ArtistInfo

Kra

Folk, Reggae and World

The Kra Story History: The name Kra was invented by Hans Sandvall, who also played Rommelpot on the first Kra 45 rpm single. The first single was the result of a composition competition in the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation, YLE in the autumn of 1979. The group with the new name Kra won and thus were allowed a day (!) in a 4-track studio to cut AND mix their first single. Since the first single got quite a lot of airplay, Reijo Lainela and Stäni Steinbock decided to record another single, with one song by each of them, and when that single too was successful, a third one, also with one Reijo side and one Stäni side. After that, Kra felt ready for an LP album, which was recorded in 1984, the same year Kra was seen on national TV in Finland for the first time. The LP "Doing The Impossibull" was elected "The LP of the year" by [The Finnish Broadcasting Company] YLE and freelance journalist Mikael Wiik, and also got quite a lot of airplay, especially in Finland. Now it was Kra's drummer's Lasse Lundbom's turn to take an initiative for the next single, because "La Balena" was his composition. On the other side of the single (Kra never called their single sides "A" or "B" since they always felt both sides contained their best material) was "Dragon Train" by Stäni Steinbock. Soon after that Lasse left Kra, but with a new drummer, Robert Persson, and a new bassist, Jaïr-Rôhm Wells, Kra cut a new LP album "Still Going Sproing" KRA performed once again on Finnish National TV, and on Swedish Radio in a Live broadcast, but after that Stäni Steinbock, who had been threatened with a revolver in hi ear, on his job as a taxi driver in Stockholm, Sweden, got a job offer he couldn't refuse: Sound Designer for a municipal theatre in the city of Vaasa, Finland. This job effectively stopped him from keeping Kra active, so during the 11 years he served there, Kra was put on ice. In the year 2000, though, it was time for a 20-year celebration, so Stäni and Reijo wrote some new material for a 20-year anniversary celebration single, which by then had got the meaning of "a CD with less than 20 minutes of sound on it". Thus started a bit of a new lease of life for Kra, who also performed the new Lainela-Steinbock song "Tribal Pursuit" on Finnish National TV, and soon afterwards were invited by the YLE to use their studio and the same producer, Calle Lindholm, who produced their first single, for recording their new sub-20-minute CD, christened by Reijo to "Guttural Shock". (CDBaby)

Genres

• Folk
• Reggae
• World
• Jazz
• Rock

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