PISARA JA LAMMAS 1

This long-living Finnish band is for me among the most difficult ones to write about to an international prog community. Why? 1) They haven't gained much attention abroad, as far as I know, and understandably so for having Finnish lyrics in a central role. 2) They have a stable cult status here and they have been described as Finland's most even-quality band; each new album gets favourable reviews by critics who can mostly just circulate the same old phrases as the style stays pretty much the same album after album. And 3), I'm a relatively new listener of Abso. But this time there's at least something new to say.

This album and Pisara ja Lammas 2 (2014) form some sort of a rock opera with an obscure SciFi content quite hard to get into. The title means A Drop and a Sheep, and the characters are the Sheep (performed by Erkki Seppänen), the Woman (Paula Vesala of popular mainstream rock group PMMP), the Shepherd (Olavi Uusivirta, a popular solo pop artist), and a choir in the tradition of Greek tragedy. The Abso's main writer and vocalist Tommi Liimatta is the narrator, whose portion is at least 75 % of the whole. Everybody knows his limited, stiff vocal expression, a complete opposite to Roger Daltrey's fantastic multi-role contribution in THE WHO's legendary Tommy. This narrator-centred structure sadly decreases the operatic nature of the work; the guest vocals naturally bring some extra - especially the choir - but in the end not very radically.

But that, and the difficulty to understand the story, are not preventing this music to be Abso at their most inspired and exciting. The synths and guitars are used effectively in the very carefully constructed soundscape. Also from this point of view Pisara ja Lammas 1-2 is Abso at their most progressive. There are even some (mock-) orchestral nuances, and everything works very well. The music is both rather accessible and unpredictably interesting. The second album - which I may review sometime later - is stronger musically, but also this one is pretty rewarding - for all the old listeners and a bunch of new ones too, hopefully.