Matti P Untold Stories is the fifth album by the Finnish, internationally respected guitar master Jartse Tuominen, 11 years since the preceding one. All ten tracks here are instrumentals and pretty much centred around the electric guitar. The band involves musicians (keys, bass, drums) from both USA and Finland and the recordings were done between 2014 - '15. After this album Jartse Tuominen began a tour that started from Finland.

To me personally this kind of stuff oriented towards technical delivery rather than the emotional, more introspective depths of the music is usually a bit tiresome. The first three tracks are just that: energetic and spicy rock-fusion but in the end quite meaningless boasting. 'Time to Go' then is The Love Ballad of the album, and as such easily a highlight as well. A relatively slow tempo, and soaring guitar melodies filled with passion, melacholic longing for the loved one. The composition was made into a very romantic promotional video featuring the beauty of Finnish nature and summer evening by the lake with sauna and all.

The sixt track 'Trouble Shuffle' is a shameless roots piece, something I really don't enjoy. 'Untold' is another slow and sentimental tune comparable to 'Time to Go'. At first it has some nice acoustic guitar, and the majestic lead for electric guitar may bring some of the most grandiose CAMEL instrumentals to one's mind. Also the organ and piano appear to a good effect. 'Nine Lives' returns to the rootin' tootin' blues-rock. The last track 'Farewell' is the album's third step into the sentimentality.

Definitely this is a well-done instrumental rock album and worth checking out by those who appreciate the guitar heroics of artists such as JEFF BECK, GARY MOORE or JOHN McLAUGHLIN. There's nothing especially progressive, and I'm afraid the whole is very evidently divided into three types of tracks: the ballads that are fairly enjoyable if not the most original pieces of music, a couple of openly rootsy tracks, and the majority of more or less ordinary guitar centred rock-fusion tunes to make the impression on the technical lavel instead of compositional substance. Maybe it's just me that they mostly leave me unimpressed. A solid three-star album anyway. Collaborating with another kind of a composer would probably bring the very best out of this excellent musician.

lucas Jazz-rock...and so much more!

Jartse Tuominen is an accomplished finnish guitarist who played with a host of renown artists: Joe Satriani, Jackson Browne, Doobie Brothers among others. With 'Time Of Change' he recorded a bunch of instrumental songs (except two sung ones) in a melodic jazz-rock approach, throwing in elements of shredding guitar, pop, heavy prog, southern rock, blues, space rock, funk, organized as described below in the track-by-track review.

"Midnight Express" is a dynamic track where drums are excited like the boiling magma of a volcano ready to explode, and with excursions into southern-rock/heavy-prog (the sabbathian guitar and the strange keys in the chorus)

"Seven Seas" features aquatic (see the title of the song!) and echoing rhythmic guitar together with floating keyboard layers like a breeze blowing, and aerial guitar solos. Drumming is complex and retains the same hypnotic effect as the rhythmic guitar loops with its repeated pattern. The song builds slowly into more aggressive territories when drum chops go to prominence and guitar solos go faster and devoid of any clear direction. The control is not completely lost as the echoing guitar and the regular pattern of drums remains. The expression ?calm before the storm" takes all its sense here : the waves of the "seven seas" keep quiet before becoming turbulent.

"Texas Roots" : one immediately thinks of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Texas blues, and ? bingo - this is the case with the bluesy opening guitar theme, which is repeated all over the song. Drums are in a funky mood. Hammond reinforces the vintage 70's funk side. A Vai-esque and anthemic guitar solo bursts in the chorus. Crazy guitar soloing and soaring Hammond interpserse the choruses.

The title track is a ballad with its lulling rhythm and gentle picking in the first part : a kind of mix ? when you listen carefully ? of slowed down spanish flamenco, a bit of slowed down country/bluegrass, and echoes of shredding guitarists like Satriani. Electric guitar then bursts together with Hammond and gives a taste of Gary Moore's "parisienne walkways" to the song. As the song progresses, the lulling air of the debut comes back and even offers a wink to Pink Floyd in the passage with aerial/anthemic guitar and soaring Hammond.

"Out there" is a song with strong echoes of Steve Morse's melodic lines in the main guitar theme and an overall jazz-funk mood. The "impossible guitar part" at 1'49 is reminiscent of Steve Vai at the time he was with Frank Zappa.

Except for, once again, the Steve Morse aerial and melodic approach in the chorus, "one of these days" is in an even more jazz-funk tone than the previous one, with nice hypnotic guitar picks. Towards the two thirds though, the dynamic jazz-funk has been traded for a short hazy jazz-rock passage with a bass solo, then the hopping jazz-funk comes back after the melodic solo of the chorus.

"Weird Timing" is a briliant heavy/jazz rock tune with energetic playing. Zappa comes to mind with the eccentric guitar solos, but the blasting guitars give also a southern rock feel to the whole. On a par with the title of the song, a drum solo punctuates the music.

In the beginning, "Dreamer" starts as a sunny folksy balad with some echoing pastoral rhythm guitars and lulling guitar solos. It soon turns to a shredding affair, with the virtuosic and punchy solos of Jartse, alternating between weeping solos and more acrobatic ones.

The album ends with two sung tracks, with the beautiful voice of Yvonne Charbonneau. The first of these two songs, "Love And The Perfect Game" is a positive pop song with solid rhythmic base. Guitar solos are in a Gary Moore's bluesy tone.

The second song, "the longest mile" retains a sadder atmosphere, with a slower pace, echoing guitars of Jartse, the suspended Hammond, and more tremolos in Yvonne's vocals.

Overall, this album is very enjoyable with great dynamics, the right balance between guitar acrobatics and melodic themes, and a great diversity of influences.

lucas When top-notch musicanship meets catchy and memorable melodies

Jartse Tuominen is an accomplished guitarist who started his solo career at the end of the 1990's. 'Northern lights' is his second record, and the material proposed here (AOR [read "melodic rock"] declined in several styles ' see detailed review further on) contrasts with another record, aptly entitled 'progressive' (a progressive and complex musical tour de force) released by Jartse around the same time. On to 'Northern Lights': we have here a collection of songs that overall give a flair of AOR to the album, but that are covered with different musical sauces : - Instrumental rock/jazz-rock with the 3 instrumental tracks (the opening track, "Introducing", in the vein of Simon Phillips' projects with Steve Lukather or Derek Sherinian, "the loner", which is a little tribute to Gary Moore ' without looking at the credits you recognize instantly Phil Lynott's long-time friend's phrasing, and finally the light and jazzy closing track "northern lights", with its first and last quarters lead by bass (Patrick O'Hearn comes to mind with his ambient stuff) and guitar touches reminiscent of Joe Satriani's "I believe", a song which had, what a coincidence!, Simon Phillips on drums. - Pop, first on "ghost of love" with its superb and delicate female vocals and memorable chorus. Then on "on the other side", with intonation of vocals reminding Joey Tempest of Europe. - Hard rock/southern rock on "Over", an upbeat midtempo song with male vocals reminiscent at times Glenn Hughes, at others Danny Joe Brown of Molly Hatchett fame. - Folk-rock on "Inca Princess" with theatrical male vocals. - Arena rock/AOR, first on "Hearts on parole" where strong male vocals alternate with raspy Bonnie Tyler'esque female vocals. The guitar line in the chorus is reminiscent of TOTO's "hold the line", a liquid Hammond B3 comes in the bridge. Then on "Love me, hate me" with female vocals that could be placed somewhere between Janis Joplin and Doro's aggressive singing styles. - Soul in "Never enough" with funky guitar picks, brass section, saxophone, Hammond B3 all along, congas, and vocals praising like in a gospel song. - Prog-rock on "Miracle Man", with processed vocals not far from the Beatles ("blue jay way"), and Genesis ("grand parade of lifeless packaging") in the introduction and Pink Floyd ("waiting for the worms") in the conclusion, and the right balance between straightforward rhythm and more tortuous ones, like on Spock's Beard albums.

What strikes in the album is the diversity of material but also the diversity of vocals (4 lead vocalists in all). Jartse's guitar can be heard all along the album, but is never overwhelming, rather always giving directions to the song and in harmony with the band.

This album is full of catchy melodies, and lifts the spirits. This would be a shame not to listen to it.