Viima

About Viima

We are a five-membered symphonic folk-prog group from Turku, Finland. We have released two full-length albums, "Ajatuksia Maailman Laidalta (2006) and "Kahden Kuun Sirpit" (2009). This is the story of the Lost Spectacles and their metamorphosis into Viima

The origin of Lost Spectacles goes back to year 1998. I (guitar player Mikko Uusi-Oukari) had moved from Helsinki to Turku and had no connection to local players. I started to play with a workmate of mine, guitarist Aki Laakso. After long planning and ground work we started to look for other players to form the band.

Our ad in Soundi magazine resulted in two contacts, The keyboard player and drummer Kimmo Lahteenmaki and the folk singer Paivi Kylmanen. The bass player Jouni Salmijarvi was found through his own ad in Rumba. So we had the first line-up of the band in the beginning of 1999:

Paivi Kylmanen: vocals
Aki Laakso: lead guitar
Kimmo Lahteenmaki: drums
Jouni Salmijarvi: bass
Mikko Uusi-Oukari: guitar, flute, keyboards

The band rehearsed in the bottom of our house in a room of about 15 m3. Along developing our own material, we rehearsed a Jethro Tull cover set consisting of ten songs from Tull albums Stand Up, Benefit and Aqualung. Our name originated from there as none of the various suggestions satisfied everyone in the band. Jouni suggested the name Lost Spectacles for our Tull cover