CANTO OBSCURA

Kataya is a trio featuring 3 experienced and successfull Finnish musicians, one plays keyboards and the other two keyboards, bass, guitars and drums. On their debut CD entitled Canto Obscura (that I bought after their excellent gig on the Dutch Symforce III festival in 2009) the band also makes use of several guests on vocals (including highly acclaimed jazz vocalist Johanna Iivanainen), guitars, soprano saxophone and organ. The inspiration comes from the deep wild forests of Finland, one of the last pure and clean, untouched spots of nature on our planet.

After almost 35 years of listening to progrock, in 2009 I was pleasantly surprised by new unique and genuine progressive (rock) music, in this case it's Kataya with their wonderful blend of folk, ambient and prog. The atmospheres on the 12 compositions often are dreamy or contain slow rhythms with subtle, even a bit fragile use of keyboards, guitars and a wide range of instruments, from modern keyboard sounds and saxophone to accordeon and 12-string guitar. To me it sounds very warm and pleasant, if I close my eyes I can imagine the beauty of the lush and pure Finnish landscapes (European Yellowstone) that has inspired Kataya to make this music. In some songs the climates turn into more dynamic and bombastic like Putkivaara (sensitive guitarwork) and my favorite Avojaloin: first acoustic rhythm guitar, then we can enjoy flashy synthesizer flights, a Hammond organ solo and an exciting, perfectly build-up fiery guitar solo by the outstanding guest guitarist Samu Wuori. And some songs contain wordless vocals, a kind of Finnish answer to Pink Floyd's legendary song The Great Gig In The Sky. This colours the music in a very special way, pretty compelling.

What a beautiful and captivating effort to translate pure nature into pure progresssive music!

P.s.: In 2010 Kataya released their second album Voyager and in 2014 the live album Lives.

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