MERIKURJET

Mika Rintala from Nokia, Finland, is an underground musician and DIY electronics designer. In the past he's been involved in the groups Circle and Ektroverde, but primarily he has independently recorded and released experimental music as VERDE, with collaborators on board to a various degree. On this latest album the instruments and their players are indicated unlike on [at least most of the] earlier albums, and it seems that the music is also more collaborative than Verde usually is. Still we're dealing with pretty abstract, improvisatory avant/ free-jazz/ Krautrock, but perhaps slightly easier to digest in comparison to an average Verde album.

The Finnish-language track titles draw from fauna and flora with a twist of nonsense. The opening piece 'Heinävilla' is heady free-form Krautrock for drums, bass and synth. Saxophone-oriented 'Sammalpuus' could be regarded as jazz, although it stays firmly on the free jazz territory. The soundscape is delightfully spacy, making it easy to follow for example Rintala's bass lines. An interesting additional feature is the wordless singing (by Hanna Trygg) on this track and on the majority of the 61½-minute album. The fairly pleasant female voice is used as an instrument among other instruments and doesn't really steal the attention, but for me it somehow helps to "get into" some of the pieces, and the same could be said about Jouni Joronen's sax on three tracks or Rintala's horn on 'Kalasorsa'. This is worth mentioning since it's usually the dominant saxophone playing that irritates me on free jazz.

There are some very dissonant moments, too. 'Tukkahirvi' featuring the etnographic instrument called jouhikko frankly leaves me cold, despite the vocalising. Guitar, played by Rintala, appears on two tracks only. 'Asio otus' is rather spacey and calm. The final title track (14:40) features sounds of seabirds in the beginning and without any hurry proceeds as totally improvisatory free/avant jazz to which the synth adds the sense of Cosmische Musik.

If you enjoy the most abstract and trippy Krautrock plus free jazz, have a listen!