ALKUSOITTO

From a small South-East Finnish town comes this band whose name means space station. It couldn't be more suitable, since the band is deeply inspired by space and science fiction, and that's indeed the main charasteristics of this second album. Sonically Avaruusasema can be compared to other space inspired artists and bands -- such as the Danish group Öresund Space Collective -- that have guitars pretty equal to the synths, and a rhythm section. Maybe Hawkwind could be mentioned, but the stoner rock element is minimal, the most notable exception being the heavy bursts on the track 'Tapahtumahorisontin takana'.

The spacey music on this album is instrumental in the musical sense, but most tracks feature voice samples in Finnish (often sort of distanced, sometimes also distorted), easy to imagine being part of a sf movie about astronauts and astronomers. The voices speak mostly of cosmic theories like "What would happen if you fell into a black hole?', as the second track asks in its title, and of astronauts' dangerous tasks in space. Unfortunately the non-Finnish speakers miss that textual level, but then again it's primarily part of the atmosphere and doesn't demand to be fully understood.

The title of the album refers both to the Big Bang and to the musical term overture. The synth-oriented title track reminds me of the space themed pieces of the mid-70's Vangelis. The male voice speculates what happened in the very beginning of the universe. The mentioned black hole themed track gives bigger emphasis on the spatial and clear guitar texture. The soaring, spacey melodies remind me the early 70's Pink Floyd (Meddle, Dark Side). 'Spagetti-ilmiö' (= the spaghetti phenomen) illustrates the nightmarish imaginary situation in a more rhythmic psychedelic space rock and panicking voice samples. 'Avaruuskävely' (= space walk), despite containing the danger element of a hole in the equipment and oxygen slowly running out, sounds relatively sunny and laid-back with its bouncy guitar chords and synthesized voice doodling.

The final track 'Matematiikan ja aineen todellisuudet' (= Realities of mathematics and substance) has a continuos hypnotic pattern, and the voice talks this and that of the space. Above I said that the speeches heard throughout the album are primarily an atmospheric detail. While I appreciate the use of mother tongue instead of English for change, which surely increases the charming personality of the album, I do feel a bit sorry for the non-Finnish as they will miss the exciting and hilarious narrative level. Musically speaking, the album has a respectable open- minded variety (undoubtedly the reason the band fell into Eclectic Prog instead of e.g. Psychedelic/Space rock), spanning from the ambient, Vangelis-like synth orientation to the rockier moments. And yet the whole feels very coherent.

In a while I'll review Avaruusasema's new album Kilonova which brings new sides to their space-inspired music.