Matti P Founded in 2001, ASTRO CAN CARAVAN is a Finnish collective using large line-ups on their gigs and albums. Their personal instrumental music could be described as psychedelic, ethnically coloured, occasionally avant-garde oriented Big Band Fusion. I'd like to cite the respected Finnish music journalist Pekka Laine from his review on some ACC album, freely translated: "The caravan that wildly operates in an area loosely bordered by funk, imaginary ethnicity, astral noise and free sound waves succeeds to create an unbelievable bazaar atmosphere. Sometimes with an intensity of a snake charmer, sometimes speaking strange things from a mystic's mouth, and every now and then heading into complete lunacy."

It is possible -- I admit I'm not so deeply into this band -- that this new album is easier to absorb than the earlier ones, rather easy to like if you're into both brass-heaviness and psychedelia. At least the frenziest freak-out moments are kept at bay. Let's have a look at the five pieces here.

The tight 5-minute opener 'Astral Projection' was composed by trumpetist Eero Savela, and it has a strong sense of vintage psychedelic jazz-rock. Saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen's 'Solifer 72' (8:38) has a bit calmer tempo and a hypnotic rhythm pattern evoking images of a camel caravan wandering across a desert. I like the way the reeds are soloing in turns, especially Otto Eskelinen's flute.

Eskelinen's composition 'Se kohiseva koski' (6:57) starts slowly and carefully with a bunch of wind instruments gradually growing bigger, bass playing peacefully on the background, until on the third minute the band gets wilder with a Klezmer/Balkan spirit. Balkan ingredients have always been hard for me to digest, but amidst the repetitive and brassy riff-orientation one can also spot interesting participations of various instruments.

Another Eskelinen tune 'Mustavuoren kuiskaus' is the album's most elegant track. Again there's a steady, groovy rhythm pattern and the players take their moments at front. During the album Emil Luukkonen's keyboards tend to be slightly buried under the multitude of wind instruments, but here the electric piano is crucial in creating a 70's-like jazz-rock atmosphere.

The 12-minute, more epic piece 'Amen Ra' (the third one composed by Otto Eskelinen) proceeds with a "where do we go from here?" kind of free-form jamming where only Janne Mathlin's metallic, sharp percussion keeps repeating its steady pattern til the end. if the track's first half has rather a confused atmosphere, the ensemble playing becomes more unified as the piece progresses in a hypnotic manner. The several wind solos are nicely woven into the overall sound where Arttu Hasu's bass sticks out deliciously (almost like in The Police's 'Demolition Man'). The 1974-78 era JADE WARRIOR comes to my mind for the hypnotic feel. Yeah, this tune is my fave, and the grand finale reminiscent of the one in Ravel's 'Bolero' is a fascinating way to finish it.

Apart from the third track's Balkan ingredients I can enjoy this album pretty well, in the right mood.

js Astro Can Caravan's myspace page has some of the best psychedelic African jazz-rock grooves I've heard since the heyday of Mandrill, that was why I was kind of surprised when I received this CD and found out their music is far more diverse than their web page would lead you to believe. Caravan is an entirely unique brassy semi-big band that mixes the aforementioned Afro-psychedelia with East European, Nordic and avant-garde influences. Though such influences may seem disparate, Caravan mixes them effortlessly into a congruent whole that never sounds like pointless pastiche. It is often hard to tell where the Balkan influences leave off and the African influences take over. Although some similarities to Sun Ra are hard to miss, overall Caravan often has more of a psychedelic rock jam feel than Sun Ra's more jazz centered approach. Some other artists that come to mind while listening to this might include John Lurie's Lounge Lizards, Club Foot Orchestra, Pigbag, ROVA, Peter Applebaum's Hieroglyphics Ensemble, Willam Brueker Kollektief, Don Ellis, John Zorn, Fred Frith and Frank Zappa's early 70s big bands. One of this album's highlights is the unique synthesizer work of multi-keyboardist Otto Eskelinen who manipulates an old school analog that is often a lead instrument in the brass orchestrations. This is a good album, but I would have liked it better if it had less avant wandering about and more of their trademark focused psychedelic grooves. To their credit, I bet Astro Can Caravan comes across better live than they do on record. I get the feeling that this large ensemble's performances are a naturally theatrical event.