HUNGRY SHELLS (KA BAIRD & PEKKA AIRAKSINEN)

One night last year I was just going to watch some live performances of Pekka Airaksinen from youtube. To my big surprise I found new vid "Syzygy (For Pekka)" from Airaksinen & then to me totally unknown Ka Baird. Really didn´t then find information, were there coming more from this strange collaboration. But soon found out from "Levykauppa Äx"-sites there were really coming this album! To those, who don´t know anything about Pekka or Ka, here´s small introduction. Pekka was a pioneer of avantgarde & electro music in Finland, he was mostly responsible the music of the legendary art collective Sperm in the late sixties and begin of seventies. Have to mention, Pekka was the only one together with Sperm in legendary Nurse With Wound first album artist list from Finland. I think Ka Baird is not as known even in the US, she has been in the very interesting folk- avantgarde group "Spires That In the Sunset Rise", also started solo career already from 2006. Didn´t find any information, how these two avantgarde artists from different generations met each other and ended into studio sessions in Utrecht, Netherlands during 2018. Pekka´s four Buddhist poems were the textual core in music making. Ka tells in the album liner notes, that Pekka´s focus was in & out in the studio & he could often do only short sessions and after that went into hotel room to meditate. But when he was in studio, he was playful and masterfully unpredictable. Pekka died about half year after those sessions, but in 2020 Ka decided to finalize this album based on those recordings. In the end of last year album came out through RVNG intl FRKWYS-serie. Have to say in Pekka´s last decade he wasn´t as creative in music as before releasing mostly just old material.

"Big Stone Small Stone" starts album with same kind of cricket sounds as Pekka made in the Sperm-album first piece with guitar. Soon comes electric piano playing something really mystic. Ka starts to read same poem that Pekka reads in the begin of Syzygy-vid. Piece ends into electric drone. "Syzygy (For Pekka)" is closest to the "ordinary" music (whatever it is), but I don´t believe it will play on any other than maybe some small avantgarde radio. It has very typical Pekka-style twisting rhythm, also electric, flute and human voice samples, also great vocal part from Ka. "Parallax" has many beating electric and also human sounds, reminding a lot Pekka´s works from the begin of 2000. "Grey Body" is a very powerful sound collage as if God tries to speak through your little loudspeakers. In the middle of the piece you can hear few times Pekka reading he´s poems. "Roseclouds" reminds "Syzygy". It´s the only piece with 4/4 rhythm, but there is nothing irritating as I think there often is in 4/4 electro beat. It sounds more like the beat in Kraftwerk´s "the Robots". Again there is great vocal part from Ka. "Variable Star" has again beating synths, but in faster tempo and in the middle there comes also beating percussion and very Pekka style noisy synth. The tittle song is at first very noisy and even scary, but changes calmer and Ka reads again the last poem. After poem sounds like some weird parties begin and piece ends into drone. The final sounds are the same chirping sounds as in the begin.

To me this was the best album of the 2021! In my opinion last year wasn´t very great album year, but in the end become also few other at least good albums. In these mediocre music times it´s so wonderful there come these kind of masterpieces! I believe there are also other as creative electro music artists, but these times they just have really difficulties to get attention. To me Ka Baird is inspiring also because she uses lots of organic sounds, as 60/70 music friend I am not very keen of the 2000´s typical electric music. I am glad through Pekka I found this great artist and her great band "Spires That In the Sunset Rise" that seemed not have very much attention in Progarchives. Definitely my next review will be from them! Although I believe Ka made more in this album than Pekka, this is also really great swansong from Pekka.