UOMA

I think UZVA is one of my favourite Finnish prog bands. A pity that this third album - recorded between October 2004 and April 2006 - will probably remain as their last. The group's mastermind and main composer was guitarist Heikki Puska; the co-composer on some Uoma tracks is Olli Kari who plays vibes, marimba and percussions. The all-instrumental music gives associations to many directions; sometimes it has folky flavour of Hergest Ridge -era MIKE OLDFIELD, sometimes - quite often - there's a Canterbury feel (SOFT MACHINE, CARAVAN, GILGAMESH,...) in the richly arranged and relaxed but deep jazz-rock. Like Sean Trane, also I noticed some similarities with the classic Quebec band MANEIGE, speaking of the chamber music influences. And Uzva have also succeeded to form an identifiable sound of their own, without being trapped at all by the great shadow of the late PEKKA POHJOLA, the most notable individual in the Finnish Fusion of all time.

Oh God how good this band sounds! The music flows efforlessly and has interesting details going on all the time. This is made possible by a long list of musicians: instruments include bassoon, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophones, flute, piccolo, cello, violin and harp (I hardly had noticed that keyboards are missing). All instruments are used very thoughtfully and economically. Orchestral, overblown grandiosity is absent.

I'm willing to rate this with five stars which I haven't done in ages. Well, actually by doing so I look through my fingers some slightly disturbing restless moments that I don't like, such as in the parts one and two of 'Vesikko', but then again some other listener might welcome those edgier moments. The closing track 'Lullaby' is a calm composition for harp, alto flute and bassoon, a perfect ending for such a colourful and rich album of 71 minutes.