HAURAS SILTA

I'm glad of the opportunity to see this band live next month in their hometown Hämeenlinna. They went considerably proggier on their next album Behind the Curtains, with some line-up changes and prog personalities guesting, but also this one is a wonderful listen for certain moods, when in need of soothing, melodic, mellow, fresh and comforting music. The reviews by Apps79 and b_olariu already capture the music's nature very well, but at least I can better deal with the lyrics that are in Finnish. Having found the CD from the Gospel section in a library, it's interesting to estimate the spiritual level in lyrics. Well, perhaps it wouldn't be a terrible problem if they were about God and Jesus etc, but happily they aren't directly religious. In fact they're quite good, thoughtful and methaphorical.

The opening title track starts beautifully with a soft flute melody (which in fact reminds me of an old Finnish nursery song about the Sandman: "Nukku-Matti, Nukku-Matti lasten..."). The arrangement of this slightly melancholic song is wonderfully balanced between folky serenity and a rock flavour made by drums and guitar, and the clear vocals of Kristina Johnson are lovely. The jazzier instrumental section improves the track even further. Worth mentioning is Paidarion's blood-relation to the Fusion group MIST SEASON. The final lines of this song mean "even a fragile bridge is strong and beautiful, and it rises up to heaven". That's spiritual, all right. 'Polku' (= Path) is mellower and closer to typical, soft Gospel Pop, both in music and lyrics. A nice, soothing song nevertheless.

The album continues in dreamy mellowness. 'Eksynyt' contains a cool synth solo and pretty flute melodies. When an album is so much oriented to mellowness, there comes a moment where you begin to wish some more spice into it. 'Kultapallo' (= Golden Ball) is a relaxed, uplifting song in a peaceful tempo. Again the soft flute is an essential part in the sound. The tempo increases in the instrumental section that stretches the track length into roughly 8 minutes. The beginning of 'Tuulensuoja' shows how wonderful bassist Jan-Olof Strandberg is. The vocals start halfway in this fine song. 'Hauras silta II' returns to the beginning, fulfilling the circle. The light melancholy fits into this music perfectly, I wish there were more of it. And that flute... sooo beautiful!

Since this album is only slightly leaning toward prog and for sure would be all too soft for many readers here (as it is for me too sometimes), three stars will do, but an imaginary fourth star goes for the rare beauty.