In 1993, yours truly left the shores of Finland by ferry boat to what seemed like another planet at the time: Estonia. A place forbidden to go for us Americans only a short while before. It had been only a little more than a year since the Soviet Union had collapsed, and this small determined country was mightily rising itself out of the ashes at a blistering pace. I could write books about that experience. And to think I hadn't even been to Latvia yet... and eventually ended up backasswards in the Ukraine, oh my... I was clinically crazy.
In my imagination, some many years before that, a copy of Finnforest made the same ferry boat journey. Contraband that is was, the album was hidden under heavy brown blankets, passed along carefully and heard by only a select few in shadowy corners, well outside of earshot of the ever present Authorities.
Finnforest, of course, were influenced by the Dutch melodic masters Focus. And here you have your story line for the "Proge-Rock Group Mess", recordings from 1975-76 that survived in good shape. And what Sven Grunberg did with this sound is nothing short of genius. There are hair raising melodies and sequences here that are entirely unique. Check out 'Küsi Eneselt' as but one amazing example. In retrospect, one can hear many similarities with the Swedish group Dice. Similar influences and similar conclusions, but different flavors. Obviously one didn't know the other, and yet the comparison holds.
These recordings never made it to Melodiya vinyl (I don't think Brezhnev would have been too happy about that, no sirree). And the sonic quality is very good, but not great, as one would expect. But otherwise, this is an extraordinary recording for the time and place. I would argue that these are the best 1970s progressive rock sounds, that I've heard anyway, from the old USSR. Seriously.
Ownership: CD: 2004 Strangiato. The Strangiato reissue comes in a hardbound book cover and includes a second disc of a live set. This live recording sounds better than the studio versions, which is really remarkable given the time and place. Thanks to Bas and Achim for the heads up on this release, and I've subsequently replaced the original CD.
3/15/17 (new entry); 1/22/18
In my imagination, some many years before that, a copy of Finnforest made the same ferry boat journey. Contraband that is was, the album was hidden under heavy brown blankets, passed along carefully and heard by only a select few in shadowy corners, well outside of earshot of the ever present Authorities.
Finnforest, of course, were influenced by the Dutch melodic masters Focus. And here you have your story line for the "Proge-Rock Group Mess", recordings from 1975-76 that survived in good shape. And what Sven Grunberg did with this sound is nothing short of genius. There are hair raising melodies and sequences here that are entirely unique. Check out 'Küsi Eneselt' as but one amazing example. In retrospect, one can hear many similarities with the Swedish group Dice. Similar influences and similar conclusions, but different flavors. Obviously one didn't know the other, and yet the comparison holds.
These recordings never made it to Melodiya vinyl (I don't think Brezhnev would have been too happy about that, no sirree). And the sonic quality is very good, but not great, as one would expect. But otherwise, this is an extraordinary recording for the time and place. I would argue that these are the best 1970s progressive rock sounds, that I've heard anyway, from the old USSR. Seriously.
Ownership: CD: 2004 Strangiato. The Strangiato reissue comes in a hardbound book cover and includes a second disc of a live set. This live recording sounds better than the studio versions, which is really remarkable given the time and place. Thanks to Bas and Achim for the heads up on this release, and I've subsequently replaced the original CD.
3/15/17 (new entry); 1/22/18
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