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Onségen Ensemble — A Tale
(Karisma KAR, 2026, CD / LP / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2026-07-12

A Tale Cover art

It was nearly 20 years ago now that I first heard HottoïzzoH, the debut EP by Onségen Ensemble, and their first full-length album, Awalaï, came out in 2016. After that initial long gap, they managed three more albums at two-year intervals, followed by a four-year span until Realms, and now we have A Tale after a further four years. The band’s sound continues to evolve without any drastic shifts — my previous description of them as space rock filtered through a King Crimson lens with an increasingly cinematic scope is still accurate, though there’s now less Crimson and more cinema. This band from northern Finland is described as a collective of musicians where membership changes as the needs of the music dictate, though in actuality, most of the players on A Tale were also present for Realms. Merja Järvelin (vocals, artwork), Esa Juujärvi (bass, vocals, keyboards), Samuli Lindberg (drums, percussion), Joni Mäkelä (guitar), Jarmo Väärä (trumpet), and Mikko Vuorela (woodwinds, harmonica, guitar) all return, and Heikki Hallanoro (percussion), Tuuli Jartti (violin), and Vilma Pesola (vocals) come on board. One thing that is unexpected here is that the guitar tones are mostly rather clean, with a bit of twang to them — in fact, “The First Casualty” strikes me as what you’d get if you played Orff’s Carmina Burana and a spaghetti western soundtrack simultaneously, which may seem bizarre, but it works. This music is quite distinctive, full of creative arrangements, and represents a stream of progressive rock that doesn’t sound like other large ensembles. Onségen Ensemble is out there doing their own thing, and the result is well worth the notice of progressive rock fans.

Filed under: New releases, 2026 releases

Related artist(s): Onségen Ensemble

More info
http://onsegenensemble.bandcamp.com/album/a-tale-2

 

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