KEESOJEN LEHTO [AKA: THE MATHEMATICIAN'S AIR DISPLAY; THE CONSEQUENCES OF INDECISIONS]

Pekka Pohjola's third album was released under several titles - Skuggornas Tjuvstart, Mathematician's Air Display, Keesojen Lehto - and a few years later under Oldfield's name to capitalize on his fame. The music here was a marked change from the previous "B the Magpie". For one, the winds and brass arrangements are missing here, the album being instead dominated by various keyboards and guitars. Also we have the voice of Sally Oldfield which adds to the variety. Stylistically this album largely left behind the jazz tilt of the first two, but it can still be described as symphonic jazz-rock I guess. "The Sighted Light" has a funky syncopated piano riff and good melodies. A different version of "Hands Calming the Water" was released on Wigwam's "Being", I think both of them are equally good in their respective contexts. "Mathematician's Air Display" is decent but slightly less exciting. "Consequences of Indecisions" is a 15 minute piece which goes through many sections and is quite brilliantly composed. Not even once does the listener feel that there is a lack of progression and structural clarity in it. Many prog suites fail in this aspect. The last track is a happy little post script that is more typical of Pohjola style, with some beautiful vocals from Sally Odfield over secular medieval harpsichord noodling. I don't know just how much Oldfield has contributed to these compositions, because all you hear is Pohjola's stylistic harmony, and none of that new age crap, although the album does have it's share of such influence in the arrangements and productions. Still it is more of a Pohjola album than an Oldfield one.