TELLUS

Sadly there are very few reviews here for the discography of Esa Kotilainen. At least a Finnish prog-oriented listener most likely knows him, both from his solo performances and albums (1977's seminal Ajatuslapsi and many electro/ambient albums released mostly in this Millenium) and from his memberships in Wigwam and Tasavallan Presidentti/ Jukka Tolonen's solo albums. Here in Finland Kotilainen is the most legendary figure in the electronic music. Admittedly the PA reviewing activity for electronic music artists in general -- apart from the biggest names such as Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze -- is very minimal, so I don't know how well known Kotilainen is abroad, but his music is universal and should appeal to friends of the genre all over the world.

Tellus contains five tracks, four of them between 10:00 and 14:13 in length. Esa Kotilainen and his vast arsenal of synthesizers is accompanied by Anssi Nykänen on drums (tracks 1-4), plus two guest appearances. The opening title track is the longest one. The steady, light drum pattern is gradually joined by various keyboards building the sonic landscape bigger and spacier. This is a marvelous, majestic piece full of gorgeous synth layers. It is also emotionally powerful like Vangelis (albums such as El Greco) but without the similar openly romantic touch. If you enjoy ambient-oriented electronic artists such as Steve Roach, Mergener/Weisser, Richard Burmer, Kevin Braheny, Constance Demby, etc., I bet you'll greatly enjoy this album.

The track titles lead the listener's mind to space. This music would sound excellent on a space documentary or on a space-themed movie, but it definitely stands on its own as a listening experience. The rhythmic patterns do not vary very much within the compositions and yet the pieces have a strong sense of dynamics and progression -- in a more economic form than on most music of Klaus Schulze.

'Spacetrash' is a collaboration with the prog keyboardist and producer Matti Kervinen. It has a trance-like repetitive pattern on the bottom, and plenty of delicate sonic variety on top of it. Some of the synth and mellotron (Memotron) sounds are very beautiful, occasionally reminding of the mid-70's Tangerine Dream. 'Blood Moon' features the bass of Lauri Porra. The keyboards are again used very diversely, giving the piece a distinctively progressive feel that the presence of both drums and bass are helping to create. The shortest track in the end is titled 'Plejades' (6:45). The very cinematic sense of space is lovely.

Tellus is a wonderful and highly recommendable album of spacey and cinematic electronic music.

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