A long time friend, musician, and album collector once told me that Wigwam's Being is his single favorite progressive rock album of all time. That took me aback, as the album didn't really even register with me much on first listen some 20+ years ago. But on subsequent careful listens, you can certainly understand one's passion for it. It is a highly stylized, complex and dense work that requires an enormous amount of focus and attention. This same friend is also a co-leader of a contemporary progressive rock band, who have released a couple of albums that are much respected, and it's very clear to me that Being has been a huge influence on his songwriting. I won't mention who this band is. I'll let you all try to figure it out :-)
There's much debate among Wigwam fans on which is their finest hour. I tend to fall into the Fairyport camp, preferring the more loosely structured proto-progressive sound, but Being is certainly a close second.
Ownership CD: 2010 Esoteric (UK). Jewel case reissue that reprints all the original lyrics and liners, along with a short essay written by founding member Jim Pembroke.
3/28/12 (new entry); 10/7/23
Nice text thank You a lot, as You found out Wigwam definitely is one of the biggest pearls of Finnish Progressive Music. Not to forget the others, like Tasavallan Presidentti, Finnforest, Fantasia, Haikara etc.
ReplyDeleteThanks again and greetings from Helsinki
ps Wigwam's Nuclear Nightclub is my cup of Wigwam tea. ;-))