DEMON NIGHTS

Demonnights is an album that moves the outstanding Finnforest in a decidedly more jazz rock direction and the results are very good.

The Tegelman brothers are joined by several guest musicians and the playing is absolutely top notch. But it is the completely jamming ferocity of the guitars and percussion that makes this band such a treat, although less so here as the sax and keys move much more to the fore.

In "Ann" we are served up a very tasty sax solo which continues into the next (title) track. Sax lovers will need to hear this album as Juhani Altonen really makes his presence felt throughout. The closing track "Pablo" is a real standout and the heavenly guitar work here gets the closest to what we heard on their previous album.

All in all Demonnights is not the consistent masterpiece like the earlier Finnforest work in my opinion but it will certainly please jazz lovers. It is another piece of the legacy of a tragically underappreciated band from Finland whom I hope will eventually be discovered by more people. I recommend their earlier work to start with but if you like what you hear there do check this one out as well. Sadly, to my knowledge, this would be the last Finnforest album.

3.5 stars overall, 4 star territory for straight jazz rock lovers.

The right album title is actually Demonnights (no two separate words), and it simply referred to Jussi Tegelman's habit of making demos at night time.

The two earlier albums by this instrumental prog group from Kuopio, Finland, are highly respected even internationally, whereas this third and final one -- which came out just before the legendary Love Records went bankcrupt -- is generally seen as a notably weaker work, or at least as an unoriginal Weather Report imitation. I like WR but it's been too long since listening to them to be able to spot the suggested striking similarities between WR and this album. But perhaps the other way of seeing it is that the jazz fusion on Demonnights is so good that it's on the level of Weather Report. The playing is brilliant to start with.

BTW, I'm listening to the complete Finnforest 3-cd set "Alpha to Omega" featuring lengthy liner notes. An excellent package to have, even if you already owned an album or two by Finnforest.

The most obvious difference between the preceding Finnforest albums and Demonnights is that here the saxophones (mostly played by the legendary jazz veteran Juhani Aaltonen who has also played in Tasavallan Presidentti) are in a very central role. The band's line-up had also changed, new members including Jarmo Savolainen on Arp Odyssey, piano and Fender Rhodes plus guitarist Jari Rissanen. The former main composer, guitarist Pekka Tegelman has composed only one track here, the Victor Jara inspired 'Fighter' with a fiery guitar solo and a more mystic solo for bass flute. It's his twin brother Jussi (drums) who led the project at this point and wrote seven of the nine tracks.

The opening track is an upbeat and groovy fusion piece with delightful soloing for synth especially. 'Ann' is a moody, beautiful slow- tempo ballad. The airy title track focusses mostly on Aaltonen's sensual sax melodies, whereas the 2-minute 'Half Blues' is basically a freaky free-jazzy sax solo backed by piano and drums.

The liner notes reveal that 'Religions' was gloomily inspired by the Jonestown tragedy in Guyana (an organised mass suicide of over 900 people); it begins quite joyfully but turns into a distorted mayhem. 'Firth' is a sax- oriented and almost meditative piece that reminds me of Jan Garbarek. 'Far Away From' is a tender duet for sax and piano, and the album closes with 'Pablo' which is a definite highlight. The bass of Tuomo Helin sounds gorgeous and Jari Rissanen's guitar solo is impressive. I expected Petri Pettersson's wordless vocals to be more audible, but a great track anyway.

So, I'm pretty much opposing the rather negative reception and claim Demonnights to be a great and underrated item of the late 70's Finnish fusion scene.