VIERAAN TAIVAAN ALLA

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I've heard music described as something soothing for an injured soul. I've certainly come across music that could have said function with its delicacy, subtleness and peaceful qualities. And I have found one more such example in the music from Finnish band Kosmos. There are other fine examples of such calm music from Finland: Viima (with their folk approach), Uzva (with their jazzy tunes), Magyar Posse (and their cinematic post-rock) and others like Stringpurée Band and Tenhi.

Kosmos are folk based, mostly acoustic but with occasional lush sounding keyboards (like a mellotron) and female vocals. It is a slow, tranquil and serene affair, subdued even, but charming nonetheless. Their arrangements are simple, but effective, with appropriate use of keyboards to either serve as background or as ornaments to the songs, the acoustic guitar as the skeleton of each song, sparse use of bass and a more frequent use of gentle drumming and percussions and various other instruments like violin, glockenspiel, shrutibox and bells occasionally popping in.

The first five songs are "regular" folk songs while the last two longer songs are a more varied affair where progressive tendencies come into play and where a creative spirit takes charge. While still having a folkish tendency, a more rock and experimental approach is taken; jazzy rhythms prevail, spacey and even psychedelic elements appear, a vaster sound is taking over. The sixth song, Tuulisina Päivinä, has stunning melody with angelic vocals fronting it (though they are in line with the rest of the instruments in the mix), which then switches to an interlude of spacey/psych-rock (still delicate though) and then back again to the main theme. And yet, though they venture out with their composition structure and arrangements the frailty and magic of the previous part of the album are still dominating. The last song, Vieraat, is divided into three parts; the first part is a narration (male voice) where we are hypnotized, and then in the second part, for the first time, an electric guitar appears with rather strong drumming (for the standard set in this album). This is the only full blown rock song here; a rather hypnotizing tune (which works fine with what they're trying to achieve) and it gets fiercer as it proceeds. This was definitely not something I expected given what the rest of the album sounds like. The rhythm section goes on with the mellotron on its side and there is a nice interlude in the middle that strays away from the main theme and then back again with the violin playing a stunning solo part and later on the guitar replaces it. We are then awoken from our hypnosis in the last segment of the song. This three-part song is truly the crowning achievement of this album. A mesmerizing piece, for these two last songs alone the album is worthwhile getting, though I don't want to do a disservice to the rest of the songs which are lovely folk tunes.