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Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
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Reviews

Kaseke — Põletus / Sõnum
(Boheme CDBMR 008154, 1983/2000, CD)

by Mike Ohman, Published 2001-03-01

Põletus / Sõnum Cover art

At last, the entire recorded output of this legendary Estonian fusion group has arrived on a single CD. In their lifetime, this instrumental sextet released a seven-inch, four track EP (Sõnum) and a full-length LP (Põletus). As with the Gunesh reissue also done by Boheme, the recordings appear in reverse order, the four tracks from their debut appearing after the entirety of Põletus. The band presents a vigorous, energetic fusion, packing a lot of punch in small packages (no one track is over six minutes), likely due to the presence of two guitarists. Peeter Malkov's flute gives the album quite a lot of distinction, and the mix of many different guest keyboardists and composers (including inSpe keyboardists Mart Metsala and Erkki-Sven Tüür, as well as the band's original keyboardist, Tõnu Naissoo) imparts a great deal of variety. The pieces vary from gently swinging ("Valhalla") to quite strenuous ("Little Elephant's Song of Fear"), right beside one another. Though there are moments of familiarity in their music, I'm finding it hard to discern their influences, or who I might compare them to. I imagine their isolation (Estonia was still a Soviet republic at the time, remember) produced such great innovation in terms of arrangement and composition. For example, "Dancer" opens with a drum solo, a bold move! The level of talent in this band is quite astonishing and the quality of the composing and arranging raises the music to an even higher level. For fusion fans, this is a must, but I heartily recommend this CD to anyone.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 21, 2000 releases, 1983 recordings

Related artist(s): Riho Sibul, Kaseke

 

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