Album of the month :
October 2002
ISMO ALANKO SÄÄTIÖ (FIN) :
" Hallanvaara "
( Poko)
One of the most significant figures in Finnish rock music, Ismo Alanko has been making highly inspired and original music for more than twenty years. Both whismical and unpredictable, this incredibly gifted artist always does as he pleases and never stays for long at the same place. After breaking his former band Hassisen Kone at the peak of their success, he formed the much more risky Sielun Veljet, launched numerous side-projects, and finally went solo to tremendous success in the early 1990's. Five years ago, a four CD compilation box paid a well-deserved homage to this exemplary career. Most of these massive outputs are nothing else but coffins in disguise. Not in this case: after so many years, the beast is still alive and well !
With " Hallanvaara", Ismo Alanko, as usual, acts only as he likes. If you were waiting for a sequel to the amazing folk-world-gonzo mixture of his previous album " Sisainen Solarium" ( 2000), just forget it ! The new Alanko version 2002 is elegant, classic(al) with a twist, and definitely romantic. Listening to the opening track Rysteis, who could believe that our man started out as a punkrocker twenty years ago ? Backed with the richness of a 14-piece string section, this micro-symphony builds up gorgeously on a satin melody, setting the tone to an album that, once again, defies any categorization. Searching for references in your regular collection of rock CDs will be no use this time. You'd be better advised to check un-rock influences like Debussy, Fauré, Kurt Veil, 40's movies soundtracks or spa's brass-bands to get a more accurate idea of how " Hallanvaara" sounds. The prevalent mood here is slightly melancholic, tenderly ironic and deliciously old-fashioned, like some kind of romantic yearning for past and better times.
This bittersweet feeling is best summarized on the single, Paratiisin Puu ( I wish I had seen the record-company executives trying to pick a single from this uncompromizingly honest set) with its pristine melody, its clanging percussions and that sarcastic baffling coda which suddenly gives the song a quite unexpected turn. Or on the waving tune of Kadonnut Suudelma, pleasantly reminiscent of Sielun Veljet in their halcyon days. Unless it's on the immaculate Pojanmaa, a blearily beautiful number underlined with a tinkling celesta and the harrowing whistle of a musical saw ( a theremin ?). Elsewhere, string-laden crescendos make the music soar to incredible heights on the intricate Suurenmoinen ruumissaatto, while the combination of church and barrel organs contributes to create a strange and uncanny atmosphere to the chilling Peilikuva. Anyway, nothing here is ever less than brilliant. Even two shorts instrumental segues - the quackling Nurkkapöytä and the baroque Tullessamakaaja - prove to be essential jewels to this classy haute couture collection.
The album gently closes on its title-track, a wonderful piece coloured with piano, horns and woodwinds, which sounds like an aural equivalent to the novels by Proust and the plays by Tchekhov.
As the last notes of French-horn vanish in the air, you know that Ismo Alanko has just added another masterpiece to a discography that has never been short of it. It's quite easy to live without knowing the music of Ismo Alanko. But knowing it makes definitely your life better.
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