FunkFreak75 Finnish composer and bassist extraordinaire's second coming out party--only this one is much more serious (more like a work party) as the young maestro works out some equations roaming around inside his head.

1. "Alku ~ The beginning" (2:10) solo piano using modal chord progression like a John Coltrane or Magma song. (4.375/5)

2. "Ensimmäinen aamu ~ The first morning" (5:35) bright, cheerful j-r fusion of a proggy inclination--quite a little of a Weather Report feel. Where does Pekka find these great drummers? (I like that he gives them great sound.) The motif established in the second minute has a processional feeling to it--like a jazzed-up classical piece. The next run through the full motif everybody goes more jazz, blurring the "lines" of the original motif quite a bit, but then they all come back together for a tight recapitulation of the original processional. The fourth time through it's the horns (and Pekka's hi-rpm bass) who elevate the song into Zappa Land. So precise and tight! The last time through the band is more relaxed, the notes a little more subdued, yet it sounds so Zappa-like! Excellent composition! (9/10)

3. "Huono sää / Se tanssii... ~ Bad weather / Bialoipokku dances" (6:55) reflective piano-based song--in fact, an étude. The exploration of low end possibilities is the total focus throughout the first two minutes with the horns doing as much work as the piano and bass. It's not until the 2:20s that the melody finally reaches mid- and upper ranges. Another song that could almost be classified under the Zeuhl sub. Even when the music bursts into happy-county fair mode at 4:45 could it still be befitting a Magma or Present song--especially when it soon shifts again into a faster gear. (13.25/15)

4. "...ja näkee unta ~ Bialoipokku's war dream" (4:35) poppy Arthur-like Burt Bacharach music. Very bouncy with a very syncopated bass-and-piano led melody line over very steady rhythm section. Horns jump on board the melody providing volume and accents to the bass-and-piano lines while the drumming moves in and out of military snare work. Interesting and very mathematic. J.S. Bach would love this one, I'm sure. (8.875/10)

5. "Hereilläkin uni jatkuu ~ Bialoipokku's war" (4:42) piano turns CHCAGO! More mathematical jazz-rock of particular interest to those who love complex whole-group arrangements of music that is primarily intent on exploring odd time signatures. A big switch around 3:25 leads into a different-sounding yet-still-CHICAGO-like passage with bass and soprano sax performing the most attention-grabbing duties. Impressive if not as enjoyable or memorable as one would like. (8.875/10)

6. "Sekoilu seestyy ~ The madness subsides" (4:18) rich Fender Rhodes sounding as if it came out of a Smooth pseudo-Jazz pop album like Art Garfunkle or Stephen Bishop. Rich rolling electric piano play matched by melodic bass play beneath supports Coste Apetrea's fine Jan Akkerman-like electric guitar play over the top. Again there is more of an étude feeling to this one--even after 2:55 when it becomes a lone electric bass solo there seems to be some kind of mathematical problem being worked out in Pekka's mind. (8.875/10)

7. "Elämä jatkuu ~ Life goes on" (6:42) a kind of laid-back swing--like the theme for the end of a long day--where Pekka is still working his heart out while the tenor and alto saxes are the only ones that are allowed to loosen up a bit. (8.875/10)

Total Time: 34:57

Compositionally this album is amazing: Pekka is really stretching his wings. Performatively-speaking it's top notch all around--from everyone though the standards are never so high as those Pekka places on himself. But there is less room for playful improvisation within these very tightly written and disciplined songs. Even the melodic--and especially the harmonic--sensibilities are impressive and often quite catchy and enjoyable--it's just that the album has much more of a cerebral feel to it. Hopefully Pekka will have a patch in the future where everybody can just have fun.

B/four stars; an excellent album of artistic "problem solving" of the Jazz-Rock Fusion kind, one that is only lacking a bit in the fun and memorable melody departments.

Matti P Flight of the Angel ended PEKKA POHJOLA's most productive era that had started in the seventies; his next album was Symphony No. 1 (1990), an attempt to be a serious art music composer. His amateurish symphony hasn't received very positive feedback from the art music circles. Elements from the classical music have naturally always been present in his unique Fusion, also in this five-track album that features some strings too, although not very notably.

'How About Today?' is a rollicking up-tempo composition, very rock oriented in sound; Seppo Tyni's electric guitar is in the centre. I wouldn't place this one high in Pekka's scale, or in the scale of Fusion in general. The title track is unsurprisingly a delicate and more thoughtful piece, built on a simple melody -- not unusual in his composing style -- but the way the music grows grander before returning to gentler touch is very fine. One could think there's not enough substance for 6 ½ minutes, but there is.

'Il Carillon' is a solo piano composition (played by the respected pianist Liisa Pohjola, Pekka's aunt). It has some Sibelius influence and Debussy-like impressionism.

'Pressure' is very easily recognized as a typical Pekka Pohjola composition with the heavily repeated leitmotif and its stretching to the limit. It's a matter of taste whether there are enough ideas for 10 ½ minutes. Well, he's done similar things more succesfully too. The synths are central in the sound. The progressivity comes mostly as dynamic changes, not in the melodies.

The best is saved for last: 'Beauty and the Beast' (10:54) is a highly progressive track full of rich details; the arrangement is many-sided, from the funkiness of brass to the exciting synth patterns and the strings in the final section. And above all is the gorgeous bass playing! This is the masterpiece of this album which as a whole is more uneven than most of his earlier works.

(Edited from my 2014 review in ProgArchives, where I've reviewed almost each album of my legendary countryman.)

Warthur Having heard Pekka Pohjola's first four solo albums before taking on this one, this one came across as something of a departure to me, dominated as it is by synthesisers. It comes across as an attempt to blend classical choral work with New Agey synthesiser meditations, and whilst there's nothing inherently silly about that idea at the same time I don't think it works particularly successfully here; rather than creating a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts, I feel that the album ends up adding subpar New Age music to subpar choral music and ends up with something mildly more irritating than either of its halves.

Those who come to Pekka's music specifically looking for his Zappa-esque hyperactive workouts or his more sedate fusion styles (as seen in albums such as Visitation) will find this album a disappointing oddity. Those who are particularly interested in fusions of electronic music and choral music might consider this a worthwhile attempt, but I'm sure there's better examples of this sort of thing out there.

Warthur Having spent two albums edging away from the comedic, Zappa-inspired whimsicality of his debut solo album, Pohjola injects a sense of fun back into his music with Visitation, particularly on the energetic and almost funky Dancing In the Dark. What's particularly notable here is that at this point the overt Frank Zappa homages are entirely out of the picture, Pohjola having arrived at his own distinctive style of fusion which is expressed with style and verve over the course of the album. Without any guest stars of the stature of Mike Oldfield to overshadow him, Visitation is purely Pohjola through and through, and an excellent expression of his maturing musical personality.

Warthur For his third solo album, Virgin offered Pekka Pohjola the chance to take advantage of the talents of Mike and Sally Oldfield and Pierre Moerlen - an inspired choice of guest artists, since the musical direction here moves yet further away from the Zappa-influenced sound of Pohjola's first two albums to explore a more serious brand of contemplative jazz-rock of a sort which would appeal to fans of Oldfield's work or of Pierre Moerlen's Gong's albums from this era.

Sadly, the presence of a star of Mike Oldfield's stature on the album would enable a scam which proved too tempting for the publishers to resist: in some territories, the album was entitled The Consequences of Indecisions and released as a Mike Oldfield album, a completely outrageous decision particularly considering that Pekka has sole songwriting credit on the album! Some other releases of the album credit it to Mike Oldfield, Sally Oldfield, and Pekka Pohjola - with Mike Oldfield's as the most prominent. These incredibly disrespectful rebrandings of the album represents a blatant attempt at deceiving the record-buying public into thinking that they were buying another Mike Oldfield album, but whilst the album would appeal to Oldfield fans, it's very much Pekka's show, and to misrepresent that is not only insulting to him, but is also kind of disrespectful to Mike Oldfield too.

None of that is relevant to my final rating, of course, which I am basing solely on the music presented here, but I did want to highlight that because I don't like the idea of people paying top dollar for a "rare Mike Oldfield album" only to find it's this.