UKKOSSALAMA

I have not heard the Ektroverde releases from year 2000, but this being their last album in my understanding, escapes further from dystopic views of mechanist society to the energies of ancient primeval powers. The threatening album cover gathers the storm for musical innovations, crystallized on song titles playing with medieval Finnish themes and relations to forces of nature.

The two shorter impressions lasting about ten minutes apiece start with "Kapituli" ("Chapter" in context of church administration), echoes residing still in more mechanical tonal idioms, sharp and hasty drums drawing together spacey guitars and more analogic presence of saxophone, round toned bass guitar and short visitations of vocals. A lighter and more jazzy ethereal improvisation of another Circle brotherhood band Plain Ride might be a comparative reference for this grooving aural warm-up voyaging. "Paholaispiirtäjä" ("Devilscraper"...?) creates interesting harmonics from multiple chord layers, reminding US late 60's garage rock blasts with streetwise lyric reciting. One-key based persistent sonic monolith leads to fine solos from saxophone, dualistic calls from acid treated guitar and funky waving bass lines.

The core moments of the album reside in my opinion on the two longer epic visions, rising calmly from "Kaski", the smokes from burned out forestlands providing fertile cultivation soil for crops. Gentle guitar picks tremble on their start-up positions, reverb delays crafting space for experience of vastness, supported by saxophone's calm lines. Serene floating upon the desolate ashen lands waiting for growth of new harvest gains intensity through respectable patience from the musicians, vocals and the first high peak on the intensity being reached around the fourteenth minute of this first of the two nearly twenty-seven minutes long tidal waves. After the vocal verse more chaotic touches on the guitar are allowed, and the rolling pace slightly escalates, concluding to climax of power on another rise upon the steps of instrumental monotonic grinding.

The last entity is called Lightning, the natural phenomena burning the forests away without intervention of an ape trying to dominate the biosphere. Drums open the track casually, pleasant shimmering guitars entering to sensual dance towards the center of the void. Prophetic voice screams from the distance, preaching with ancient sounding Finnish, declaring the reciter as the God of Lightning. Musically this second colossus evolves really pleasantly, and in my opinion the album gains further quality and power with each track. Some sort of thunderstorm escalation moment occurs around twelfth minutes, the drum battering growing very fiery, and guitars join for the massive catharsis of tension release after nearly one hour buildup. The final moments of this sonic voyage fades interestingly behind some sort of a layer, emphasizing the power being transmitted from another distant source than the clearer major part of the album. This layer starts to grow thicker like a dense carpet of rain, and slowly washes the music away, giving a convincing final touch for the energy and innovation of this minimalist archaic record.

I have been thinking about the different group incarnations of Circle; Pharaoh Overlord and Ektroverde, both starting to create music resembling the motives of Circle, but approaching the subject from slightly different viewpoints. Often the following recordings start to morph from style of their starting point, reflecting the inner dynamics of these band projects. I believe this is a signal of musical sincerity and courage to follow the directions rising from the psyche of musical collective's expressional needs. From the listener's perspective if one is not totally open to all regions of the musician's aesthetical ideas, purchasing albums blindly may cause disappointments. From Ektroverde albums this has so far been the most pleasing, leaning to more earthbound themes and rock-oriented hypnotisms. A very recommendable album for anybody open to such music.