JÄTTILÄISROTTA

Avarus were (are?) a Finnish "free-wierd-folk-improv" collective most active between 2001-2010. Jättiläisrotta (Finnish for "giant rat") is their album from 2004 consisting of 10 tracks that seem to be excerpts from longer free-form jams. They mostly feature acoustic instruments (guitar, percussions of various kinds) but there's also keyboards and other more electronic or processed sounds whose origin you can only guess.

I won't go through the album in detail. Some tracks work better than others, as expected. Sometimes they really get into the zone with hypnotic organic pulse and otherworldy ambience, sometimes it's just pointless tuneless noodling. I'd say it's about 50/50 here. Overall there's naïve charm and freedom of expression at play but some of it is just plain silly (yet certainly it's been fun making this).

Fans of early Amon Düül and other more acoustic, jam-oriented and free form Krautrock may well enjoy this. Others probably not so much. Two stars in the end, add one if you're a fan of this kind of stuff.