Kosmos ‎– Ajan peili

Self-released (Kosmos 005)

Kosmos is a progressive, occasionally Eastern-tingled psych folk/rock group from Turku, Finland. This is their fifth album since the 2005 debut Tarinoita voimasta. I've been a fan since the beginning and reviewed all the previous albums as well, I think. The main band was at the time of recording Päivi Kylmänen: vocals, Kimmo Lähteenmäki: drums, conga-drums, organ, mellotron, Kari Vainionpää: guitar, bass, Olli Valtonen: shrutibox, taalmal and Ismo Virta: guitar, mellotron, organ, synthesizer and drums. In addition, these musicians are also featured: Juha Kulmala: reading, Arto Kuronen: bass, Sini Palokangas: violin, saxophone, xylophone, Kari Riihimäki: electric guitar. That's quite a cast and combination of different instruments and talents and that's also exactly how this album sounds like.

The title track  "Ajan peili" ("The Mirror of Time") is a wonderful, atmospheric, lush and pretty song with nice female vocals, guitars, mellotron, violin etc. As always the ethereal, esoteric vocals are in Finnish but also translated into English on the insert which is cool. Great tune, anyway! "Eilinen" (”Yesterday”) is a more cheerful progressive folk rock number like the bit more acoustic "Kohti taivasta" (”Towards the Sky”). "Aina lähellä" ("Always Close") is a soft, mellow folk piece with ksylofon. "Salainen oppi" ("The Secret Doctrine") is another rather minimal, tranquil piece with some cool mellotron, sax and Pekka Streng vibes.  It is dedicated to Madame Blavatsky... "Jatkuvuus" (”Continuity”) includes meditative narration and is a psychedelic, sort of darker, almost oppressive number and the last track "Minä olen" (”I Am”)  gets closer to progressive space rock á la Gong or something. Very cool, I'm loving especially the end of the album again! You can buy the limited, hand-numbered vinyl edition of 300 copies or professionally printed CD-R and in my opinion you really should. On of the best ten albums released in Finland last year!

www.nic.fi/~ovaltone/kosmos/index.htm