VISITATION

This album left me speachless at the first listen. It has all the goods that I have previously found in "Mathematical Air Display", or better its reprint as a Mike Oldfield's album and this is more or less what I was expecting. What I have found is much more. There's a lot of everything. "Strange Awakening is slowly opened by piano in a way similar to "The Sighted Light" and after a couple of minutes grows fully jazz. It's a great opener which gives a clear idea of this album's quality.

"Vapour Trails" is a masterpiece of progressive fusion. Even if skillfully played it's easy enough to be liked by newbies, too. There's no self-indulgence from any musician and this results in a sort of very artistic easy-listening. The sax section reminds me to another album that I love very much that's Soft Machine's "Land Of Cockayne", even of old Machine's fans would surely disagree with me.

"Image Of Passing Smile" is a classic Pohjola track. It goes through various moments and subgenres. It's based on samba-like rhythm but has some grotesque moments, quite theathral.

"Dancing In The Dark" is mainly fusion with rock moments in the guitar riffs and one of the best bass solos ever performed by Pekka.

"The Sighting" is shorter and even if good seems like a filler lost between all this great material.

"Try To Remember" similarily to Strange Awakening starts with a repetitive theme that grows slightly from acoustic guitar, percussions and of course, bass then becomes orchestral with the brass section and once "at regime" there's room for a beautiful bass riff. Like the best Pohjola's tracks it changes several times and what is incredible is the ability to mantain the listener in the same state of mind even with pieces of music totally different one from each other. It's not a patchwork of short pieces. It flows as a single thing, something that also the big ones sometimes failed to achieve.

Is it a must have ? I think so. Strongly suggested to who is not familiar with JR/F, as a starting point.