KOHTI VALOA

Nice to see new Finnish bands being added to the database every now and then. This review is basically a translation of my original review I wrote to a Finnish prog site in September 2021. MAAILMANPUU ("World Tree") was founded in the early 2010's by vocalist-guitarist Kimmo Villa and bassist Antti Lehtomäki who are still the main composers in the quartet. The eponymous debut was released in 2019. The keyboardist changed between the albums. As a side note, drummer Jussi Portaanpää also plays in VESILINJA.

The band is to some degree inspired by Northern mythology and their take on progressive rock is retro-spirited. One comparison could be MALADY which however is darker, hazier and more melancholic whereas Maailmanpuu is more down-to-earth (especially the debut) and more vocal oriented. The second album Kohti Valoa ("Towards the Light") shows a clear improvement. It contains six pieces, the first and last stretching over 10 minutes. Kimmo Villa's voice occasionally reminds me of the established, long-time singer-songwriter Kauko Röyhkä (hardly much known abroad) in his earlier years. The other association during the opening song, when it comes to the tone of vocals, is PEKKA STRENG, although only briefly. The music combines the singer-songwriter type of rock and the prog aesthetics with soloings, time changes and such, and does it in a natural manner. The electric guitar has a suitable amount of distortion and the keyboards rely a lot to the 70's spirited Hammond sound.

Also the shorter and less meandering songs are firmly progressive rock. On 'Kätköissä metsän' I enjoy the sparkle of guitars and the jazzy touch in Portaanpää's drumming. The title track is a beautiful piano centred song. The 12-minute final piece 'Vapauden hinta' gets in the midway into a hazy psychedelia -- even Pink Floyd's 'Echoes' may come to mind -- and contains some poetry reading as a guest appearance. Allin all this band has pretty well found their own style.