MAAILMANPUU

Both sides of the vinyl edition start with a roughly 1½-minute fast-paced instrumental, very much alike. Supposedly referring to large ringroads nearby Helsinki (Kehä I and Kehä III), they indeed have a hectic atmosphere of fast traffic, in a psychedelic space/stoner rock manner. Personally I'm not fond of them but they give some extra dynamics to the album whole -- needed or unnecessary, it's up to the listener. 'Rannalla' (= On shore) is the shortest of the four proper songs, and a very nice one as a naturally flowing, suitably streamlined composition with a vintage prog rock sound. Kimmo Villa's voice doesn't anymore remind me of the young Kauko Röyhkä, but now it's perhaps even more reminiscent of Pekka Streng from the early 70's. That's not a bad thing, since frankly he's more confident as a singer than Streng ever was.

The longest piece 'Uisko' (= Sailing Ship) has a mythological / folkloristic feel in its sparse lyrics and some sophisticated details in the arrangement. The electric guitar's lengthy, melancholic solo on the latter half sounds great. The title track (I actually had no idea the strange word kaimalkuu refers to the moon of February) is dynamically progressive; the slow, mystical intro is followed by a faster, Kalevala-inspired lyrics section, which in return is followed by a nearly hypnotic instrumental section, and so on. This 9½-minute composition is among the strongest single pieces of contemporary Finnish prog. The equally long final piece is pretty ambitious too, but to my ears not quite as coherent.

Definitely four stars, no less. The cover art of Jarmo Roine is an excellent companion to the music.

The band is to some degree inspired by Northern mythology and their take on progressive rock is retro-spirited. One comparison could be MALADY which however is darker, hazier and more melancholic whereas Maailmanpuu is more down-to-earth (especially the debut) and more vocal oriented. The second album Kohti Valoa ("Towards the Light") shows a clear improvement. It contains six pieces, the first and last stretching over 10 minutes. Kimmo Villa's voice occasionally reminds me of the established, long-time singer-songwriter Kauko Röyhkä (hardly much known abroad) in his earlier years. The other association during the opening song, when it comes to the tone of vocals, is PEKKA STRENG, although only briefly. The music combines the singer-songwriter type of rock and the prog aesthetics with soloings, time changes and such, and does it in a natural manner. The electric guitar has a suitable amount of distortion and the keyboards rely a lot to the 70's spirited Hammond sound.

Also the shorter and less meandering songs are firmly progressive rock. On 'Kätköissä metsän' I enjoy the sparkle of guitars and the jazzy touch in Portaanpää's drumming. The title track is a beautiful piano centred song. The 12-minute final piece 'Vapauden hinta' gets in the midway into a hazy psychedelia -- even Pink Floyd's 'Echoes' may come to mind -- and contains some poetry reading as a guest appearance. Allin all this band has pretty well found their own style.