REFLECTIONS

I enjoyed their two previous albums too, and I feel a bit guilty for never reviewing them here (they haven't got too many!). Now I've listened to their new one and think that it's their best work. MIST SEASON is a Finnish group who play elegant, melodic, instrumental, mellow and yet dynamic Fusion. A good referring point would be FINNFOREST from the seventies, but better really. More variable in instrumentation and more melodic. Amidst tracks of tight group playing there are also intimate acoustic pieces by solo piano or guitar. A nice addition is female vocals on two tracks here (another of them is lyricless vocalese).

Maybe it could also be said that this album is a little more progressive than the previous ones, which were more safely in the mellow, sort-of 'easy listening', jazz category. This feels silly to say, as if this was any harder to enjoy immediately! A wider variation in compositions is partly due to the inclusion of covers: there's a Santana tune featuring trumpet ('Aqua Marine'), two pieces of Italian film music... oh, even a track composed by Roine Stolt ('Lobsterland Groove'), I don't know from which origin, maybe not Flower Kings? Actually that was one of my least favourites; it's got an Ethnic touch in the style of PIIRPAUKE, with accordion included. Despite all this, the whole album is very coherent and balanced; nothing feels out of place. 67 minutes of beautiful, relaxing music, highly recommended!