UKKOSSALAMA

Here we have a space rock classic from a band which is under way in nearly every nook and corner music-wise. 'Ukkossalama' features four seemingly free formed jams with a cosmic as well as jazzy appeal, that said one could also say stylistically close to Daevid Allen projects and some wellknown krautrock bands. Still very unique and a bit unusual when speaking of Ektroverde terms, all the other productions I know are stylistically very wide-ranging, based on a more avantgarde approach. But this is pure jamming.

Thirteen musicians are involved here more or less, mainly deriving from the huge Circle (Ektro) society and also featuring Mika Rintala (Verde). The album sounds like recorded on the fly, don't know if any overdubs were made. All the instruments, especially the saxophones, are swirling around somehow, animated by ... well, I'm not able to spot ... who serves the structure? Who defines the direction, where to float? Some aspects on the shorter expeditions Kapituli and Paholaispiirtäjä remind me of Hungarian band Korai Öröm playing live - the vocals, the jazzy groove. Both songs are faded out by the way.

The drawn-out Kaski is provided with more hypnotically floating krautrock essence, build up around a repetitive motif, as for that coming with references close to the Yeti jamming Amon Düül 2. Salama follows with emphasized vocals by Mika Rättö - no, shouting recitative meets it better, there's some aggressive vibe definitely, in order to start the engines of course. Furthermore this track is focussed on soaring spacey guitars respectively synths, lively bass and drums - a gripping cosmic odyssey par excellence.

Did they fail the return to mother earth or not? They leave the question unanswered. One word - inspired! An album which pleases me much. I like the approach to let the songs evolve without boundings, their abilities to interact, the joy of playing, the excellent musicianship. Nearly perfect (though - strictly speaking - currently I'm not able to formulate what completely perfect really means to me). 'Ukkossalama' is a highly recommended affair bult around kraut, jazz and space ingredients - 4.5 stars.

I have not heard the Ektroverde releases from year 2000, but this being their last album in my understanding, escapes further from dystopic views of mechanist society to the energies of ancient primeval powers. The threatening album cover gathers the storm for musical innovations, crystallized on song titles playing with medieval Finnish themes and relations to forces of nature.

The two shorter impressions lasting about ten minutes apiece start with "Kapituli" ("Chapter" in context of church administration), echoes residing still in more mechanical tonal idioms, sharp and hasty drums drawing together spacey guitars and more analogic presence of saxophone, round toned bass guitar and short visitations of vocals. A lighter and more jazzy ethereal improvisation of another Circle brotherhood band Plain Ride might be a comparative reference for this grooving aural warm-up voyaging. "Paholaispiirtäjä" ("Devilscraper"...?) creates interesting harmonics from multiple chord layers, reminding US late 60's garage rock blasts with streetwise lyric reciting. One-key based persistent sonic monolith leads to fine solos from saxophone, dualistic calls from acid treated guitar and funky waving bass lines.

The core moments of the album reside in my opinion on the two longer epic visions, rising calmly from "Kaski", the smokes from burned out forestlands providing fertile cultivation soil for crops. Gentle guitar picks tremble on their start-up positions, reverb delays crafting space for experience of vastness, supported by saxophone's calm lines. Serene floating upon the desolate ashen lands waiting for growth of new harvest gains intensity through respectable patience from the musicians, vocals and the first high peak on the intensity being reached around the fourteenth minute of this first of the two nearly twenty-seven minutes long tidal waves. After the vocal verse more chaotic touches on the guitar are allowed, and the rolling pace slightly escalates, concluding to climax of power on another rise upon the steps of instrumental monotonic grinding.

The last entity is called Lightning, the natural phenomena burning the forests away without intervention of an ape trying to dominate the biosphere. Drums open the track casually, pleasant shimmering guitars entering to sensual dance towards the center of the void. Prophetic voice screams from the distance, preaching with ancient sounding Finnish, declaring the reciter as the God of Lightning. Musically this second colossus evolves really pleasantly, and in my opinion the album gains further quality and power with each track. Some sort of thunderstorm escalation moment occurs around twelfth minutes, the drum battering growing very fiery, and guitars join for the massive catharsis of tension release after nearly one hour buildup. The final moments of this sonic voyage fades interestingly behind some sort of a layer, emphasizing the power being transmitted from another distant source than the clearer major part of the album. This layer starts to grow thicker like a dense carpet of rain, and slowly washes the music away, giving a convincing final touch for the energy and innovation of this minimalist archaic record.

I have been thinking about the different group incarnations of Circle; Pharaoh Overlord and Ektroverde, both starting to create music resembling the motives of Circle, but approaching the subject from slightly different viewpoints. Often the following recordings start to morph from style of their starting point, reflecting the inner dynamics of these band projects. I believe this is a signal of musical sincerity and courage to follow the directions rising from the psyche of musical collective's expressional needs. From the listener's perspective if one is not totally open to all regions of the musician's aesthetical ideas, purchasing albums blindly may cause disappointments. From Ektroverde albums this has so far been the most pleasing, leaning to more earthbound themes and rock-oriented hypnotisms. A very recommendable album for anybody open to such music.

EKTROVERDE were a rather large band from Finland who had a six album run from between 1998 and 2003. "Ukkossalama" is their final release from 2003 worth 72 minutes, but only four tracks. Yes they like to jam. The final two songs are both over 26 minutes. This album was recorded and mixed on March 6 and 7, 2001. Over a dozen musicians are involved here, and this is mostly current and former members of CIRCLE who are an amazing band, but we also get some people from MOONFOG PROPHET, PHAROAH OVERLORD and more.

There is a surprising amount of vocals on here, although that's nothing new when it comes to CIRCLE's music. The opener and second track are both over 9 minutes and both have the same vocal style which reminds me of the singer for OUT OF FOCUS. These guys really do jam continually but with the large cast of musicians we get some different flavours. Love the sax on this record and the guitar as well. Lots of spacey synths and swirling music. Kind of like the OZRICS but much better, and I'd say that about CIRCLE as well, in fact their "Pharoah Overlord" and "Terminal" records are incredible from the mid 10's.

The two long tracks also impress big time. Again for the same reasons, and that third song "Kaski" features vocals that are chilled like on the first two songs. Trippy music with some great sounding guitar after 8 minutes and sax around 13 1/2 minutes. It gets intense late. The closer also has vocals but here they are more in the extreme style, yelling out followed by guitar that also cries out. A beautiful sound to this one early on, and by the half way point it's powerful pretty much to the end.

If your into that jamming, psychedelic style of music like CIRCLE, the OZRIC TENTACLES, ORESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE and the like, you might just fall for this one. Remember this has vocals though. They apparently did many live shows mostly in Finland, but also in Belgium before calling it a day. A solid 4 stars.