A Finnish suite akin to works by Jean Sibelius is delivered by co-leaders Rent Romus/as-ss-fl-voc-mel and Heikki Koskinen/ts-tp-kentele and a wide range of support in Heikki Laitinen/voc, Jushua Marshall/sax-fl, Erika Oba/fl-pic, Ann McChesney-Young/acc, Max Judelson/cel, Mark Clifford/vib, Safa Shokrai/b, Cory Combs/b and Timothy Orr/dr.
The songs are a series of poems, invocations and declarataions, mixing folk sounds of flutes and reeds, sung in Finnish, but translated in English in the notes. There are jazzy moments with vibes and percussion on “I Was Once Lucky” , while other times you get “grring” vocals on the journey of “Grand Country”. Folky accordion takes and you to ethereal moods on “Hear Me When I’m Lost” with guttural voices on “Rungoteus”. Couldn’t get Esa Pekka Salonen to conduct it?