AJATUKSIA MAAILMAN LAIDALTA

This debut album by the Finnish progrock band Viima has touched me from the very first moment, what a wonderful sound featuring lots of fine musical ideas and surprising twists and turns. The six compositions (all between 6 and 10 minutes) contain a blend of folk, rock and symphonic rock, in my opinion with the emphasis on the latter category. You will hear many flowing shifting moods, from dreamy to rock or bombastic parts: Leijonan Syksy delivers halfway a beautiful keyboard interlude as a bridge to a long and moving guitar solo with echoes from Steve Rothery, the titletrack contains great variation, from sparkling piano to wah-wah guitar, a harpsichord-piano duet and a church organ part, Ilmalaiva Italia starts dreamy but then there is a steamy rock and roll guitar interlude and a sensational synthesizer solo and in Luutomat the dreamy climate with twanging guitars and flkute turns into a mid-tempo with fiery saxophone work (in the vein of mid-Pink Floyd) and majestic violin-Mellotron. The final, long track Johdsatus delivers again lots of variation, wonderful keyboards and a long, compelling guitar solo. To me Viima their sound evokes early Renaissance (great female vocals but in Finnish) and mid-Genesis (lush 24-carat symphonic rock parts) but Viima doesn't sound as a clone, they present a beautiful blend of folk and symphonic rock that contains many surprising musical ideas. This is a strong debut!