PRINSSI

TABULA RASA (from Kangasala/Tampere) were one of the essential 70's Finnish prog bands that were signed to the legendary Love Records but didn't come from the Helsinki region. The highly melodic music on their two classic albums was composed by the guitarist Heikki Silvennoinen, while the lyrics were mostly written by singer-songwriter Mikko Alatalo.

This single preceded the eponymous debut, both songs are outtakes from it. They represent the two different musical styles that the album's contents can roughly be divided to. 'Prinssi' is a sensitive and melancholic song. I think the band were at their strongest with this kind of emotional stuff, especially concerning the tender vocals of Jukka Leppilampi who wasn't as convincing in the more rocking territory. On the debut the greatest highlights are, in my opinion, 'Gryf' and 'Vuorellaistuja' that succesfully combine this emotional depth and dynamic progressivity in the structure. 'Prinssi' may lack notable prog trademarks, but it's a beautiful little song. The delicate arrangement featuring guitar, flute and piano (played by WIGWAM's Jim Pembroke!) is lovely.

'Lähtö' isn't a bad rock composition per se, but the vocals become a bit phoney when Leppilampi approaches the David Byron -like hard rock vibrato. Silvennoinen has a ballsy electric guitar solo near the end and Jarmo Sormunen's flute has a nice Jethro Tull flavour, even though it's too buried in the slightly blurry mix. Unlike Tabula Rasa's second single, their final release which contains two non-album songs, this one is pretty non-essential.