PEWIT

Here's the first review for the second last of PEKKA POHJOLA's studio albums. The core band was his longest-living one, from 1992 to 2002: maestro himself plays only bass (except keyboards on 'the Great Knight of the Rock'), accompanied by Seppo Kantonen (p, keyb), Markku Kanerva (g) and Anssi Nykänen (dr). 'Toy Rock' features also three saxophonists, and 'Ordinary Music' a string sextet. Percussionist Mongo Aaltonen appears on two tracks. No compression was used with this album (=the silent moments are even more silent and the louder moments louder). Pewit is 62 minutes long, almost half an hour longer than several of his early classics; quality naturally always comes before quantity, but the length makes the listener more forgiving towards the least favourite moments.

The opener 'Rita' (11:23), named after Pekka's then new love, can be listed as one of the great Pohjola classics, as it grows from delicate simplicity to majestic heights. The beautiful melody, the emotional depth, the superb dynamics and the compositional full circle... they're all here. 'Melkein' (13:47) also has marvelous melodic sections, but I don't enjoy the idiotic stomp! stomp! sections. The better parts, featuring e.g. synth soloing, are lovely. 'Pewit' starts delicately with an accordion-sounding keyboard, piano and acoustic guitar, joined soon by bass and drums; the music grows gradually in a familiar Pohjola style, and the electric guitar carries the gorgeous melody like in a STEVE HACKETT number.

'The Great Knight...' has a separate, long piano intro full of Rachmaninoff-like romanticism, while the band piece unfortunately features a very naive, tivoli-type joyful approach that I don't like. I can't understand why the equally joyful 'Toy Rock' has a 40-second intro of just intendedly poorer sonic quality. Here are the mentioned saxophones, and the groove gets quite wild at times, but truly not my cup of tea.

The 19-minute 'Ordinary Music' is a totally unpredictable musical journey featuring even some atonal experimenting. It's a difficult and perhaps a bit disjointed but still quite interesting piece of UNordinary music. All in all, Pewit is an album of big contrasts and dynamics, most likely spellbinding the listener with certain moments and annoying him/her with some others. 3½ stars rounded up for all the musical bravery and a good leaflet layout with Rita Hartwig's paintings.