A delightful and timely musical discovery was Erki Pärnoja’s new CD, Efterglow. Completed in December of 2017, it reached these ears almost as a promo for Estonian Music Week, to take place in the last days of May. Pärnoja is scheduled to perform, and based on this recording that will be a must-attend event. For this is one stellar and thought-provoking musical accomplishment.
It, like much of what is being produced and created in Estonia (to be precise, Efterglow was recorded and produced in Gothenburg, Sweden, but that is just the slimster being pedantic) defies categorization. My player identified it as belonging to the alternative category but I say piffle. It is not alternative, it ain’t indie. File this under original instrumental. Iridescent as a rainbow, fulgurating like a flash from the heavens, whimsical yet introspective – it fits no pigeonhole. Perhaps that is why the title is spelled as it is. While there is indeed an afterglow after hearing each and every quite remarkable cut, it is the unknown, perhaps an intro to the efterlife (a British hmm? here…), which might be a suitable description.
The 8 selections composed by guitarist Pärnoja are all well named. Every title indicates what to expect musically by mood (excepting the curiously named title track). The multitalented musician plays a number of guitars as well as bass on the record. He is more than emphatically complemented by keyboardist (and producer, mixer) Filip Leyman. Leyman’s musical work here is on electronic keyboards. In the not-so-distant past, that was simply a synthesizer; however, nowadays with computer effects, who the heck knows what is an instrument and what isn’t?
Percussionist/drummer Ulrik Ording is remarkable throughout, solid and original. Leyman also drums on one track, the moody and introspective “Devotion”, where his work is key to achieving that ambience. Guitarist Jonas Kaarnamets and double bassist Peedu Kass are also contributors on select tracks. Vocals – no singing nor lyrics, which seems to be a new trend in esto music, using the larynx as a non-verbal instrument – are attributed to the two primaries, Pärnoja and Leyman, as well as Anna Põldvee.
The opening composition, “Late August” (recording of the CD began in July 2017) has a chugging, locomotive beat, almost as if one was lolling in a pleasingly warm sunlight field, hearing a distant train. The following number, the curiously spelled “Harrisson for now” is from the cornucopia of worthy contenders perhaps the best one on the recording. The highly percussive bass lays down the foundation; the late Beatle George may indeed have inspired the very original many splendoured guitar riffs.
Pärnoja segues into meditation on the next two tunes. “Recognition” opens with a lovely synth, sorry, keyboard intro that hauntingly remains in the background as Pärnoja sets off on his astral journey. Preparing the way for “Mellow Mountain,” with the drumming being again if not hypnotic then most def alluring and seductive.
Which leads, after a few other explorations, the listener to the final cut. No sacrilege intended, it is the amen after the sermon. “Efterglow” is a number that of all the compositions bewitches and enchants the most. Somewhat whimsically it might be described as a melody that wired Buddhist monks in the Himalayas might produce after working on their mandalas. Now if that does not capture your attention…
Keep your peepers peeled for the exact date, time and location of Pärnoja’s performance during Estonian Music Week as it appears in our various media. Not to be missed. One is certain that the echoes, musical and spiritual, will long hover in the air. Much as they have occupied the slender one’s cranium ever since being introduced to such splendid originality.
A multihued incandescence
Kultuur
TRENDING
