IHMEELLINEN ILTAPÄIVÄ (AS MAAHINEN)

Kimmo Pörsti, the core member of The Samurai Of Prog, released his progressive solo album Wayfarer recently (see my review from last week). His first solo effort was this 23 years old, Finnish-language album bearing the artist name Maahinen, which means something like Hobgoblin. In fact this isn't a prog album and I guess it's an obscurity nowadays. But nevertheless it gives an insight into Kimmo's development as a producer, composer and musician collaborating with others (whether as a leader or a participant).

To sum it up, the 15 tracks of Ihmeellinen iltapäivä (= Miraculous Afternoon) are either vocal songs of mostly light and jazzy nature (ie. not much to do with rock, although they're definitely not entertainment vocal music either!), or instrumentals that have some resemblance to then-future band MIST SEASON. Generally I prefer the instrumentals. Not that the songs were bad at all, but compared to some of my favourites in the lyric-oriented vocal music ("laulelmamusiikki" in Finnish) and its fine artists such as Anneli Saaristo, Susanna Haavisto etc., these songs are less memorable and some of them a bit too joyful to my taste. They are all sung in Finnish, by male and female singers that I wasn't familiar with. Some of the songs are quite pretty nevertheless, and the arrangements featuring various acoustic instruments are well done. The compositions are either by Kimmo himself or by his collaborators. The most serene of Kimmo's vocal compositions have resemblance to the songs he has composed to prog band PAIDARION's more vocal-oriented debut album Hauras Silta.

As I said, especially the instrumentals point the way to the jazz-oriented Mist Season. The flute is often heard, here and there also violin, saxophones are heard. Nice if rather uneven album, but not necessary for the prog-oriented followers of Kimmo Pörsti's career.