UOMA

Third album from this hard-to-classify combo. As opposed to their previous album, they are much more electric and the jazz influences are rather more present also. Graced with a naïve but superb interchangeable artwork, this very long instrumental album is definitely in the jazz-rock domain and the again link different pieces (a bit arbitrarily if you ask me) together, so you will find 11 tracks divided into six "song titles" wghich are all penned by guitarist Heikki Puska , although Vibraphone man Olli Kari helps out on two of the longer tracks.

Opening on the superb 13-min+ Kuoriutuminen, this album warns right away that it will be more electric than the previous album, while the second a slower (and even more electric) burner called Different Realities. With a rather different two-part Chinese Daydream (a little cheesy, IMHO) able to provide a welcome break between more involved numbers. The following Arabian Ran-Ta is one of the highlights of the album with an excellent exchange between the violin and the flute. Of course you are all waiting to find out about that 23- min+ Vesikko tracks (three of them actually), and let's face it, this is the cornerstone on which the album is built. The unavoidable medley of jazz-rock, classical music (they remind me of early Maneige) again turning to far-eastern influences, before shifting to a sort of Mahavishnu fusion (BOF-era) etc. The last track is a quiet harp outro.

With this third album, Uzva is really entering the court of the great fusion bands and most likely will stay around for a while, for they have everything and every ingredient to succeed. Hard to say whether this album is better than the previous Nittoaika (which a was also a small chef d'oeuvre), but it is at least as excellent as it.