Line-up
- Ville Koivula, bass
- Hannu Kuosmanen, synthesizer, organ
- Ville Paukkonen, electric piano
- Anna Peltomäki, vocals
- Aarne Riikonen, drums
- Juho Sammalkorpi, electric guitar
Visual arts relating to the band are predominantly the handiwork of Antti Ruuhela.
History
Manogurgeil is an outfit of six young musicians from Helsinki, Finland. The band has performed some twenty gigs mostly in the metropolitan area. The band's distinctive sound stems from the members' pop, jazz, progressive rock and funk influences. Although the music is primarily instrumental, the band tries to maintain a standard of entertaining, tightly wrapped compositions and performances - as opposed to endless noodling. Under the jazzy surface, many of the songs are fundamentally pure hummable pop tunes.
In Factory with J SalonenThe first seeds of the band were sown in early 2002 when Ville Koivula (bass), Hannu Kuosmanen (keyboards) and Erno Palonheimo (keyboards) were jamming in the living room of their commune. Hannu had played bass before, but soon got into Erno's keyboard collection while Ville took over the bass. Some months later, the commune moved away from the metropolitan area to a house with a garage that allowed drummer Janne Löppönen to join the band. At this stage, the band was a trio formed by Ville, Hannu and Janne. Occasionally, friends who were known to play an instrument were invited to join, including the future guitarist Juho Sammalkorpi.
In January 2003 Ville and Erno bumped into Ville Paukkonen, whom they had occasionally met in local gigs a few times before. It turned out that Ville P. was also a keyboard player with similar tastes and influences as the others, so he came along to the garage jams and soon joined the band as the second keyboardist. However, Janne was beginning to lose interest and the rehearsals were becoming quite sporadic towards the summer. He then participated in recording a rough demo that would also be used for recruiting a new drummer.
As a temporary stand-in, Esko Niiranen joined the band for a couple of weeks in September and played the drums in Manogurgeil's first public gig at the Factory club in Helsinki. During several following gigs, the drum kit was manned by professional drummer J Salonen. However, he ultimately chose to focus on his career with pop star Irina's backing band. At this point, the band's drummer record seemed almost as dismal as that of Spinal Tap.
In Boothill with PerttuThe drummer problem was solved in May 2004 when, after an extensive search, Perttu Lindberg manned the kit. Guitarist Juho Sammalkorpi joined late in that year, finally completing the lineup.
By mid-2006, Manogurgeil's confidence in their performance and body of compositions was sufficient to begin recording their debut album. "Unirytmeä" (Circadian Rhythms) was, among others, recorded by Aake Otsala and Marko Ylianttila of the bands Absoluuttinen Nollapiste and Tulenkantajat. Noora Tommila, who sung with the band on some gigs, provided vocals for some tracks. The album has now been released and is available for order.
Current line-up without singer in Club LibérteAt the end of the summer 2007 we really felt that something has to happen and that led to situation we had to switch our drummer. Since then we have been working with our new drummer Aarne Riikonen (ex-Uzva, Telluksen tulevaisuus) and rehearsing new material for our upcoming album.