
After the dissolution of Samla Mammas Manna (as Zamla Mammaz Manna), master musicians Haapala y
Hollmer decided to renew their partnership with this project Von Zamla, together with other two musicians
from Albert Marcoeur's band. The result: a musical offering whose main bet was on multicolored melodic
motifs, extravagant tratments, heavily relying on dissonant chord progressions and pretty recurrently
sustained on counterpoints regarding the arrangements. Zamlaranamma is the first recorded
manifestation of this result. Von Zamla's music is deeply challenging while not being particularly
aggressive - their compositions and style bear the heritage of ZMM but with a more light-weight attitude
toward the interactions between all musicians. The absence of a drummer, or more precisely, a
specialized percussive section, allows the ensamble to focus more enthusiastically on the amalgamation of
keyboards, guitars and woodwinds, although the rhythmic basis still plays a solid role at ordaining the
aforesaid amalgamation. The strong position of the accordion helps the band to elaborate a folk-based
depth within the confines of the band's overall vision. The opener 'Harujänta', bearing a pletoric aura of
celebration with various hints to Northern Europe folk, is a definite proff of the line of work I've just
described. later on, 'Clandestine' and 'Original 13/11' will persevere with the special, bizarre magic that
Von Zamla instill on their particular approach to RIO: the former includes an effective melodic twist that
leads to a werid musical box-like final motif, and 'Original 13/11' is headlong for the delivery of
overwhelming exotic ambiences. 'Rainbox' displays a more melancholic mood, sweet and suave, but not
without its proper touch of mystery. 'Doppler' is one of my absolute fave tracks in the album (and I also
love the extended live rentdition that appears on the 1983 album.. just amazing!!) - from the first time I
listened to its sinister spirals of neurosis and spacey cadences I was hooked forever till the end of time. In
many ways the somber spirit we find in this track is a remainder of the sophisticated tension so clearly
illustrated on ZMM's swansong Familjiesprickor. Other tracks in which Von Zamla are the
nocturnal 'Temporal You Are' and the last two numbers 'Antsong' and 'Tail of Antsong', genuine
brainstorms of atonal colors. 'Ten Tango' brings back the band's softer, althoug displaying more intensity and mystery than track 2, particularly due to the hypnotic use of texturial ornaments in a weird confluence of tango-fusion, Stravinsky and gypsy folk. All in all, "Zamlaranamma" is an excellent RIO item from the 80s and a very worthy successor of the SMM/ZMM tradition: bands like Alamailman Vasarat, Hoyre Kone, 5UU's and Pochikaite Malko have evidently been
influenced by the musicial ideology exposed here, so it leaves Von Zamla with the extra credit of
becoming a point of reference for some of the moets bizarre prog music created in the last 20 years.