Finnish avant prog big band Alamaailman Vasarat has just released their long expected new album Maahan on Wolfgang Records. I’ve already been highly impressed by their second album Käärmelautakunta and its dark symphonic melodies, but unfortunately couldn’t find the time to write about them.

Vasarat’s music is otherworldly strange as they themselves mention that they are playing a fictional world music from Vasaraasia, taking from symphonic rock, traditional folk and no holds barred free composition, (kebab-kosher-jazz-film-traffic-punk-music with a unique Scandinavian acoustic touch! according to themselves) it’s probable that you’ll feel like living in a chapter of Kalavela while listening to Maahan. With an amazing line-up of 2 cellos, a pump organ, and all kinds of woodwinds & brass the music most of the time feels somewhere between the Imperial Atlantean Music of Bal-Sagoth (thank God without the abruptly cheesy lyrics) or some Balkan gypsy wedding fight. Compositionally Vasarat is far out there, and if you’re not put off by the complexity of progressive arrangements or traditional melodic music, I’m sure this album will be on your playlist for a long time.

The first song Vasaraasialainen is the song I played on undomondo #7 from the previous album, the other two songs are from Maahan, with the latter having the following strange liner note “Cylinder of Greatness“. Space travel is a dangerous business and should not be taken lightly. This is a short story of a bunch of some happy people going up there in a space ship fuelled by, well, whatever. It does end merrily though, but it is unsure how far they actually got!. You can sample all the tracks and read their liner notes here.

Alamaailman Vasarat - Vasaraasialainen
Alamaailman Vasarat - Luiden Valossa, Naapurin Talossa
Alamaailman Vasarat - Huikeuden Lieriö