TUONEN TYTÄR II

A monumental project is served anyone with an interest in vintage Finnish progressive rock with this 3 disc collection of more or less well known examples of art rock from yesteryear, covered by contemporary artists from Finland and abroad.

The end result is a pretty varied affair, as can be expected. The two first CDs should cater well for those whose interest first and foremost resides within the symphonic prog universe, although the second disc also features a few examples of works with less of a foundation in that expression. While on the third and final part of the collection, other varieties of progressive rock is given much more space while the symphonic excursions takes more of a back seat.

The three hours worth of material represented here should be of interest to anyone curious about or with a special interest in 70's Finnish progressive rock, with the extensive booklet included as an additional bonus. But with many contributions of a generally high quality, this mammoth compilation deserves to be checked out also by people with less specialized musical tastes.

The Finnish prog association Colossus has organized a series of various artists album projects (usually 3-CD sets), collaborating at first with Mellow Records and later with Musea. The first release was 2-CD "Tuonen Tytär: A Tribute to Finnish Progressive Rock of the 70's" (2000). Later it was felt that there were too many bands uncovered in the first issue. As a rather unnecessary link also this issue includes HAIKARA's re-recording of 'Yksi Maa - Yksi Kansa' originating from the band's debut album. Nevertheless, this set contains roughly three hours of prog covers made exclusively for this project, mostly by artists from Finland and, to a lesser extent, foreign artists such as Trion (NL), Jinetes Negros (ARG), Simon Says (S), Pinnacle (US), Equilibrio Vital (Venezuela) and three Italian artists (Colossus Of Prog, suitably performing Wigwam's 'Colossus', was at this point just Marco Bernard, the captain of Colossus projects).

The 1st CD is clearly better than the other two. Even two tracks originate from NOVA's sole album Atlantis,1976. Tommy Eriksson (Ageness) performs a strong version of WIGWAM's 'Cheap Evening Return' (-77); Overhead do 'Vuorellaistuja by TABULA RASA; Willowglass' instrumental version of the WIGWAM classic 'Fairyport' is wonderful! Also TASAVALLAN PRESIDENTTI ('Last Quarters' from Lambertland) and FINNFOREST are being covered. [The disc's weakest track is Pax Romana's 'Nobody Never Knows Nothing' by ROCKRESSIO, a short-lived and not-so-proggy rock band not much deserving the tributing.]

It's harder to spot highlights from the 2nd CD. Tracks of bands such as KAAMOS, KALEVALA and PIIRPAUKE are good choices, but the further inclusion of post-Nuclear Nighclub WIGWAM is very questionable. There's also a mistake in the track list: TABULA RASA track is actually 'Tuho', not 'Gryf' which surely would have been a better choice. The 3rd CD's best justified choices include Mist Season's version of 'Pan' (MARU & MIKAEL, unknown abroad I'm afraid), Kosmos performing PEKKA STRENG's 'Takaisinvirtaan' and tracks by FANTASIA, SCAPA FLOW and JUKKA TOLONEN ('Impressions of India'). For some reason FINNFOREST is covered by as many as four artists in this set. WIGWAM's Pembroke-ballad 'Lost Without a Trace' is worth covering.

Of course it must be remembered how massive task it is to organize a various artists 3-CD set, and all the respect for the great things that's been achieved here, but for a big part the track choices seem to favour too much of the same artists instead of finding more of the less-known gems, and some songs would never be my choices of the artists in question. Also the info texts concerning the original music could have been more detailed.