stevie Wonder.
In the autumn of ’75 Uranus drove to Lahti and recorded Aamun hauta in Pekka Nurmikallio’s Microvox studio. Jari Unha is amused to remember the pink Volga of the trombone player Hannu Lehtonen. “We went to record American soul music with the pride of the Soviet car industry. Almost like a detail from an Aki Kaurismäki movie!”
It is presumed that Aamun hauta was too daring a deviation from the mainstream of the time to get the attention it would have deserved. On top of that, BASF had no guts or will to promote the LP. It was an optional subscriber’s gift in Popfoto magazine, together with albums by Kummitus, Kyklooppi and Horseshoe, but due to the lack of money, the short-lived magazine failed to succeed.
As for Uranus, things folded soon after recording the album. Soul music didn’t sell in live circuits either. For some time the group continued accompanying Markku Aro on dance venue gigs. The members have since made long and versatile careers in music.
Meanwhile, the original vinyl of Aamun hauta has become a rare collector’s item.
