MERI JA AVARUUS

And while I'm on the subject of how certain groups ever slipped past us and into prog folk, um, it has occurred to me that sometimes we decide they definitely should be somewhere in the database, and, when all the longhairs from fusion, eclectic and RIO say nay, presto they become a prog folk group. Welcome VIMMA (not to be confused with another more easily categorized prog folk outfit also from Finland named VIIMA, oy), meaning "Frenzy", and thank you Matti!

On their debut which translates to "Sea and Space" the blend is somewhere between jazz fusion and world music with classical meanderings in between. Because VIMMA wants to impart morals of importance to them, they sometimes choose to do so in the sultry spoken words of Eeva Rajakangas, and always in the mother tongue. This makes some of the tracks less penetrable to those few of us with limited connections to the Finnish language, but I also note that the best of these are so relatable musically that she could be expounding on any subject in any language and I would follow her. In particular, "Sunlight cannot reach here" recalls the blind harpist O'CAROLAN via the wonders of early CLANNAD with piano replacing the harp, and the mesmerizing "8.0" magically fits anyone who can walk, and maybe a few who thought they couldn't, with dancing shoes for 7 celebratory minutes of fiddle, mouth music, piano, bouncy rhythms, and even guitar crunches. If only it didn't stop. Also worth mentioning are the winds of Jaakko Arola which here and in other tracks recalls a long departed Breton group TI JAZ.

Singular this certainly is, and at its best VIMMA's execution is stunning, but that's not quite often enough to raise their first album to the next level, leaving space for improvement.