VERDE (MIKA RINTALA)

The Finnish-language track titles draw from fauna and flora with a twist of nonsense. The opening piece 'Heinävilla' is heady free-form Krautrock for drums, bass and synth. Saxophone-oriented 'Sammalpuus' could be regarded as jazz, although it stays firmly on the free jazz territory. The soundscape is delightfully spacy, making it easy to follow for example Rintala's bass lines. An interesting additional feature is the wordless singing (by Hanna Trygg) on this track and on the majority of the 61½-minute album. The fairly pleasant female voice is used as an instrument among other instruments and doesn't really steal the attention, but for me it somehow helps to "get into" some of the pieces, and the same could be said about Jouni Joronen's sax on three tracks or Rintala's horn on 'Kalasorsa'. This is worth mentioning since it's usually the dominant saxophone playing that irritates me on free jazz.

There are some very dissonant moments, too. 'Tukkahirvi' featuring the etnographic instrument called jouhikko frankly leaves me cold, despite the vocalising. Guitar, played by Rintala, appears on two tracks only. 'Asio otus' is rather spacey and calm. The final title track (14:40) features sounds of seabirds in the beginning and without any hurry proceeds as totally improvisatory free/avant jazz to which the synth adds the sense of Cosmische Musik.

If you enjoy the most abstract and trippy Krautrock plus free jazz, have a listen!

Not all the tracks are great. Much of the playing sounds improvised and not very coherent and some things overstay their welcome while others could be developed further to real space explorations. Yet there is almost constantly present this bizarre otherworldly mood that really captures your ears and imagination.

Despite being somewhat half-finished here and there, the album as a whole is a rich and rewarding experience with home-made charm and freedom of expression. CD comes in stylish digipak with gorgeous photos including those of Verde's self-built amplifiers and instruments.

That idea resulted in recording sessions in which the two, and six other musicians, made music completely from an improvisational basis. Unfortunately the instruments are not listed in the CD covers, but I understand it wasn't regarded important in the first place. "In advance, there was no schedule of what to play. Everyone was free to use whichever instrument present. Most often Otto was on his grand piano, occasionally he also sang and blew his horns. Everything is improvised and played just once. Especially Otto was fond of this method. The music was recorded on eight tracks and later mixed in my studio. This album is compiled from the first three sessions, and these I had time to listen to together with Otto."

My review concentrates on facts and objective approach. Perhaps I should reveal that I have never really "got into" the highly experimental, krautrock-ish music of Verde, having listened to just two or three albums before this one. Nor am I any fan of "abstract" music in general, or music that sounds like so called concrete music. So, personally I probably won't be much listening to this album in the future, even if I have quite positive thoughts on it. My good rating is for the firm belief that this is more listenable and variable than other Verde albums, and for the sincere feeling of true musicianship. The package itself is also pleasant.

'Kryssata' (several track titles are made-up words, not proper Finnish) features sound effects (sea, seagulls, probably sounds of sailing the boat seen on the cover?), sparse piano chords, free-form percussion, electronics and other instruments. On the shorter second track one can hear e.g. some trumpet at first, and soon the repetitive, ghostly synth/percussion pattern forms the spine of the piece. No. 3 features low cello strokes and a lot of cymbals, among other elements. On 'Takilas' especially bass, guitar, piano and hi-hat create a moody, hypnotic atmosphere. There's some faint human voice too at one point. On the next track the voice is more audible and can be described as shamanistic. Also the use of percussion, flute (bamboo?) and other strange-sounding instruments bring an Ethnic feel to the music.

The electro-acoustic improvised music on this album is rather minimalistic, experimental, non-melodic, repetitive and, gratefully, not very loud or in-your-face. In fact, occasionally it gets quite introspective. One could imagine it used on an exhibition of abstract art. What's most important, there are notable differences between the tracks. Rintala has done a good job in the editing and mixing. The track lengths vary a lot, and they are not extended just for the length's sake. 'Luuvartti' lasts for 15 minutes but it's also the most spacey one, and closer to 'normal' improvized chamber jazz, as the piano and double bass are in the lead roles. 'Hiivata' is also closer to jazz than avant-garde or concrete music. I recommend this album for those who are interested in improvised, experimental music and who favour ECM-like sparseness over fiery edginess.

I'm a long time fan of all these but the problem I have with this release is than no matter the exciting points of reference VERDE has no tension builds, structure or dynamics; it stays always a bit too much of a constant freak-out. Nine tracks here, spanning almost eighty minutes, whereas with some editing the CD could have been brilliant and genius at probably half the length. Perhaps Rintala needs to land in earth and look upon his material from a more focused point of view.